The change in "hat culture" is pretty incredible though. That's a LOT of hats!

As a balding man with a round head I wish hats other than Baseball caps were acceptable.

As a balding man, I wear an Aussie outback hat on the advice of my dermatologist. Being older, I no longer care about hat fashion.

Though I discovered that Outback hat makes walking in the Seattle rain quite pleasant!

Oh, and nobody cares what you wear on your head.

I moved the PNW in 2012 and to deal with the incessant rain, my wife bought me a brown fedora. Nobody wears brown fedora's anymore. But I do, and you'd be shocked at the number of compliments I've received ("Nice hat!" or "I like your hat!") and the number of conversations it's started.

Wear hats. Hats are cool.

In Australia it's generally totally normal to wear a random hat because of the sun!

Also carrying Sun Umbrellas is totally fine as well!

As nothing in particular I wish braces were acceptable! They make so much more sense than tightening a belt laterally to defy gravity by friction.

Huh, I didn't know that suspenders were called braces in England/Australia. I thought you meant dental braces, and was pretty confused at first.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspenders

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_braces

> I didn't know that suspenders were called braces in England/Australia.

This has been the source of some comic misunderstandings, whereby an American bloke says they are/like wearing suspenders, and the listener then assumes they are coming out as transvestite.

Monty Python's lumberjack is I suppose about as comic in 'braces and a bra' as in 'suspenders and a bra'!

My lecturer for assembly / low level computing used to wear braces, I enjoyed the look (and he certainly didn't seem to care what other people thought). As others have said, where what you want!

If you want to wear them, wear them! You'll get odd looks much less than you think.

My dad took to wearing a Stetson on occasion in his late 40's, around 25 years ago. In Oslo. I'm not sure exactly which type, but one of the fedoras.

I'm not so sure most people in Oslo would have agreed it was "acceptable" but he didn't care, and it's not like anyone would call him out on it.

I'm in my late 40's now, and kinda want to wear a hat but I think I'll pick something which stands out less.

you can start a new trend

They also seem to enjoy tipping their hats or lifting them momentarily as a greeting or hello.

I get the feeling that these pictures were taken after the fellow passed by in the street and give them a “Good day!” or similar.

You can see various expressions, some which say “and a good day to YOU young man” from some of the older guys to a “hmmph good day” from some of the well dressed women.

This one seems to be the best meme material:

https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/s...

...with one expressing a coy "oh, hi" and the other with the frumpy look-of-disapproval.

Maybe our generation will embrace hybrid hazmat masks/hats like some blip of dystopian horror that future generations can look back on in amusement.

That's bound to be part culture, but I think part circumstance as well - heating and insulation in houses has improved a lot since then.