Winter time a nice white or black felt and sumer time a palm leaf. In extremely cold times a kroner.

6 degrees is too cold for a cowboy hat, i don't care who you are. so i switched to a stormy kromer, a wool hunting hat, it sort of looks like what elmer fudd wore but my ears are warm now.

Straw for a hot summer day, felt all other times, currently I favour my brown felt hat.

I prefer a straw hat over he felt cowboy hat any day. Just something about it seems more traditional

Straws are ok but palm leaf is where its at now. Strong, sturdy hats that last forever. you can't sweat through them and water doesn't hurt them. its a great hat for someone that uses their hands for a living. it stays hot just about year around here so felt season is short but I do have one, its a resitol silverbelly but next week im going to capitol hatters in stephenville tx to have one custom made. pretty excited...

We get a hot and sticky summer here in Nebraska, so a straw hat in the summer is a must. I also have a felt silverbelly for the usually brutal winters. I like the feel of the felt hat more but the straw is nice and light for the 4-5 hot months we get. We've got some pets so the black felt is a real pain to keep looking good.

Black felt all year round..... If you work with horses you can´t wear straw.....they just steal it and try to eat it....

I like straw cowboy hat and love the yellow

since im from texas and particularly the panhandle.im qualified to voice my opinion,some cowboys wear hats some wear ball caps,and some wear nothing at all.My personal preference is black felt year round,my head my choice,my hat.As one hatmaker said "you do the walking,let the hat do the talking.

I always love this discussion - especially the igits that say only real cowboys wear felt. A real cowboy wears anything he wants to. But it would typically be felt in winter and straw in the summer. Around here you are just asking for heatstroke by wearing a black felt in the summer - that is just plain silly. But I have known many friends that do it just because they think they need to fit some kind of mold. A real cowboy doesn't need to fit a mold - that's the whole idea of being a cowboy.
I knew many women in my life that would judge a man by his hat - and it was so silly. Several have said that only black felt should be worn and wranglers (but only if the wranglers were bought at a western store and not walmart LOL). They would date the dudes because they wore black felt and miss out on the real thing because we were wearing what we liked - most of the time a ball cap.
Anyway, thats my 2 bits.

I always love this discussion - especially the igits that say only real cowboys wear felt. A real cowboy wears anything he wants to. But it would typically be felt in winter and straw in the summer. Around here you are just asking for heatstroke by wearing a black felt in the summer - that is just plain silly. But I have known many friends that do it just because they think they need to fit some kind of mold. A real cowboy doesn't need to fit a mold - that's the whole idea of being a cowboy.
I knew many women in my life that would judge a man by his hat - and it was so silly. Several have said that only black felt should be worn and wranglers (but only if the wranglers were bought at a western store and not walmart LOL). They would date the dudes because they wore black felt and miss out on the real thing because we were wearing what we liked - most of the time a ball cap.
Anyway, thats my 2 bits.

Depends on the season but I love my black felt more.

Ithink it depends on the time of year, summer straw winter felt

First off, lets be realistic. Felt hats are "traditional cowboy". It's impossible to fill a straw hat with water for your horse and not ruin the hat. So, felts are the "true choice" of a real cowboy. However, as times have changed, the straw has become a popular choice. Yes, they are cooler for Summer. As for my routine...I was raised "old school" that meant Straw hat after Easter and Felt hat after Labor day.

Straw hats are nice, but you have to wear felt if you are a real cowboy, when you are rounding up cattle and riding in the brush straw gets torn up pretty easily, also straw does not hold water if you want to give your horse a little water, also straw crushes if you want to put it under your head when you are on the trail and getting a little sleep. White in the summer, black or brown in the winter. A nice straw hat is good if you want to take your lady out dancing.

Western Straw Hats for Summer & Felt Hat for Winter !! No question!!

Both, Straw in the spring/summer, and felt in the fall/winter.

I have a confession to make. I am not a cowgirl. I am an Eastern urban/tenderfoot/dudette who's been on a horse ONCE. (It did not go well, I was terrified.) I have never owned a cowboy hat -- until now. When I went to Oklahoma earlier this month my friend from there greeted me at the Tulsa airport with a black felt Stetson hat. (!!! What a gift!!) It is my favorite present EVER. I don't wear it in public because a) I don't feel I have the right to wear it, b) nobody around here wears cowboy hats, and c) I look silly in hats, even a gorgeous black felt Stetson. (I sometimes wear it inside the house just for the thrill.)

But to answer the question, I think if I were a working cowgirl, the black felt would definitely be a winter hat, and I'd want a light-colored straw one for hot weather.

Hahaha - I find this topic and some of the comments so funny... I think I can speak from experience of the last oh - at least 40 years to say a few things. The first and most important would be to answer the poster above who said "REAL COWBOYS WEAR FELT ALL YEAR LONG" - NOT. Real cowboys will usually wear the dirtiest, most worn comfortable one they have that fits the season and the work they are doing period. The hat of choice for my husband was most often: Winter - black wool 20X for work but loved to dress up in his gorgeous Silver Belly if going out or to church. Spring/Fall - A good straw (the more worn the better) and his hat preference because of its cooling ability for Summer work - A handmade Palm. Nothing cools like it. I/we could dunk our palms in the cool stream or water trough and wear it dry and it will keep you cool when nothing else can!! It too makes a wonderful water bucket.

My two SENSE worth :) LOL

i love a good, soft, white straw hat in the summer. i was never a fan of felt hats because i wrecked them to easy but the wool ones that you can crush and they spring back to shape are the best in my book.Wool ones make great water buckets in a pinch too.

up north here we wear staw in the summer, wool and felts in the winter, spring and fall.

Real cowboys wear felt hats all year round.

Brown Straw spring, & fall. White Straw summer. Black Felt winter.

Palm leaf straw in the summer, they are cooler than the white straw hats , it gets HOT here in Florida. Brown felt in the winter .

White straw hats!!!

I always go Brown Felt Labor Day to Memorial Day, Straw the rest of the year.

Straw in the summer usually white and felt in the winter black or tan

One Charlie 1 Horse straw. It's near 20 years old and needs a bit of help. A chocolate 10X Resistol Stagecoach, black 7X Resistol Gus crease, Black 7X Az-Tex custom, another black 7X Az-Tex custom, grey silverbelly 7X Az-Tex custom, sand Bailey 4X Gus crease rebuilt by DbarJ and again by AZ-Tex (this hat is 40 years old), moss green 4X Bailey rebuilt by Az-Tex (this one is near 45 years old). A couple of olive campaign hats, one a Stetson, left over from my drill sergeant days in the Army (remember Lee Marvin in "The Professionals?). I left out a few but these are the ones I wear mostly. Don't care much about fashion or tradition. Which hat I wear usually depends on wind and weather. Here in northern Neveda we deal with the Washoe Zephers and you can almost set your watch by 'em.

I HAVE ONE OF EACH STRAW FOR SUMMER AND FELT FOR WINTER BUT I HAVE TO AGREE THE FELT YOU DO NOT HAVE TO RUN AFTER IN THE WIND .

Black felt in fall winter and Silverbelly felt in spring and summer. Straw if it's over 90 degrees.

Black felt more x the better. I like felt better. Get more work done with a felt don't have to chase it in the wind. I do like a palm leaf if I ware a straw hat. Those who ware a black straw hat it looks retarded by a felt hat.

Well I have both a Stetson straw and a felt hat. I like to wear the straw when it's in the high 80s or 90s (which around here isn't all that often!) and the rest of the time my felt. It's a 4X beaver and I've had it for about two years. It can be worn casual or formally. You can wear either hat whenever ya want, but for the winter: felt, for the summer: straw.

Hope I helped out some!

Well, I know its wrong but I do love wearing my straws even this time of year although there is nothing better than my Stetson Open Road. Silver belly or black felt, are there any other colors!

I was always taught that you wear straw until first frost, roughly Labor Day, and switched back Easterish. Although the last couple of years I have tended to wear the felt almost all year. I do have to suffer the occasional criticism for that choice from my more sartorially correct buddys. If I'm honkey tonkin after dark it is always felt, even in July. I have worn a 20x Resistol Black Gold daily for several years now and like it. Black hides dirt and grime. I have a 50x in silverbelly for special occasions. Black and silverbelly are the only two color choices as far as I'm concerned, and I haven't worn any other colors in the last 40 years.
My next hat will be a black 100% beaver, low crown, 41/2 inch brim, Greeley. I'm saving for it.
I have a number of straws of various description. I like the palm, it has a little more heft to it and tends to stay put better when riding.

I never wear my white belt or shoes before Memorial Day or after Labor Day. I'm sorry. I couldn't help it.
My favorite Western hat is from WAY out west. It's a Barmah Kangaroo hat from down under. It's a really good hat and has the best sweatband of all the hats and caps I have.

Since I'm follically impaired, I avoid any hat or cap that's a coarse mesh 'cuz I get a mesh sunburn on my bald top. If you've never had a bald top sunburn, you really can't appreciate what I'm saying. SO, due to my lack of hair, the tightness of the mesh of a cap or hat determines what I wear and when.

Just thought I'd add a note on hats. Other than my Barmah Kangaroo, all my good hats are Stetsons, all purchased from the Stetson factory store in St. Joe, MO, before they closed. That includes my proper dress hat, my Stetson derby, along with my Western straws. Of course I look like Oliver Hardy when I wear the derby.....

When its hot, nothing beats a nice palm leaf. They're cheap and still durable. For everything else, a quality felt hat will get it done. My all-time favorite is my 3X US Army Cavalry Stetson. I've had it for 19 years of Army service, its been to all sorts of official functions, it was baptized properly with Cavalry grog, and it survived a combat tour in Iraq. For social functions, I wear a black 4X Stetson Carson. Lately, I've been thinking about getting a custom 100% beaver Gus style in a natural or bone color. Any recommendations on which hatters to consider or which ones to avoid?

I'm pretty conservative...Straw Hat after Memorial Day and a Felt Hat after Labor Day! I prefer Black Felt Hats but I will don my White Felt in dress-up occasions; otherwise, I'm a Black Felt Hat man.
During the summer months, after Memorial Day, I'll pretty much switch over to a Straw Hat and have some for working the horse farm, some for going out and others for casual.

Straw after Memorial Day, Felt after Labor Day! I'm old school.