All You Need to Know About Hat Etiquette

[Wolfmanjack]

Great moustaches, Skeet.

 

[Charlie Huang]

I prefer to keep it simple.

When outdoors put hat on.
When indoors take hat off (regardless of whether it is public or not; treat it like as if it is an umbrella; i.e. you won't open one indoors).
Exception is at a station or 'places of transportation' where is is mostly open to the elements (cold and windy) or has no roof.
Keep hat on indoors if it a ceremonial hat and you are the presiding officer/s.

When in the street:
Tip hat for aquaintances or as a thank you/acknowledgement/goodbye/etc.
Doff hat for ladies, seniors and people of respect you know on eye contact.
Take hat off when standing and speaking (optional if it is very cold).

 

[immortaldiamond]

Changing times

The problem with hat etiquette, which evolved in a different age, is that all, except the white upper-classes, would have been forced to wear flat caps. If people wear baseball caps then shouldn't we be able to enjoy our hats indoors? Maybe not a top hat, but a non-black fedora or homburg perhaps?

 

[memphislawyer]

Hat etiquette in specific instances

I have tried to find my way around the starter thread on hat ettiquette. I understand that no hat in a home, hotel room, or apartment building and the elevators as well. But I have some instances I would like comments on:

1) A public restaraunt, and not a chain one at that. Do you wait until you are seated to remove the hat? Do you don the hat as you get up to leave. Or do you remove the hat when you make it through the front door and also when you get to the door to leave?

2) Shopping malls, Walmart, grocery store. Acceptable to keep it on the entire time?

3) Say a courthouse. Remove it when you enter it, or just the courtroom? Do you put it back on when you leave the courtroom or just the building?

I do not wish to be an oaf, and have seen a few hats (mostly panamas in summer, only one or two fedoras in colder weather) and there is not a lot of examples to go by in the public at large.

I tried to reason that the restaraunt is a public place, so I removed it at the table and put it on as we were getting ready to leave. Wife chided me. Same as the courthouse. At chuch, I expect that I would remove it when I enter it and don it when I leave, somehow seems right to me. I am thinking Walmart, mall, grocery store, keep it on the entire time if I want. Going to a movie, take it off when seated. Courthouse, keep it on until the first courtroom, then wait until I leave to put it back on, and if I go from court room to court room, carry it.

Sam

 

[feltfan]

Where would you remove your coat?

Is your wife uncomfortable with your hats?

 

[memphislawyer]

She likes the hats, but thinks that the Stetson needs to wait until November when it gets cold, say under 60, and the Panama, only out in the sun, and that I am wearing it too much, like a kid who gets a favorite football jersey and wants to wear it everyday.

 

[Spats McGee]

I may be committing atrocities against etiquette with the following answers, but here's what I do:

1) A public restaraunt, and not a chain one at that. Do you wait until you are seated to remove the hat? Do you don the hat as you get up to leave. Or do you remove the hat when you make it through the front door and also when you get to the door to leave?

I usually keep the hat on until seated, and put it on again when I get up to leave.

2) Shopping malls, Walmart, grocery store. Acceptable to keep it on the entire time?

Keep it on.

3) Say a courthouse. Remove it when you enter it, or just the courtroom? Do you put it back on when you leave the courtroom or just the building?

I remove the hat just before entering any courtroom, and it stays off until I am once again on the outside of the courtroom. At no time will I have my hat on inside the court, even if that means asking my client to carry it because my hands are full.

If going from courtroom to courtroom, I consider it acceptable to wear the hat in the halls between them.

 

[Tango Yankee]

Spats nailed it!

That's pretty much how I do things as well.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Ephraim Tutt]

The general rule of thumb is that hats can be worn in public places but are taken off in private places (like when entering a residence). Like all rules of thumb, however, there are exceptions (though not quite so many exceptions as there are for the hearsay rule!). Addressing a lady is one exception. The lid comes off even in a public place for this.

Courtrooms are another exception. Respect is to be shown by all (and especially attorneys) for the Bench. (In this country, the custom is to bow the head upon entering and leaving the courtroom when in session). I agree with Spats completely on this. My hat comes off when entering the courtroom as a show of respect but once outside the courtroom the usual rules re public places applies and the lid can reside atop the noggin once again.

 

[High Pockets]

I agree 100%,....the only exception I might add would be; If my wife and I are meeting another couple for the first time at a restaurant, I would remove my hat as soon we met the other couple, even if it was in the parking lot.

I've always felt there is one rule that trumps all the rest,....remove your lid when meeting a lady for the first time and tip it on subsequent meetings. Indoors, outdoors,....doesn't matter.

But that's just me.

 

[memphislawyer]

I was good on the in-the-courtroom, but glad to know my feelings about restaraunts, etc., was right. What about meeting women you know outside, say heat of summer? Tip hat?

 

[High Pockets]

I was good on the in-the-courtroom, but glad to know my feelings about restaraunts, etc., was right. What about meeting women you know outside, say heat of summer? Tip hat?

If I'm meeting them for the first time, I take my hat off while shaking hands, if we talk for a while I may put the hat back on during the conversation.
When we stop to talk the second time I tip my head forward and lift the hat from my head an inch or so and replace it.

 

[blade runner]

I handle it the way Spats does except with court. Here in Ithaca, the courthouse is right across the street, so I just leave the hat behind. When I am going to court in other counties, which is much more often, I leave it in the car if I am parked in the building or across the street unless it is cold or raining. Otherwise, I take it off before I get to the courtroom and don't put it back on until I'm on my way out of the building. I never show up at the courtroom door with a hat on.

As for your wife's views, if you persist she'll probably get used to it and just give you the occasional eye roll. At least that's my experience.

 

[John in Covina]

One thing is that because the times have changed and the wearing of hats has changed, it's your personal choice in many instances to adhere to the "rules" of wearing and taking off. You'll find few men wearing a baseball cap follow any rules, even during the National Anthem, they simply don't know or choose to disregard any rules as to hats.

Under these circumstances your concerns put you above the fray by many levels.

 

[gtdean48]

1) A public restaraunt, and not a chain one at that. Do you wait until you are seated to remove the hat? Do you don the hat as you get up to leave. Or do you remove the hat when you make it through the front door and also when you get to the door to leave?

2) Shopping malls, Walmart, grocery store. Acceptable to keep it on the entire time?

3) Say a courthouse. Remove it when you enter it, or just the courtroom? Do you put it back on when you leave the courtroom or just the building?

1) I take it off if I am being seated at a table, okay to leave it on seated at the counter.
2) I leave it on while shopping to keep my hands free. Usually tip it back to give less serious impression
3) Wear it until entering the courtroom, the foyer is public space & okay to wear it. You have go thru security now days so it comes off as you enter for that.

 

[Dreispitz]

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lol lol lol

 

[Dewhurst]

I have a personal caveat: if my hands are dirty I don't touch my hat. Etiquette be damned.

1. I keep my hat on until we are seated, and I keep it on while I situate everything and take it off last.

2. Malls, Wal-Mart/Target, grocery store, etc., leave it on.

Putting your hat on as you are preparing to leave a restaurant is perfectly acceptable. As with a coat/jacket you don't need to wait till you get outside to put it on.

Theater: take it off when you get situated in your seat. I hate it when people think you need to take your hat off first before coat/everything else. No, I need my hands free to take off the coat, put my wife's purse between my feet, get everything situated and THEN I take my hat off. My head is already keeping it out of the way and I can keep my hands free for a moment. If the movie is already running the situation is different.

Also the whole "only wear fur felt hats when it is certifiably cold out" is no good. They aren't THAT warm! There are much more heavy duty hats that will keep you much more warm during winter than your typical fur felt fedora.

Fur felt is comfortable over a wide range of temperatures for most people.

 

[shoeshineboy]

I am just curious what the reactions of the ladies when you take your hat off when introduced. How do the different ages differ in thier reaction? What comments are made?

Just some random thoughts.

 

[Torpedo]

I am just curious what the reactions of the ladies when you take your hat off when introduced. How do the different ages differ in thier reaction? What comments are made?

Just some random thoughts.

On my experience, younger (younger in the sense of "not senior") ladies are genuinely amazed, because nobody has tipped or doffed his hat at them before (of course, hats are not common, even if you count the "hip" and "fashion" types, and hat etiquette is even less common). They have to realize what has just happened, because they are not used to it. Once the pieces click together they feel flattered. I have even heard they comment on it ("He has tipped his hat at me!") once they understand.

Having in account gestures like ceding pass to ladies at doors, etc, are increasingly dispensed with, is no wonder hat etiquette causes such a surprise.

 

[High Pockets]

I am just curious what the reactions of the ladies when you take your hat off when introduced. How do the different ages differ in thier reaction? What comments are made?

Just some random thoughts.

Torpedo hit the nail on the head!

A lot of the enjoyment I get out of wearing a hat comes from seeing the reactions of women, young and old, when I remove my hat for an introduction, or tip it when passing.
There's nothing quite like seeing a woman smile, knowing you made her feel good.