Any hat people here?

[odile53]

Hi, folks,

Just wondering if any of my covering sisters in the Lord like hats as their preferred mode of covering.

When I was a little girl (pre VII,) the grown-up ladies usually wore hats to church on Sundays. But then again, before the early 1960's, women wore hats pretty much everywhere in the daytime.

I took to wearing hats in the daytime outdoors a few years ago when I was diagnosed with a mixed squamous-basal cell cancer on my forehead. I'm not pale-skinned by any means: How an American Indian can get a skin cancer on her forehead (when I used to wear bangs most of the time) is beyond me, but there you go.

The cancerous lesion was scraped off in a lengthy operation called a Moh's procedure. Basically, you're stuck on an operating table as the surgeon scrapes off layer after layer of skin and examines it under a microscope. When he doesn't see any more cancerous cells, he puts in some stitches, slaps on a pressure dressing, and dismisses you, sternly warning you to stay out of the sun, or cover up and slather yourself with sunscreen.

I was on that table for six hours, fully conscious, my forehead sliced open, numbed up with novocaine, and fervently praying that it wasn't melanoma. It wasn't. I'm deeply grateful to Our Lord: I lost a cousin to that form of skin cancer a couple of years ago, and she was about my age. What she suffered in terms of metastatic disease to the brain shouldn't be suffered by my worst enemy's pet rat!

God even spared me the reminder of a nasty surgical scar: The incision line just looks like a forehead wrinkle that any average woman of my age might have. I might say that I am triply blessed.

On the way home from the surgical center, I picked up a couple of broad-brimmed sun hats, and started to wear them whenever outdoors.

Praise God, the cancer has never returned. But the surgeon told me as he put in the last couple of stitches, I kid you not, "Go and sin no more." Meaning: "Stay out of the sun, Odile! Or else!"

So it seemed perfectly natural to me to start wearing hats to church.

I have a few hats. A couple are fur felt winter cloches (one camel, one charcoal grey) that work well with my winter coat. And I recently (last fall) bought a pretty flower-trimmed parasisal summer cloche to wear to Mass.

Don't mistake me, mantillas are pretty, and I have a couple. But truth be told, I really feel more comfortable in a hat, and was wondering if there were others here who liked them as well. I'm not talking about the Kentucky Derby confections. I'm talking about plain old hats that cover your head, shield your skin, and keep your hair out of your face.

I strongly suspect that the Blessed Virgin and her contemporaries in the middle East veiled to keep the drying desert dust and sand off their scalps in the first place, and modesty was a byproduct of this. Remember, MEN of that time and place also covered their heads! It doesn't take too much imagination to feel what gritty desert sand feels like baked in on dried-up sweat on your scalp! After all, there wasn't much extra water about, and shampoo and blow dryers wouldn't have been invented for another nineteen hundred years! A part of the reason they veiled was sheerly practical, in other words.

And skin cancer survivors like me are stuck with similar practicalities.

I have my eyes on a medium brimmed cotton sunhat I saw on a website for this year's acquisition. I'm starting to amass a real hat wardrobe.

I cover in gratitude to God for sparing me from a recurrence of cancer, on the advice of my doctor, and in reverence to the Divine Physician of my soul.

Any other "covering sisters" out there with "hatitude?"

[Maryann C]

ME , ME , ME.......LOL well I am English and I LOVE wearing hats. I do stand out in Church when I wear my hats , which is not always and does depend on my outfit. I do like the new English facinators when they are a little more subtle for Mass other than weddings - .then anything goes. I am however mindful of something I heard Mother Angelica once say . She was talking about having patience in Church with our fellow parishioners and made a comment about ending up sitting behind a lady with a big hat so that one could not see. I have the advantage of being short so people can usually still see around me.

[lizaanne]

Very rarely, but I have worn hats to Mass.

I prefer to cover my head with something that is kept apart and special for Mass. If I'm wearing a hat to go shopping or out to dinner, then when I cover at Mass I'm not doing anything any different than when I'm just out running errands. So for me, I like to keep it different.

But - I really don't have any issues with women wearing hats to Mass, many women at my parish do this, especially the older ladies. It's just a personal preference.

~Liza

[pippin]

I wear hats to mass. I prefer hats but I have a small head. I buy vintage hats. My church hats are only for church. I do wear a mantilla to adoration and daily mass since it is easy to keep in the car. (I go to daily mass on my lunch break).

[Diana Catherine]

I wear hats. I have different ones for mass than I do other times. Like someone else said, I do like to keep what I wear to mass seperate from other times. I think hats are lovely touch in everyday life though, I don't wear them out and about much but some.

[Student09]

I wear winter hats in the cold months, both to keep my head warm and because then I don't stand out. I tried wearing my sun-hat in church once, but the brim is quite wide and it was rather awkward. So I don't do that anymore. I've also tried wearing berets during the summer months, and have considered getting a nice vintage cloche, but I don't know if I'm stylish enough for a cloche, and also I have realized that there is no way for someone of my age (twenties) to wear a hat in church in summer and not stand out. So, I finally went ahead and got myself a chapel veil. I expect I'll go back to hats when it gets cold again.

I would actually love it if hats came back in fashion, not just for church but in general. I like them! My mom can pull them off, even the slightly outrageous ones.

It really does seem like there is a cultural aversion in America to having ANYTHING on one's head - at least if you are female. I see women walking around outside in the snow and in the blazing sun with no hat. That to me is crazy.

[jeanannemarie]

Yes, I love to wear hats to Mass. Sometimes a mantilla, also. I have old hats and new hats. I'm usually the only one, except for another woman that occasionally wears a hat. There is another woman that wears a fluffy headband type thing when it is cold.