Roman straw hat?

[maius]

Hi, maybe a dumb question, but i've seen photos of reenactors when in camp at events and not wearing helmets, wearing a wide brimmed straw hat. Would this be correct Roman headgear worn as sun protection? If so, who would have these available for sale?

Thanks in advance.

Maius/Bill

[jvrjenivs]

First some images I got from Graham Sumner, if I'm right about 2 years ago, when I was looking for a strawhat.







I know Cezary (Cacaius on RAT) sell a nice straw hat, but he's in Europe, as does a member of Corbvlo. Don't know where to buy them in the States.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

probably a wide range of straw hats available in the states.....some that might actually fit the bill! :?

[brennivs - tony drake]

Yes they are worn as sun protection especially on the march I use one great job they do D
http://www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic.php?t=17436
Regards Brennivs

[Theodosius the Great]

How about wicker hats ?

I wore one at my last event.

Do we know if Romans (or Greeks) used wicker or straw or both ?

~Theo

[brennivs - tony drake]

Theodosivs I think a hat of any natural material will do the job ,wicker hats are mentioned in the early campaign of Caesars civil war but as protection against sling bullets worn over there helmets so they may have been carrying them as sun protection and found another use for them as well :? hmm
Regards Brennivs

[Hibernicus]

The "HAT" in the B&W photo can be made from round "straw" place mats available at your bed and bath type store, sometimes Ikea, or places like CostPlus in the States.

You can give them a slight bowl by soaking them, placing the mat over the open top of a head sized bowl and putting a water filled bowl of a slightly smaller dimension on top in order top press the mat into the larger bowl. Let it dry. Add a cord and voila you have a hat!

[Chuck Russell]

i concur sean. you can almost see the spaghetti sauce stains on that hats in that b&w picture thanks for the heads up

[maius]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. Brennius thanks for the link, now that i have an idea of what i need i'll do a google search for "straw hats".

The hats that Cacaius makes looks great! Is 20 Euros somewhere around 35.00 US dollars? I think postage from Poland might be more than the price of the hat. To bad Rusty at SOTW or Arik at Imperium Ancient armory don't stock these.

Sean, thanks for the heads up! I'll have to give that a try. Who knows, as Gaius Julius Caesar said, i could find somthing that "might actually fit the bill".

Miaus/Bill

[Gaius_Calvus]

Boys,

I have been looking for a suitable straw hat for months here in the states. Anybody got any ideas on where to get one that would be suitable?

Thanks so much if you can help this poor bald head (note cognomen).

Regards,

"Calvus" :lol:

[Tarbicus]

I picked up a plain ladies straw hat on Ebay for a few quid. Bend the sides down and put a thong through it, it looks like a petasos (luckily my head size is small). Strangely they are hard to find and you have to do a good thorough search. There are also fancy dress chinese coolie hats which might do the job.

[Chuck Russell]

i got mine from roman days. matt amts sister katy usually has a few at merchant adventures.

[M. Demetrius]

What about this one?

http://jas-townsend.com/product_info.ph ... cts_id=263

Or this one?

http://jas-townsend.com/product_info.ph ... cts_id=706

I guess the problem could be that the braids are spiralled and then sewn together...at least that is what it looks like.

The shape is about right, though, looks to me.

[Tarbicus]

I guess the problem could be that the braids are spiralled and then sewn together...at least that is what it looks like.

Hmmm, good point, I never thought of that.

[Memmia]

They were selling ladies straw hats in ASDA a few weeks ago that looked like those in the pic, although I think the winter stock may be in now. I'm not sure if they were natural straw though or some paper/ plastic material.
Failing that, any women's clothes store may still have some kicking around, they usually stock some for Summer