Closest to a Sunday Afternoons Adventure Hat without being a Sunday Afternoons Adventure Hat?

[jscott]

It takes a big brim to actually provide full facial sun coverage. Good looking baseball style hats aren't worth much for that. Just take a look at someone over a few minutes time who's wearing a hat in the sun. Most will shade the wearer's eyes, which gives the wearer the illusion that they are completely in the shade. But vast areas of the face and neck are still exposed.

It takes ugly to stay pretty.

[Allen C]

this hat will make you look like a rockstar. Or Lawrence of Arabia.
it just works. sun, wind, rain, it is the bomb.
mine weighs 2.8 oz. cape is removable and only a minor pain in the butt to put back on.

[Eric Hine]

Not as much coverage, but still decent is the Exofficio Cape Hat (which I use). Looks decent and if the sun isn't too harsh on a given day, the cape can be tucked into the hat to make it a baseball cap style. Goes for about $40 and weighs 3oz.

[Bob Gross]

" Disappearing Creek. "

That sounds so enchanting.

–B.G.–

[jscott]

Allen I have a very similar hat/drape combo that is even slightly more extreme. The thing is, during mosquito season, I can velcro up the drape all the way over my nose when I'm in a swarm, and I'm completely protected. In sun on snow, this thing rocks. And then you can just let the drape hang down when in the shade. I'd look damn fine on a camel.

[Allen C]

Jeffrey, let's see what you got!

[jscott]

I forgot to mention that between me and the camel it's the camel that would be the real looker…

I don't have a photo but it's the Solumbra adult shade cap with crossover drape. It's 100%spf.

I actually use a Sunday Afternoons hat outside of mosquito season though.

[Anonymous]

"That sounds so enchanting."

Oh, fer Goddard sake, Bob.

Ewwww, what's that smell? ;0)

[Paul Magnanti]

<— Dorky boonie hat, collared shirt, bandanna in pinch, olive oil in the blood stream.

Works for me. The first three are easy enough to do. The fourth is from many multiple people invading the ancestral homeland. A bit more difficult….

[Nick Gatel]

Boonie hats and olive oil blood are good. Collar can replace a bandana, but best to get a suntan first.

I find it best to leave the hat off and work on your suntan though.

A Tilley works best for me, no bandana needed.

[Jennifer Mitol]

A) Nick, you may be an old fart but I really hope that someday I am fortunate enough to meet you, and maybe even walk for a spell.

B) "That sounds so enchanting." Thanks BG

[Lori P]

"It takes ugly to stay pretty."

Or, to avoid skin grafts and surgeries.

Some of us are more faithful members of the big brim club for very, very, very good reasons. If you never tan, always burn, you are at a really high risk of major problems.

I turned around and went home on that one day hike where I somehow left not only my sunscreen but my hat at home, in the other car. It's That Bad. Baseball caps don't cut it, nor does sunscreen alone, nor does the best big hat alone. I get serious burns from sunlight bouncing off water, snow, granite….

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

There's always the straw gardening/surfer hat. Or Z-packs conical hat. Now there's a dorky hat. I have a conical hat made by someone other than Z-packs, I think Kavu or something like that. Z-packs is pretty clever how they cut the back so that it doesn't get in the way of the backpack and with a zipper up the back so you can unzip it into a sit-pad. I've been thinking of how I could refashion my conical hat similarly.

[Gregory Stamer]

The Sun Sombrero looks good. How does the brim of that hat stand up in a strong wind?

For kayaking the best hat that I have found is the REI paddler’s hat .  The brim usually stands up to a good wind. Only negatives are that the back of the hat can touch a PFD or backpack, and the chin strap needs to be replaced by a cord lock. 

That said, once the wind gets up to 25 or 30 mph and above, a large brim is a liability (unless you like to look like that guy on “F-troop”). On one very gusty day in the Everglades, I felt like the “flying nun” (felt like I could turn my kayak by merely shifting my head) and I switched to a buff pulled over my neck and around the back of a baseball cap.

I also have the Sun Runner, and it’s main asset to me is that it is very stable in the wind, and can be converted to a regular baseball cap. However it offers very little ventilation when closed and is much hotter in the Florida heat and humidity, for me, that a brimmed hat. When there is very little breeze it feels like my head is baking in an oven.  YMMV.

Greg Stamer

[Dean F.]

Tilley does make a hat with a stow-away neck cape, as the OP pontificates:

It tucks into a pocket on the rear brim, instead of just being shoved up into the hat crown, so it doesn’t interfere with ventilation.

 

They also make an accessory external neck cape that can be added to their other hats:

 

[Jack]

I’ve been very happy with the OR Sombriolet. I think it looks very reasonable, particularly for the coverage. If the need should arise I also have a neck sun gaiter and cotton Shemagh.

[Window walker]

Some one raised this thread from the dead! But I am also o nthe look out for a hat similar to these. I use a really dorky looking boonie hat with smallish brim and neck cape.  i love it, but i want a larger brim. I like the neck cape, and I like being able to fold the hat up and shove it in my pocket.  Check out the Andrew Skurka hat:

http://www.headsweats.com/protech-white-sport-silver/

Something like this with a foldable brim is what I would like.

[Kenneth Keating]

I don’t understand why people say the Sunday Afternoons hat is ugly, dorky, etc. I have no problems at all of being seen wearing the hat.

[IVO K]

I have no problems at all of being seen wearing the hat.

 

@ Kenneth K:

Of course you don’t. I don’t think you are “being seen” in the pictured setup at all.

:-)

On a separate note, I have and used the OR Sombriolet, lately relegated to my wife’s gardening hat. Both of us consider its breathability abysmal although the hat creates the appearance of being breathable. Its brim in the back is too big for shorter-statured folk and interferes with their backpacks (unless they use itsy-bitsy daypacks which do not protrude above one’s shoulders).

[Rodney Ackerman]

Wondering why no one has mentioned Joe V’s pointy hat? Now that’s stylin!

My greater problem in this arena is that hats are hot. I picked up a Tilly with the mesh at the top hoping the mesh would do what it promotes respecting ventilation. It doesn’t for me. I expect it gives some ventilation, but my dome is still too hot.

Therefore I like my umbrella for sun as it is the best for keeping shaded and cool. I don’t like the fuss of it, however.

IMO, some men just look good wearing chapeaus in general; some not.

[Richard Lyon]

I tested the Adventure Hat for BackpackGearTest.org, see http://tinyurl.com/j9jgyyz  I concluded that it was the most useful and comfortable hat I’d ever worn. And I addressed the dorkiness factor as well –

“The reason I don’t wear the Adventure Hat much in the front country similarly does not reflect on utility. It’s simple vanity; I just don’t think the Hat has the style of a panama hat (as another of my backcountry hats does) or the panache of a bush hat. No matter – all that means is that the better-looking hats may be relegated to front country use during the summer. I’m sold on the Adventure Hat for spring and summer hiking and fishing.”

If you’re worried about looks in the backcountry, perhaps you shouldn’t be there.

[Dean F.]

Truthfully, I’ve just gone back to wearing a USGI boonie.  They’re comfortable, can be crammed into a pocket, and the guvmint issued me about a hundred of them over the years so I may as well use them.

 

For my neck, or if I need a bandito mask, I also use USGI- in this case the 2’x6′ knit cotton Neckerchief, Mens.

[MJ H]

I got the REI Sahara hat.  I used it on a recent trip when I was out for a couple of days with highs in the 80s.  The venting seemed to work well enough.  The brim is quite a bit narrower (2.5 inches) than the REI Paddler mentioned above or most of these other hats.  I figured that would be O.K. because all of my hiking so far has been local and between the trees and the clouds, I’m not feeling very exposed.  Anyway, I didn’t use any sunscreen and I didn’t get any burn.

Also, from what I understand, even if I were to never step outside during daylight for the rest of my life, I’m not cutting my risk of skin cancer that much.  The damage was all done back in the 70s, before safety was invented.

[Larry C]

I’ve been debating on getting a SA hat but the reviews on amazon say the material and craftsmanship has gone way down. Anyone experience this recently?

[Kenneth Keating]

I’ve had mine for three years and it’s holding up very well.  My wife got one last year, and it’s made the same as mine, so at least as of last year they were good.

[Author]

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