Baseball caps and GenX
Posted by JazzfanRS@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 46 comments
Then: A time in my youth I never wore them. Maybe even despised them. That changed in 97-98 when even a ponytail wasn't enough to tame my waist length lion's mane. (Heads up: Coarse and thick hair and length do not go well together!)
Now: I am always wearing one, even in a formal setting. But I still have my GenX manners and remove it. I have only lost one in 15 years. I think I would still wear them everywhere if I didn't have a crewcut and be balding. My collection is starting to get unmanageable. Yet I have 'pristine' for special occasions (Not shown), kickers for everyday wear, and a few I keep for special projects that I don't mind tossing when they get paint splatter.
TLDR; How's your hat collection. Credit to Redditors who mentioned and explained cap culture. I feel vindicated.
HatesDuckTape@reddit
I wore hats everyday from freshman year in high school until I was about 30. Then for some reason unbeknownst to me my forehead starter sweating like crazy, and it felt disgusting wearing one. Rarely wear them anymore.
I have my rain hat I wear when walking the dog in the rain. Light material Under Armour hat. I’ll wear one when I go to ball games or if I’m doing a few hours of yard work or landscaping too. And I feel gross afterwards.
Every adult told me I’d go bald wearing a hat all the time all those years. 49 years old and still have a full head of hair. It’s pretty gray, but it’s still all there.
Pizzarepresent@reddit
From another post…
JazzfanRS@reddit (OP)
Thanks for this, I already duped my reply in that post showing off my caps.
nixtarx@reddit
Call it a "dad" cap if you must, but get that flat brim shit away from me.
Active-Possibility77@reddit
Yeah. That definitely came later and doesn't work for Gen X.....unless you're trying to be 25 again.
We used to rubberband a baseball to the brim to get the right curve
JazzfanRS@reddit (OP)
I considered that but not being into baseball, I don't have any. Plus I prefer a larger arc. I might run it once in the washer, spin out the excess and let it air dry on my head.
Ckn-bns-jns@reddit
I went to shaving my head years ago and wear hats everywhere to protect my scalp, plus I hate people staring at my bald head when talking to me.
The past few years I’ve been splurging on Melin hats. Waterproof, easily washable and they last forever. The first one I have still cleans up nicely and it’s over 3 years old. I’ve worn it in the ocean and pool dozens of times too.
Vulpine69@reddit
I think I have 30 or 40. LOL
PlummetComics@reddit
Since 2016, when it became appropriate for grown men to wear ball caps with suits, I stopped wearing them and think less of grown people wearing them indoors.
ShadowKat2k@reddit
I'm fairly tall and a baseball cap is as useful as a hard hat. Many times I slammed my head against a sharp corner of a car trunk(boot) lid, SUV lift gate, trees, cupboards, etc. that I'm sure I would've been gashed or been a bloody mess but the cap saved me.
Attached is one of my favorites.
JJQuantum@reddit
I purged mine a few years back but it’s getting large again. I don’t like my flat hair when removing them so if I’m planning on doing anything where that would be needed I just don’t wear one. I do enjoy having a different one depending on my mood.
handsomeape95@reddit
I wore them religiously throughout high school and college. Went into the military and purged them all. Mainly because the military forced me to wear a hat. Now I have one just for yard work because of that whole melanoma thing.
HuckleCatt1@reddit
The perfect curve of the bill can be achieved by using rubber bands to wrap the bill around a soda can.
Also baseballs, Pringle's cans work too.
JazzfanRS@reddit (OP)
I have a gallon sized pickle jar I put them on if I wash them in a machine, I don't like a tight curl, just one to fit my head so I will push the bill into the opening of the jar and stuff a towel in behind it.
HuckleCatt1@reddit
Good option. I could see how this would make for a gentler curve to the bill
edasto42@reddit
I went through a phase when I was really young and tried to fool myself that I liked sports to try and fit in that I wore them regularly. Then I stop trying to fake liking something I didn’t and went the other way. The sub cultures I ran with, baseball hats were not part of the look. Plus this was when the super bent brim, sometimes with a fishing hook on it, look came out and I thought that was just the most suburban, Dave Matthews band/Hootie and the blowfish aesthetic that I despised. Fast forward to about 5 years ago and living in a way sunnier climate that hats are very welcome and needed. Luckily there’s a few independent fashion spots in town that make unique and limited styles for hats-and none with that bent brim haha
Safetosay333@reddit
I have one. One that I wear almost daily.
4stargas@reddit
I have so many that every once in a while I rediscover one & the excitement is new. I’ve worn ball caps since I was in elementary school. The only change is that I’ve went from self-curved bill, to pre-curved bill, to flat bill.
kalelopaka@reddit
I don’t wear hats. Never wore them. Every man I knew growing up wore hats, and they were all bald or balding. So at 59 I have a full head of thick mostly white hair.
Jew-zilla@reddit
Usually, it’s a flat hat.
No-Bee6369@reddit
Baseball caps are just GenX toupee's.
Jazzlike_Holiday1992@reddit
Only if you are bald.
Jew-zilla@reddit
Watch it! I represent that remark.
askywlker44a@reddit
I wear only one style of hat: an LA Dodgers hat. There are different versions, but I've cut every other kind of hat out of my lineup. It's only Dodgers and has been since Covid.
Thirty_Helens_Agree@reddit
I’m sitting here with my Brewers hat with the NLDS Champions 2018 patch on the side.
Jew-zilla@reddit
Go Brewers! I miss Milwaukee County Stadium. And it will ALWAYS be Miller Park. Number 19 and 4 forever!
ONROSREPUS@reddit
I wear them more so in the colder months. Not so much in the summer. I have a lot, A LOT, of hats because I get them free at work and through hunting organizations I belong to.
KCcoffeegeek@reddit
I wore hats quite a bit when I was younger. Less ad less as I e aged. I started shaving my head a year ago and unless I’m in the sun for a while I never wear hats anymore. I have a friend who if he isn’t actively at work he has a hat on.
trailbait@reddit
I have >50 caps in my collection. My wife doesn't understand (I'm not sure I do, tbh), but she thought this was funny:
Uffda6321@reddit
Only when I miss my morning shower.
dbrmn73@reddit
I have about 50 of them
Just-Ice3916@reddit
Baseball caps have always been my thing and still are. Yes, I make adjustments to wear something with more coverage in the blistering cold, but I expect to be buried or cremated with my fucking hat on (I'd say that they will have to pry it from my dead body, but that would be way too much irony this early in the morning).
Slimjim6678@reddit
Wear one everywhere but church and formal events
NegScenePts@reddit
I always wear a ballcap.
Maximum-Still-2484@reddit
I have about 10 caps but really only have about 4 or 5 that I wear. I have my grass cutting cap and then I always take one when we go on vacation.
Waffuru@reddit
Always have a hat on in public. Have a hat as part of my uniform, and a number of hats I like to wear when I'm not at work. Got a couple Pokemon hats, a couple E3 hats, and miscellaneous other ones I'll cycle through.
Poultrygeist74@reddit
Never leave home without it, I’ve worn hats since age 10.
Cheesqueak@reddit
I used to wear them all the time. My favorite was a Florida University hat the just had FU on it. Never cared for the gators but me shifting the hat towards someone was my invisible middle finger.
I mostly quit wearing them on the belief they were causing me to go bald
Evening-Top-4245@reddit
I have two black yellow top Costco bins full. That’s 30 years worth of done tamers.
Fun-Distribution-159@reddit
I never really wore them.
periodicsheep@reddit
my husband has a massive head, and never ever wore hats. mostly because they were always too small. since his hair started thinning ten years ago- he suddenly found plenty that fit and he never leaves the house without one- and almost always it’s a buffalo bills hat. go bills!
downtroddengoat@reddit
In my teens and early 20s I wore baseball caps all the time. When I decided to grow my hair out I stopped wearing hats, as it didn't look right. Now they are dusty and piled on a shelf somewhere.
OldBanjoFrog@reddit
I haven’t worn a baseball cap since 2007. I wear a pith helmet to deal with the heat, and sometimes I rock a Panamanian. I also have a wool Vince Lombardi style hat for the winter
RVAblues@reddit
I tend to wear hats outside, but never inside and never on elevators. Though when it’s not summer, I wear a wool flat cap/newsie cap. When it’s really hot I go for a straw hat with a brim. I have like 2 ball caps, which I wear when I don’t want sun in my eyes, but I don’t love wearing them because I hate dressing like a 6 year old.
kevbayer@reddit
This is most of my current collection.
Status_Silver_5114@reddit
Like the system!!