Caps have always been a strange point of contention to me. By 'caps' here I mean, especially, the good old
baseball hat, not that this was exactly a descriptive title for me; in fact, I discovered that my grouping
of hats was not really based on reality. To me, you had baseball caps, which were "caps", and then you had
flat brims, which were a separate thing. Turns out the caps I was calling baseball caps are more accurately
known as dad hats: they are unstructured baseball caps with a pre-curved brim and an adjustable strap on the
back. So, all the caps I tried to group are, in fact, baseball caps. Would you look at that.
But I'm starting strong here. How about I explain why I decided to care about this? I'll be honest, I was
trying to remember why, and I can't tell exactly. Probably I got hit with videos on Instagram of girls
styling those caps, and I started to question my old interpretations that caps are a boy thing. I conjure a
specific kind of man in my mind when I see those "flat-brimmed caps," shirts, and jorts; you can see it too.
And it took a while for me to be convinced that my views were exaggerated. Pairing with my girlfriend also
wanting a cap, and suddenly I was ready to start researching.
Whenever I want to get new clothes, sneakers, or accessories, I want to research, especially because all
this stuff is expensive, and I want to minimize the chance of me regretting the purchase. I own a few pieces
I bought on a whim and used only very sporadically, so the less of that, the better. Caps are a strange
thing, because there is a huge subculture behind them, multiple even. So it's a strange sentiment to go
headfirst on something with entire history books of information and rulebooks of dos and don'ts. But alas, I
researched what they were and learned that they are all baseball caps, and probably the biggest shock: the
brim can be curved! In fact, it was curved for decades; it was sold flat so you could decide how much to
curve. Having it be flat is a relatively new thing.
I thought an unstructured hat would work the best for me. I tried those with a structured front, and they
looked like a helmet on me. Not only that, but I already have a considerably big and oval head, so things
that increase the length of my face do not work well. But it turns out head length led to my next problem:
the hat sat too high on my head. The technical term would be a crown depth; it is, apparently, a common
issue with bigger heads.
It is not that my head is gigantic, disproportional, or weird; in fact, you would probably not look at me
and go, "She has a big head", but so is the land of measurements and proportions. It just means I need to be
mindful of stuff that goes on my head or face. XL hats, large frames for glasses, and, well, crown depth. I
left the store I visited without buying anything to think and do more research. I have yet to go back, but I
think the solution might be to dive in headfirst. It is intimidating to try the "big models", the (5)9FIFTY,
the de facto baseball cap (and flat brim if that's your thing), but because it has a different line on the
sides, it doesn't look gigantic on me; it looks fine, if only a bit jarring out of shock.
In fact, I tried one, just to see, and I wish I had been a little more courageous; I laughed and put it
back. Maybe if I had looked at it a little more carefully, imagined the brim curved, I could've concluded
this earlier. But so is life. I'm excited about this, funnily enough. I'll try to see if I can go back soon.
Who knows, maybe I'll have another thing alongside sneakers.
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