Hats and hairdo's?

I hope I don't post this in the wrong spot again. I seem to be batting zero on guessing the correct thread lately. LOL. Sorry in advance if I goofed again!


Here's the question....

I see and have ordered some really beautiful vintage hats. Some require use of the attached combs and such to stay on your head due to tilt, positioning, etc. Do you build your hair around the hat and keep it on at all times or do you do the hair first, add the hat and pray it all stays in place when you remove the hat?

I'm not sure how they used to do that sort of thing. My hair is so fine that I know if I try and remove a hat from the top of a hairdo, it's certain disaster requiring a trip to the powder room to fix it all.

Any tips on this predicament?

Best,

~D.

VintageRed said:

I see and have ordered some really beautiful vintage hats. Some require use of the attached combs and such to stay on your head due to tilt, positioning, etc. Do you build your hair around the hat and keep it on at all times or do you do the hair first, add the hat and pray it all stays in place when you remove the hat?

I'm not sure how they used to do that sort of thing. My hair is so fine that I know if I try and remove a hat from the top of a hairdo, it's certain disaster requiring a trip to the powder room to fix it all.

Any tips on this predicament?

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Arrange your hair according to the type of hat you'll be wearing, then put the hat on and keep it there. Ladies don't remove their hats until they get home.

Hat Removal

Josephine said:

Ladies don't remove their hats until they get home.

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Thanks Josephine. I have been wondering about the hat removal. I have avoided hats because of the removal question and keeping my hair nice. As a swing dancer I have yet to be able to keep a hat on without it slipping off or getting bopped off by my dance partner. Thus, I always go hat free.

MissJeanavive said:

I have avoided hats because of the removal question and keeping my hair nice. As a swing dancer I have yet to be able to keep a hat on without it slipping off or getting bopped off by my dance partner. Thus, I always go hat free.

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Hats were worn far less in the evening than in the day. I know it was so in many earlier decades. Part of the reason is, as you've discovered, the hairstyles. Evening hairstyles have always been more elaborate (and fragile) than day styles. In addition, there were often all kinds of ornaments, jewelry, and flowers (fresh or silk) that could go into an evening style. Hats were not worn over these styles.

I think the more formal (or active) the reason for going out in the evening, the less likely it would be for a woman to wear a hat. By the 40s hats were definitely worn with suits and nice day dresses, but by no means at all other times, evening or not. There are 1930s hooded velvet cloaks on ebay right now that were evening wear.

I haven't really thought enough about it, but I'm positive a hat would not be worn with full evening dress (long skirt). Not with a light dancing frock, either. A less formal, not-dancing dress? Not sure. Not for an entertainment in someone's home, certainly (or if so, worn there and taken off in the powder room). Maybe at a restaurant. If wearing regular day clothes, dress, suit, or separates, at night, a hat may be more likely. If you're going jitterbugging with a group of friends, I doubt you'd event bother with a hat.

Isn't it complicated? Context matters!

Wow, that's a lot of great info!

However, I got a new hat that's filled with feathers and is a huge rosette that is perched on the side of the wearer's head, with a veil. It's all black and it's GORGEOUS, but it seems way over the top for daytime wear. But I guess if I can't wear it at night, then I have no choice to shoot for the moon in a darn snazzy day suit. LOL. I'll be one stylin' grocery shopper.

lol


~D.

you can't wear a hat if you're wearing a tiara!

women don't have to take their hats off unless they are wearing a man's hat, therefore you build the hairdo around the hat...

VintageRed said:

However, I got a new hat that's filled with feathers and is a huge rosette that is perched on the side of the wearer's head, with a veil. It's all black and it's GORGEOUS, but it seems way over the top for daytime wear. But I guess if I can't wear it at night, then I have no choice to shoot for the moon in a darn snazzy day suit. LOL. I'll be one stylin' grocery shopper.

lol

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lol Just pretend you're a movie starlet back in the Golden Era. According to Marsha Hunt in her book ("The Way We Wore"), actors/actresses always had to be put-together and well-dressed, even for a quick run to the grocery, just in case someone spotted them. It was part of the contract.

I'm having the same dilemma with an adorable black sequined '50s hat. My hair isn't really suited for the '50s, and neither is my wardrobe, but I love the hat. However, it's not really a daytime hat (to the best of my knowledge), and it's *certainly* not a daytime hat in modern society! I'm still puzzling over how/when to wear the thing.

Followup question to VintageRed's: I know by most standards women leave their hats on all day and indoors (unless they're the hostess), and only have to take them off if they're a man's style. But I get the feeling that you'd be considered very weird if you left your hat on the whole time you were indoors - say, at someone's house. Has anyone ever had someone say, "Oh, you can take your hat off now" or the like? I have a nagging fear that someone would do just that, without knowing that would totally ruin the hairstyle!

(This is a rather silly worry, since I don't have anything but an evening hat just now, but one should always be prepared for a great vintage find! )

No, just say, It would ruin the hair! And leave it on.
Ladies did wear small and fancy, or big and fancy, hats with dinner dresses, but not to the theater, ballet, opera etc. If you were out to the movies (a casual, street-length kind of date), you would try to wear your smallest hat to be kind to the people behind you, or remove it.
Hair dos can survive the taking off and reapplying of hats, but they have to be securely pinned, sprayed etc. Hairnets are great. Having one's hair bolted down tightly means one doesn't have to think of it all day long.
And there are some day outfits that are long and worn with a hat - beach outfits, fluffy garden party dresses, that sort of thing.

You all are SOOOOO informative! It's like walking into the Encyclopedia Brittanica, circa 1930-1940.



I have learned tons from you all, albeit late at night while normal ppl are sleeping. LOL.

Thank you!

~D.