Don't Forget Your Hat

There is a piece of prepping gear that I find oddly lacking in a great many preps: A hat. Not only is it missing in a majority of preppers kits, I find that those who have one tend to be missing a good hat.


Why You Need a Good Hat

When SHTF you can expect to be outdoors a lot, whether during the event itself or in the events after it. The sun is hot, unpleasant and miserable to be in when you have no shelter from it; injury and even death can result from overexposure to it. Thankfully, most of it can be avoided with simple protection, and avoidance is much easier than recovery.

Sunstroke can be a major problem when it occurs, and is a reason for hospitalization in and of itself. Wearing a wide brimmed hat can sharply reduce that. A hat can even be wetted down to help keep you cool, in addition to providing shade.

Next is simple sunburn. Anyone who has had sunburn can tell you how miserable it is, and how bad it can be if it is on your neck, face, or shoulders, and how hard it can be to carry a pack (or even wear a shirt) when it rubs against your neck at all. Sunblock can help a great deal, but it only goes so far, and will not protect against things like extended exposure. A hat will also only help so much, but it will do more than sunblock will.

Both sunstroke and sunburn can happen in any climate. Even in a cloudy climate, UV radiation can penetrate the cloud layer and cause damage. In fact, while hiking it can be wise to wear protection against the sun even when there is cloud cover, because people often do not notice the damage as quickly and will damage themselves without noticing.

Cloudy weather also brings another potential threat that a hat will help to protect against: rain. For those with glasses, keeping them from being rained on will preserve your vision. For those without glasses, a good hat will still allow you to see more easily in inclement weather.

What Kind of Hat?

I recommend a wide-brimmed hat with a rigid enough brim that it holds itself up and covers both your face and your neck. I personally prefer a hat with minimal venting, but that may depend on who you are and the climate you are in.

In any case, a good hat should run (at the time of this writing) from less than $15 (link 1) to $50 or more to in-between, depending on exactly what you want. Even if you are like me and require specially-ordered hats for your overly large skull, a good basic hat runs less than $100. Getting a fully custom made Beaver fur hat built for me specifically was around $600, which is about the top of the cost range.

In short, a small investment can save you a lot of hassle and grief.

Don’t forget to wear a hat.