I wear a wide brim straw....They are cooler I think and the one I have I can tie on it I need to when it is windy...I also have a brimmed military camouflage hat that was my Daddy's and when he died, I asked my brother to save it for me. My cousin gave it to him when he was in the hospital and he wore it every day in the nursing home and hospital before he died..

{{gwi:33637}}

You definitely need a gardening hat. Sunglasses too.

A farmer's straw hat works well. It keeps sun off your face and neck and is light and cool to wear.

For something still lighter and more elegant, get a Panama hat, which is like a straw hat but more finely woven. They come in two types, the one which is stiffened (duro) and the soft type (suave). I like the soft one.

Either straw or Panama hats can be had with lots of holes around the crown for ventilation. That's good.

Jim

I just put it on today for the first time this year. It is a wide brimmed straw hat with a drawstring. My brim is very wide, about eight to nine inches. It is not pretty, nor elegant. But it is lightweight, cool, and with my blue eyes, I need the wide brim so the sun does make me squint.

Visit Tilley Endurables. They WILL make a hat that you favor. I earn my living as a trash collector, and I wear one of the vented crown hats during the summer. Washable, crushable, virtually indestructable, life time warantee/guarantee. A bit pricey, but well worth the expense.

I always wear a ball cap and sunglasses but that's what I wear most of the time anyway. Ball cap is made mostly of cotton so it is nice and airy.

I wear a foam brim that is on a stretchy string. I don't like anything trapping heat on my head, so the brim keeps the sun off my face and keeps the hair out of my eyes and mouth. My hubby keeps buying me the cotton brims like tennis players use, but it is heavier and hotter and gives me a headache.

The Tilley hats are really nice but truthfully I am hard on my hats and they only last about 2 or 3 years and I couldn't bring myself to pay $95.00 for a straw hat....I just couldn't do it...

Maybe Lee Valley has one you would like.

BTW, the one you are wearing in the picture looks like it works pretty well.

Jim

Here is a link that might be useful: Lee Valley Gardening Hats

I wear baseball caps. But my husband is always showing me "proper" hats. The last one was floppy with pink roses. As soon as I find one that doesn't seem dorky....

I have a lovely, (hee) pink, wide-brimmed, straw hat, but, like the gloves, it stays inside most of the time.

I can't keep a broad-brimmed hat on my head - the wind blows it off, often even with a drawstring. The only time I will put up with a broad-brimmed hat is with a fabric hat, soaked in water, when it is brutally hot. The weight of the water will keep it on my head. I donÂt like to do this, thoÂ. It doesnÂt seem healthy.

My hair is usually long enuf that it protects my ears from the sun and I wear baseball caps.
 the 100% cotton caps when the weather is cool.
 the caps with mesh after it gets hot.

The ones with the braided cord over the bill are favorites. I can tuck a sprig of herbs or a flower under the cord.

I feel awkwardly exposed under the open daytime sky, without a hat.

Steve

Ruthie

What kind of tie does your straw hat have? Is it a drawstring like twobigdogs'? I think I'll need some kind of way to keep it on my head when I bend, and a drawstring sounds like something that would be cooler than a fabric tie.

Jimster

I looked up panama hats and some of them ain't cheap! But their origin is really interesting, not Panama but Ecuador. I forgot about the sunglasses. Yep, I'll need a good pair of those, too.

FBG

Tilley's raffia hats look pretty neat! They're crushable!

The rest of you mentioned head-covers I hadn't thought about. Baseball caps (don't like to wear them myself), stretchy bands with brims, hats with very large brims, etc.

This was great information. Thanks, all! I was just visualizing a fishing hat like Tom Sawyer's! Or Ruthie's, sort of! Maybe I'll get more than one kind...

I mostly wear a straw life guard hat I got at Ron Jon surf shop. Works great, and keeps the sun off my skin cancer prone face & neck. It has lasted 4 years & can't beat it for $11!.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ron Jon Surf Shop life guard hat

Thanks for mentioning Tilley upthread. I hadn't heard of them till now, but I've been on a search off and on for several years, trying to find a nice-looking hat that fits my big noggin/ample hair. I will definitely look into getting one of theirs.

anney I have two hats... and they both have fabric ties...I usually don't tie them unless it is windy.

You need to wear a wide brimmed hat and 100% UV sunglasses.
Don't make the mistake that I made, and garden for years without these. I now have a pinquecula, which is a non-
cancerous growth on the white part of my left eye, that is
caused by over exposure to the suns rays. Please learn
from my mistake.

Anney,

That is an amazing site you found for Panama hats. My favorite is the Borsalino Super Fino Montecristi Optimo at $825.00. But, if I could afford that, I would hire someone to weed my garden and I would sit in the shade with a cold drink. Maybe its time to get serious about patching the holes in the old Panama I bought several years ago in Mexico. Like me, it has gained a lot of character with age.

Jim

Jim

What's also neat is to recognize the names (kinds) of hats you've seen on movie characters, the Great Gatsby, mobsters, "Southern politicians" with their porkpie hats, etc. They seem to represent various "cultures"! I noticed at Princess Diana's funeral that all those royal British women wore big-brimmed black hats, from the queen mother on down to much lesser family members.

Yeah, unless you can spring for $825, you'll likely need to patch up your old one. It's a very elegant hat, isn't it?

Wide brimmed straw LL Bean gardening hat with drawstring. BUT I just bought another lighter weight straw hat same shape as my other one with a drawsteing for $3 at Christmas Tree Shop. I figured I'd have a spare since I'm always misplacing mine. :-)

My favorite by far is a conical rice farmer's hat (AKA Coolie Hat). It's extremely lightweight, cheap, and has an extremely wide brim. It's so wide that it provides total shade for my eyes, nose, my whole head, and even my neck, even when the sun is lower in the sky. No other hat that I've seen will do that. The only drawback is that it does have a tendency to blow off in the wind, but it has a strap which goes under the chin to prevent that (most of the time). Just google "coolie hat" and you'll see lots of them for sale.

-Diggity

Here is a link that might be useful: Conical Straw Hat

I have several hats, but my favorites are one straw hat similar to Rutheig's straw hat and one safari type hat (VERY light weight and breathable)very much like the pocket hat on the Lee valley site.
Don't forget to visit your local thrift stores , yard sales and flea markets to find some great hats! My DH has found several "Panama hats" for just a few bucks! Thrift stores have tons of straw hats if that is what you like.

I just found the perfect hat for the field work I do in the summer at my job. I think it will come in handy for gardening, too. It is the ExOfficiou "Buzz Off" hat. It is lightweight fabric in a baseball cap design, but with a neck and ear cover. The fabric is impregnated with an insect repellent, but does not smell at all, and looks like it will be very cool and give good sun protection.

I wear a hat made by Columbia designed for fishing and the outdoors. I need something that protects my neck as well as my face.

I found my fave hat at www.palmflex.com It is wonderful and only cost $17.50 right now.I wore it all last summer and looks just like it did when I got it and I am tough on hats!
Lola