Did you ever feel like smacking someone upside the head that was annoying you?..........("Yea, every time we read one of your posts MT" ) If so you might consider professional help or becoming involved in MMA.

This post is about being a hot head.....literally instead of figuratively. Sometimes we overlook obvious solutions to problems. When I hike or paddle I tend to run a bit hot. I have learned to run in a visor as opposed to any other kind of hat. As most outdoors folk know, one of the chief places you lose heat is through the top of your head. Most people apply this knowledge to cold situations but I also apply it to hot situations. If you run hot consider a visor, it really makes a big difference.

You must bring your regular hat as well however. If the horse flies or deer flies are about they will have a field day with your unprotected head. But even in the summer I can usually run with the visor at least 1/2 the time.  

Yes my head cooks if I do not protect it.  I wear a wide brimmed hat and when I am hot I dip it in the lake frequently. The wide brim better protects from the sun. Deer flies won’t bite your ears and neck under a wide brim.

In the heat (which I have plenty of here), my baseball caps change color (from "winter" to summer).  I generally wear darker colored hats in cooler weather.  In the past few weeks, I've switched to my summer head gear.  My ball caps are light colors (white to tan) and often have mesh panels on either side to aid in ventilation (like (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)...I prefer ones with lighter-colored side mesh panels, but these seem to be more common).

I generally don't have to wet my cap ... it gets that way naturally.  But I do pull it off ever so often to give it a quick fan in the air ... that helps to cool the moisture already in my cap.  In the hottest part of the summer, I wear a rolled bandana above my brow (tied in the back) to stop the constant drip of perspiration down my face.

dd

mastertangler wrote on Mar 19^th, 2011 at 11:01pm:

That's another use of my bandana (unrolled, of course).  (Also, handy pot handle grabber, face washing implement ... )

dd

I always have worn a baseball style hat with mesh sides ( really like Oregon Research model).

A good buddy of mine who has a whole lot of hair on his head found out 6 months ago that he has malignant melanoma, a very agressive skin cancer. While combing his hair he found some blood on his comb and had his head  looked at and a biopsy taken. It seems he has a malignant cancer spot on his scalp. Malignant melenoma is one of the most deadly cancers and is caused by the sun. If caught early you have a good chance of beating it. He had the affected area cut off and now looks like a monk with a bald spot on the top of his head. Worse yet..he has been undergoing chemo and it has spread to his brain and now his lungs. His prognosis is not good. He is now on an experimental chemo treatment.  Hey, this guy is not an outdoorsman like many of us and doesn't spend near the amount of time we paddlers/fisherman do in the sun by a long shot. Hard to believe this guy got this type of cancer.

Bottomline, I would wear sunscreen whenever possible. I should also tell you that my mom died of malignant melenoma at the age of 53. Never even the hospital except to have 6 kids. The doctors say I am at high risk for skin cancer. I had a mole on my side cut off as a preventative measure because it was in the spot my mom's mole changed color and size and ultimately lead to her demise.  I always was the person saying ... it won't be me getting skin cancer. Well, after my buddy got it ... I realized that I need to be more pro-active and will definitely be using more sunscreen on my canoe trips and when going outdoors.  I like the idea of a wide brimmed hat as well.

Sorry to talk about skin cancer in our forum... it's a downer  but I felt the need to "air it out."