Touching your Brim in Greeting.....

[Hapi]

Hi All,

When I wear my Western and am out and about, I have touched my brim when greeting a lady.

So I have a few questions .......

I recently started wearing my first fedora. Does one generally touch their brim in greeting a Lady (or gentleman for that matter) with a fedora, or is that just a Western hat thing? Do you ladies even like that? OK, ladies, do you touch your brim to the gentlemen when you are wearing a hat?

 

[Edward]

I've never read about it being a thing ladies did. For men, it relates to the military salute (I have a half-remembered memory that the salute developed aping the tipping of the hat rather than the other way around, but I' sure someone better versed can correct me here). I will occasionally do it as a greeting myself, though a considered bow of the head as a sideways angle comes more naturally to me.

 

[Frunobulax]

I've never read about it being a thing ladies did. For men, it relates to the military salute (I have a half-remembered memory that the salute developed aping the tipping of the hat rather than the other way around, but I' sure someone better versed can correct me here). I will occasionally do it as a greeting myself, though a considered bow of the head as a sideways angle comes more naturally to me.

I always forget and just give the dorky nod I always have.

We have a whole thread on hat etiquette around here somewhere. That might be it over there under that table...

 

[LizzieMaine]

It wasn't customary for women to tip hats -- they were usually pinned in place anyway -- so there was no need to touch the brim in any kind of salute, assuming the hat being worn even had a brim. Women also weren't expected to remove their hats in church or when saluting the flag or even when eating in a restaurant. You better take it off at the movies though, or some jerk behind you will start kicking your seat.
.

 

[Fading Fast]

It wasn't customary for women to tip hats -- they were usually pinned in place anyway -- so there was no need to touch the brim in any kind of salute, assuming the hat being worn even had a brim. Women also weren't expected to remove their hats in church or when saluting the flag or even when eating in a restaurant. You better take it off at the movies though, or some jerk behind you will start kicking your seat.
.

Ditto at baseball games. In 1942's "Woman of the Year," an oblivious large-hat-wearing Katherine Hepburn is called out several times by the men sitting behind her.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Boy, that Frankie Germano gets around.