When Common Sense and Fashion Clash

I'll be the first to admit I'm not the most fashionble person. I prefer comfort to style, even if that means wearing my Keen walking shoes into the ground, and donning the occasional pair of overalls. To me, "doing my hair" when it's shorter means throwing on a patch-quilt bandana or a hat. When it's longer, I'll pull it back into a couple braids... and then put on a bandana or a hat. I still wear those old school baseball t-shirts, and I'm a HUGE fans of soft, hooded sweatshirts.

Sure, I'll dress up from time to time... I don't even mind flowery dresses. And I wouldn't even say I'm completely ignorant when it comes to fashion sense: I like to think I know what looks good... but I generally make sure that whatever I wear is comfortable, fairly simple, and not too tight. Point being, I'm not exactly a follower of the runway, and the winter months are no exception.

When this time of year comes around, I'll wear whatever is warmest. And by the time the thermostat drops to 40F or below, you can rest assured I'm throwing on a warm hat before I leave my place (usually the green one with Oscar the Grouch's face around the rim). I don't care if it "messes up my hair." I want to be warm.

I never realized what a novel concept that was until this past Christmas, when my mother — the same mother who always forced me to "button up" and "put on a hat" when I was a kid — told me she wanted a matching scarf and gloves as part of her Christmas.

Matching scarf and gloves. No hat.

And the more I thought about that, the more I realized I hadn't seen my mother in a hat since one of my family's last snowmobiling adventures in the early 80s.

Now, granted, my mother comes from a generation that believes in feathering, teasing, fluffing and curling their hair before any adventure outdoors. So I can understand not wanting to undo all of that hardwork with one foul swoop of a sockcap. I mean, it takes her about 20 minutes (and a bottle of White Rain) to do her hair, which compares to my 5. I don't really have a lot of time invested in the whole ordeal, so there's not much damage a hat can do.

But, still, there's got to come a point where common sense takes over, a woman says "Screw the hair!" and throws on some wool contraption to lock in the heat. Right?

Right?

Apparently not. You see, after the matching scarf and gloves, it was only $5 more to throw in the matching hat. So I did. And I commented to my mother, even as she opened the package, that I knew she didn't really wear hats, but figured she may as well have the complete set... just in case.

Jump ahead to this past weekend, where my mother boasted that during a recent walk in 10F temperatures, the only thing to get cold was her nose and, yes,... her ears.

"Were you wearing a hat, Mom?"

She just looked at me.

***
Yesterday while running errands, I noticed a cute little girl — maybe 2 or 3 years-old — wearing a fleece bunny suit (essentially, footed pajamas complete with a hat and floppy rabbit ears), sitting in comfort in an otherwise cold, metal shopping cart. Her mother was pushing her through the parking lot, and the girl was untouched by the cold.

But as for her mother... her mother was wearing a waist-length leather jacket. Her ears were beet red as she pushed her way through -7F temperatures and a cool breeze.

She was, as you've likely suspected, not wearing a hat. But her hair did look rather cute.
***So over the past few days, I've been taking note of such things. And I've noticed that for about every 10 females I've seen, only about 3 are wearing hats.

For those of you keeping notes... it's dipped as low as -25F with the windchill this week. And for those of you who've never experienced weather like that: it's friggin' cold. Definitely, and most assuredly, hat-wearing weather.

Or so I thought.