P. J. O'Rourke said (read 'wrote') that, "A hat should be taken off when you greet a lady and left off for the rest of your life. Nothing looks more stupid than a hat". It is an amusing notion and one based not on practicality, but on intellectual slavery to fashion, written in the late twentieth century and largely in jest as the idea of male headdress had fallen out. It is a stance which I do not nor never have adopted. Hats keep the harsh summer sun off when it shines and even a small brim can help shield the eyes from its glare. They offer shelter from the rain better in my estimation than does an umbrella because they do not tie my hands up as 'brollies' do. (diminutive usage intentional) Most especially, virtually every hat as a simple cover for your head will with certainty keep you warmer in the cold since seventy to eighty percent of your body heat is lost through your head. Here in The Great White North, even in the 'soft' Lower Mainland of the Pacific Coast, this can be important. In most of the rest of the country it can quite literally be life preserving. (not a joke or an over exaggeration) Under the weight of these benefits I have rarely gone out of doors without a hat and I don't expect that to change any time soon. I am a creature more of function than of form. As proof of that I submit my slim logic that since all my trousers are wearing out at either the cuffs, knees and/or crotch, of which kilts contain none, a kilt should either last in perpetuity or until I spend too much time on my as-you-like-it. Since with me practicality will trump fashion nine times out of ten I will wear hats first and then suffer to look good under them.

In this light, I have been reviewing my wardrobe, not solely for the inclusion of kilts, but generally and find my common dress to have grown (shrunken more accurately) to lack a minimum standard of being able to put myself together well. Kilting will step this up but that won't, I sincerely hope, cover my head and I need to review appropriate head wear to be inclusive of kilting. Since my paternal line is now nine generations removed from the highlands and likely as far from kilt wearing, the notion of wearing a traditional Bonnet or Glengarry would be extremely affected I put it to you, what else do you think would go well upon my noggin when my hips are tartan clad?

I currently own an Australian Outback Collection Safari hat loosely illustrated in my avatar, waxed and oiled to repel the rain. It is positively jammin' in the rain forest winter which is really more of an extended wet autumn melding slowly into and early and prolonged wetter spring. I also share (borrowed, lost and replaced, but she still never wears it) with Validator (my wife) a Mediterranean mariner's cap. Remarkably warm in the cold and still good in a drizzle, this cap and my Safari hat both have a place for a sprig of heather in the spring and a fallen leaf in the autumn. Also I have an alpaca wool toque I picked up in Chile a few years back. It helps with warmth and looks fine in Canadians environs, but is not, I must admit, as good at keeping me warm as is the mariner's cap. Finally I have also been wearing (again from my wife's collection which she never dons) a cloth military cap. It's a bit too large for me so in danger of lifting away in a stiff breeze and doesn't suit my moustache at all so I'm replacing it with the sometimes contentious here flat cap in poly cotton, on order from USAK and due to arrive with my first kilt. I'm thinking about buying a wool cap too. Both should go well with the new mustache. All of the aforementioned are illustrated below.





I am not prone to attend Highland Games or Clan Gatherings although perhaps Renaissance Faires upon occasion and intend to kilt primarily as business casual daily wear or respectable man about town and so again I ask you, in the absence of a Balmoral or Glengarry, which hat should I don while kilted in the warm sun, the wet rain or the biting cold? Which would you? I value your opinion and especially invite 'traditionalist' responses.

Please let me thank-you all for suffering this far my raconteuring ways and close with a gentle if perhaps unnecessary reminder that your opinions are honestly and seriously invited and if so delivered, so appreciated and that none should be seen as offensive which are not so meant in what could be misperceived as a contentious issue.

Again with my gratitude,

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