Need opinions on hats to wear

[IDoDis]

We are going on our first family trip to WDW at the end of May. While we are used to temps. in the high 90s during the summer here, we are not used to the humidity that is in Florida (our heat is very dry in the southwest). I'm looking around for good hats/caps to wear without making us sweat even worse. I found some web sites that sell the hats with the cool crystal gels in them. I also found a website (and ebay) for the solar-powered safari caps. These look like a safari hat and have a built in fan.

Has anyone tried either of the hats/caps with the cooling gels or the solar powered hats? I was wondering if the solar ones worked and if they are comfortable enough to wear all day. How long do the gel caps stay cool? Do these come in kid sizes?

Any opinions on these (including brands to buy) would be very helpful.

 

[Amyg]

I've never heard of either of these types of hats but would be interested also since we will be in WDW in July!

 

[IDoDis]

I am not allowed to post links yet, but if you google "solar powered safari hat" you'll find those. You can also find them on ebay for less $ under the same product name.

The cool gel hats can be found at the blubandoo web site. Google that name and you'll find them. I've had the cool crystal gel neck bandanas before. They work great for a while. I was wondering how they held up staying cool in humid weather. The hats sound like they might do the trick.

 

[dbarker]

We just wear baseball type caps. The main thing is you need to keep your head covered from the sun. I don't know anything about those other kinds of caps. However, we use the cool wraps that you wear around your neck. Since it sits on you jugular veins, it keeps you much cooler.

 

[Pixiedust34]

I tried those cooling gel bandanas, and I found them to be a waste. I'm not doing cooling gel anything anymore.

I'm not a hat person, but found that a hat did come in handy at WDW. I had a Mickey baseball hat with velcro. This was a good hat! When I wasn't wearing it, I just strapped it around my water bottle strap. When I did wear it, the rim helped keep the sun off my face.

 

[slyjly]

I am not a hat person either but I was wondering how much I would need one in early May? I am vary fair complected (a redhead with the help of Clairol!) and I am doing the industrial streghth sunscreen. I just don't know if I could get use to wearing a hat

 

[Amyg]

I am not a hat person either but I was wondering how much I would need one in early May? I am vary fair complected (a redhead with the help of Clairol!) and I am doing the industrial streghth sunscreen. I just don't know if I could get use to wearing a hat

I generally don't get a sunburn but wear sunscreen everyday and if I'm in the sun for an extended period (20 minutes or more) I wear a visor. Even with sunscreen the sun can and will do damage to your skin in the long run. At least wear a visor to shade your face.

 

[tabrizia]

I am really fair with dark hair. I find a hat is necissary if I am going to be out in the sun for more then 30 minutes in Florida (or most places where it gets hot (Georgia, California, etc) because otherwise my scalp will burn. A burned scalp maybe the most uncomfortable thing ever because there isn't any good way to get relief to it, since you don't want to stick aloe in your hair (etc). I bought a wonderful hat when we were down in Disney in 2001, it is just a baseball cap but it is extremely soft and comfy (and it had Tigger on it, so it can't be beat). It just just a really nice hat to wear in the sun when I am worried about getting burned and it helps keep your scalp from buring and the sun from beating down on your face.

 

[slyjly]

Thanks, I guess I will have to check out some hats. I guess it is better to look dorky than to be in misery!

 

[IDoDis]

Last year when we went to Sea World (San Diego), I wore a baseball cap, but my lower neck got sunburned while we were sitting on the bleachers waiting for one of the shows to start. I had a hard time sleeping for two nights and had to really stay covered the rest of the time, including our day at the beaches. A hat with a rim seems to protect me better. That's why I thought maybe one of the hats with the ice crystals would work. I think I'll pass though. I don't want to be stuck with it all week if I end up not liking it. I'll just get a plain sun hat with a rim.



ps It's been in the mid-80s in Orland the past few days! Yikes!

 

[slyjly]

Ouch! I got burnt like that years ago at Cedar Point in OH

 

[elizke]

I had hat questions too, posted, and got some good input on hats people wear...

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1038039

E.

 

[slyjly]

Thank you for sending me this. I am diffiantly going hat hunting!

 

[tcolbert]

Living here and having very thick hair, I'd recommend the visor kind so you can let heat escape from your head. The boys (DH & DS5) usually wear regular baseball caps. More often than not I go without one.

 

[NvrBnToWDW]

I Hispanic and dark-skinned, so I rarely burn. I never, never wear hats of any kind and so didn't take one to WDW last May. Well, by mid-week, skin was peeling off my nose and cheeks. DH insisted I buy a hat, so I found a really cool men's brown/tan safari hat at MGM for about $25. It's a bolero hat, I think. All the men were wearing them with Hawaiian shirts. They have them at all the parks, the only difference is the band has a different color and logo. Mine is a tan band with MGM and Mickey on it. I was able to wear my hair down or up in it and the brim shades most of your face. The top is mesh and has breathing holes in the head. I'm definitely wearing it from day one this May.

 

[jeancbpugh]

Years ago I bought a great hat at the Poly. I think it was in their menswear shop. It is a packable (rollable) straw hat.

I have thick hair and dislike wearing hats because they make my head HOT, so I recommend a hat that will let a lot of air flow through.

Be careful about baseball caps. They don't protect the tops of the ears (for short haired people), nor do they protect the back of the neck.

A string of some sort is handy to keep the hat on your head when you ride roller coasters. Or, like my hat, make it one you can roll up and stick in your pocket.

Good luck!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I'm a baseball cap sort of girl. I just make sure I put LOTS of sunscreen on my ears and the back of my neck.

In the past Target has had all different colors of plain cotton twill baseball caps for $2.99 each. So far they don't have them this year, and I am starting to worry!

I want to find light colors so my head won't roast. I have black and navy hats that are going to be staying at home! I always have a white one, but the white ones get gross after several months and I throw them out. Now I don't have one.

Marshall's and Ross have some decent caps - I just bought a Nike one for DS and an Adidas one for me. I also have a khaki one I bought at WDW in October. You sort of have to dig through at Marshall's, and look in men's, women's and kids because the hats get all mixed around. I found DS's youth size cap in the rack of women's. Hopefully by the time we leave (in August) we will each have several caps to wear. DH has dozens of caps already, so he should be good to go!

 

[IDoDis]

Last summer when we went to Legoland (still part of our San Diego trip), our 6 yr old DS took his hat off when we went inside one of the Lego building places. His head was sooo sweaty! Anyways, when we were ready to move on, his hat had disappeared. We checked at the front counter and no one had turned one in. I was so mad because I just knew some kid swiped DS's most favorite Spiderman hat! DS was in tears. I told him, "I'm going to find your hat. This is a small enough park that we'll probably see the kid who took it wearing it on his head."

Sure enough, less than an hour later I see this kid in line at one of the rides wearing a Spiderman hat that was just like DS's. I asked his sister or the girl he was with, where he had gotten the hat from. She looked at me and then went and got her mom. I asked the mother where her son had gotten his hat (just in case it was his, I was pretending that maybe we were interested to buy one from the same place). She turned to her son, took off the hat, spoke to him in Spanish so I don't know what she told him, and then handed the hat to me.

I don't understand parents who think it's okay to let their kid take off with something that isn't theirs. Even if she thought her son had found it, she should have had him turn it in at the check-out counter. Also, DS was sitting right there where he set the hat down, and one look at him with his sweaty, smashed down hair would have been enough info to know that the hat was probably his!

So, hang onto your hats at the parks!!!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

How bizarre! I can't imagine WANTING someone else's sweaty hat! And then to walk around wearing it? Did his mother not NOTICE he had a new hat? So as long as nobody asked for it back it was OK for her kid to swipe it? Unreal! Well, I am glad you got your DS's hat back! I know when DS comes in from playing golf I don't want to touch his hat! Not even to put it in the washer! I certainly don't want to WEAR it! Yuck!

 

[jeancbpugh]

and then handed the hat to me.

I hope you didn't let him wear it until you washed it. Eewwwwwwwwww.