Club Obi Wan

Out of curiousity, I'm just wondering if anybody here is brave enough to use hair gel, wax, cream, mousse, etc when wearing their fedoras (or any other headwear for that matter)?

J-B Weld.


No wait, I meant Murray's pomade. Nothing holds better. Except maybe J-B Weld.

I use a hair gel made by Tigi called Head Shrink. It is a hard core gel, but that is what I need to slick my hair back. (my hair is kinda like Rick's in the mummy and similar to Peter's in the tv show heros). I let it dry and then knock it down and my hair is straight and easy to deal with. I don't gel my hair and then put a hat on though, I wait til my hair is dry.

Indiana Kev wrote:I don't gel my hair and then put a hat on though, I wait til my hair is dry.

Heh, that should go without saying!

I'm just really curious about the flat-head effect you get once the hat comes off though!

I go with the bit looser of a hat to keep from getting hat hair and it works ok, but it does flatten my hair out some. That is a good thing for me, as it keeps my hair from getting to crazy.

I assume you're asking because you have a problem with "hat hair." In my father's gen, many men still wore hats all the time, although the practice was fading. Everyone wore some type of hair dressing, and the look was fairly slick. I don't remember the liners of Dad's hats being particularly foul, but I didn't spend a lot of time looking into them, either. I would imagine that it should not be a problem, in general, as hair dressing manufaturers took this into account. Many of these dressings were developed to move away from the traditional animal grease such as bear, or vegetable oils, like macassar oil. These caused so much staining of furniture that the antimacassar, that doily you still might find on the backs of chairs in old-fashioned hotels or parlors, was developed. With newer dressings such as Brylcreem or Vitalis, I think sweat would cause far more staining. I use gel or mousse occasionally and have never noticed either to stain.
As to a hat-friendly hair style, most men I knew back then wore the taper cut or short-back-and-sides cut. These kept the head relatively neat when hats were lifted, which they were always indoors or to a lady. The crew and flat top cuts were still more usual among boys than men. I would stay away from pomades and waxes, as these were desined for extreme holding power, can be very greasy and tend to stain more.
When I and my friends started wearing hats (top hats, leather hats, etc) during the 60s, the undressed (and often unwashed or combed) very long hair was just jammed under the hats and exploded out to wave in the breeze when the hat was removed: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/soundtrac ... yrics.html
The additional matting caused by the hat was a desirable side effect.
I guess the best bet is a taper cut with some form of dressing for control. After all, this was the style developed in the golden age of fedoras. But don't use too much goop!

Brylcreem - a little dab'll do ya.
Use more, only if you dare!
But, watch out, the gals'll all pursue ya!
They love to get their fingers in your hair.

On a final note, one of the best descriptions of hat wear and its use in detection comes from "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" by Arthur Conan Doyle:
http://www.geocities.com/fa1931/british ... ecarb.html. In the story, Sherlock Holmes notes the odor of hair cream, but the only stains noted on the inside of the hat are of sweat.

My hair used to look like the inside shape of my hat. As it was a Dorfman Pacific, oh my word.... Tapering hair!!!

Man, is this ever the truth! Any other well-fitting hat I own actually pushes the sides of my hair down, keeping it from looking unkept and wild like it normally is (to some degree, since the only haircare thing I put in my hair is shampoo). But the Dorfman Pacific Super Amazing Extra Special X-Ray Official Movie Fedora doesn't fit properly and gives something of a monk-haircut style to my hair. I still wear it anyways, I just make sure never to take it off to avoid scathing ridicule.

P.S. Sorry for getting off topic, back to your lives!

dwardeden wrote:I assume you're asking because you have a problem with "hat hair." In my father's gen, many men still wore hats all the time, although the practice was fading. Everyone wore some type of hair dressing, and the look was fairly slick. I don't remember the liners of Dad's hats being particularly foul, but I didn't spend a lot of time looking into them, either. I would imagine that it should not be a problem, in general, as hair dressing manufaturers took this into account. Many of these dressings were developed to move away from the traditional animal grease such as bear, or vegetable oils, like macassar oil. These caused so much staining of furniture that the antimacassar, that doily you still might find on the backs of chairs in old-fashioned hotels or parlors, was developed. With newer dressings such as Brylcreem or Vitalis, I think sweat would cause far more staining. I use gel or mousse occasionally and have never noticed either to stain.
As to a hat-friendly hair style, most men I knew back then wore the taper cut or short-back-and-sides cut. These kept the head relatively neat when hats were lifted, which they were always indoors or to a lady. The crew and flat top cuts were still more usual among boys than men. I would stay away from pomades and waxes, as these were desined for extreme holding power, can be very greasy and tend to stain more.
When I and my friends started wearing hats (top hats, leather hats, etc) during the 60s, the undressed (and often unwashed or combed) very long hair was just jammed under the hats and exploded out to wave in the breeze when the hat was removed: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/soundtrac ... yrics.html
The additional matting caused by the hat was a desirable side effect.
I guess the best bet is a taper cut with some form of dressing for control. After all, this was the style developed in the golden age of fedoras. But don't use too much goop!

Brylcreem - a little dab'll do ya.
Use more, only if you dare!
But, watch out, the gals'll all pursue ya!
They love to get their fingers in your hair.

On a final note, one of the best descriptions of hat wear and its use in detection comes from "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" by Arthur Conan Doyle:
http://www.geocities.com/fa1931/british ... ecarb.html. In the story, Sherlock Holmes notes the odor of hair cream, but the only stains noted on the inside of the hat are of sweat.

Folks, I think we have a winner here!

Actually, I really was curious as to how those folks back in 'the day' used to doff their hats indoors, and not a single strand would look out of place... Or maybe that was just in Hollywood... But it looks like it's more the haircut that counts, not the product after all

The who the why the where the what now?!!!

I forget to mention High-Definition. Anyways, that's about how the hat is advertised.

Vitoscarlatti wrote:They should've just said really crappy really tapering little Noddy hat thats easy to leave in the back of an Italian taxi...Bah!

Still bitter eh?

You noticed that too, VP?

Regards! Michaelson

I'd suggest he not make yours, then, if it's going to cause this much trouble...

...p.s. the hair gel is SUPPOSED to be bitter, that's to keep you from eating it.

My problem with hair products and fedoras is that if I have gel in my hair, and then I sweat, the sweatband gets sticky. Then if it happens again, it gets more sticky, and soon I have a small sticky part that gets darker with sweat. Anybody else have this problem?

In Christ,
Shane

My problem with hair products and fedoras is that if I have gel in my hair, and then I sweat, the sweatband gets sticky. Then if it happens again, it gets more sticky, and soon I have a small sticky part that gets darker with sweat. Anybody else have this problem?

That might actually work to keep it on in high winds..