[GonzoGOP]

As a matter of fact, hats were originally used to keep soot and ash out of the faces of gentlemen and ladies during the Industrial Revolution. They were purposeful accoutrement's that lent to style.

They go back a lot farther than that. The top-hat as a fashion statement predates the industrial revolution by a good century. And I don't think the guys in Texas were ever worried about soot. Hats are for rain and sun. Since most styles came from England during the Industrial revolution rain gear became normal, even where rain wasn't an issue. As for the farmers and cowboys, its the sun they are worried about. About the only hat designed to keep out soot is the railroad engineer's hat and the welder's bandanna. And those have never been in style.

[rarestia]

There are specific mentions of hat use to prevent soot/ash in myriad literary works across the centuries. They’re most common in pre-Industrial age British novels, but I’ve read it in American fiction as well. I understood the utility of the hat for rain and sun, but the wide brims of many hats back in the day were for both form and function. As I recall in one novel (Dickens, I believe, but don’t quote me), one character entered the antechamber of a church, removed his hat, and “knocked the ash from the brim (of his bowler).”

That literary example is what I’ve always referenced for hat utility in the “old days.” I personally wear a black wool fedora.