Ten gallon hats

[Tom7227]

I've seen a couple old time pictures in the past few days and started wondering if there was a reason other than fashion for men wearing 10 gallon hats. Seems to me that it would be a PITA to have something like that sticking way up in the wind.

Any ideas?

Ok, so it's a boring day. What else do you have to do?

[Bigtom]

I don't know I have been on this site all day and watching fishing videos and westerns. I can't figure it out.

[delcecchi]

I've seen a couple old time pictures in the past few days and started wondering if there was a reason other than fashion for men wearing 10 gallon hats. Seems to me that it would be a PITA to have something like that sticking way up in the wind.

Any ideas?

Ok, so it's a boring day. What else do you have to do?

Keep your head cool by allowing air to circulate?

[AaronM]

Source: Wikipedia

Some cowboy hats have been called "ten gallon" hats. The term came into use about 1925.[27] There are multiple theories for how the concept arose.

One possibility is that the tight weave of most Stetsons hats made them sufficiently waterproof to be used as a bucket. Early print advertising by Stetson showed a cowboy giving his horse a drink of water from a hat.[28] However, the Stetson company notes that a "ten gallon" hat only holds 3 quarts (about 3 L instead of 40 L).[29] [30]

Another theory is that the term "ten gallon" is a corruption of the Spanish term "galón", or galloon, a type of narrow braided trimming around the crown, possibly a style adapted by Spanish cowboys. When Texas cowboys misunderstood the word "galón" for "gallon", the popular, though incorrect, legend may have been born. According to Reynolds and Rand, "The term ten-gallon did not originally refer to the holding capacity of the hat, but to the width of a Mexican sombrero hatband, and is more closely related to this unit of measurement by the Spanish than to the water-holding capacity of a Stetson.”[30]

[delmuts]

Oh, the things one learns on HSO !