The Baseball Hat Fad

SOME STUDENTS WEAR THEM TO HIDE A BAD HAIRCUT. OTHERS USE THEM TO MAKE A STATEMENT. STILL OTHERS WEAR THEM BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T SHOWER THAT DAY. THESE ARE BUT A FEW REASONS WHY COLLEGE-AGE STUDENTS HAVE IMMERSED THEMSELVES IN...

Manuel S. Varela '94 knew he made a mistake when he got a haircut from someone who wasn't is usual barber. He just wonders when he'll stop suffering from his blunder.

"I went to certain place of haircutting and I got a very bad haircut. I've endured many, many a nickname for it," says Varela. Who has answered to such epithets as "monk" and "Friar Truck" for his grave error.

Varela's Quincy House roommates tried to rectify the situation with an electric device--but they ended up removing most of the hair from the sides and back of his head.

"At this point, it was no longer an issue of whether this was salvageable, but how we could get it even again," Varela says.

The only solution for Varela, as it has been for other students who are follicularly challenged, is the base-ball cap. Varela says he has been wearing his Baltimaore Orioles hat since the unfortunate turn of events--and in encouraged by the speed at which his hair is growing back.

Varela is just one of the legions of Harvard students, mostly men, who wear baseball caps. While many of those students say they wear caps because of hair mishaps, other cite a variety of reasons for their added apparel.

Some students have a political bone to pick. For others, the hat has religious significance. Some are intent on telling the world where they came from. And a few just show support for their favorite sports teams.

For all these reasons--and more--the baseball cap has become as permanent a part of Harvard life as memorial Hall.

Hat History

The baseball hat had humble beginnings. In 1851, the New York Knickerbockers, a band of poorly paid ballplayers who rarely travelled outside Manhattan, began wearing straw hats to keep the afternoon sun out of their eyes.

"That didn't last too long," says Gary Van Allen, a researcher at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. "It was considered impractical."

After the Civil War, many teams used mohair caps with perfectly flat tops. In the 1890s, the so-called "Chicago style" or cake-box shape cap emerged--a form that the National League's Pittsburgh Pirates used again for their own caps in the 1970s.

Fans did not begin wearing caps until the 20th century. The "Boston" style cap, with a close fitting crown and button top, became the standard by 1910, and that is essentially the baseball hat that is worn in Harvard classrooms and dining halls today.

But all of that has little to do with the reasons why Stephen B. Sadoski '95, sitting in the Quincy House dining hall, sports a white hat with blue rim and "Florida" written in orange.

"I didn't take a shower today," says Sadoski. "I'm a big sports junky-I like the Florida colleges, and I like the style of the hat."

Andy D. Nguyen '94, uses a cap even when he does take a shower.

"I just got out of the shower," says Nguyen, donning a red Harvard hat with a black "H."

The baseball hat can give the basic nurturing that everyone needs on a cold day.

"It's cold," says Jan Erzberger '94, tredging in from the winter weather to the relative warmth of Quincy House. "I don't wear it often."

Hair...

Some longtime observers of Harvard hair say the use of caps has reached epidemic proportions.

"Seventy percent of the guys who go to school here go out with a baseball cap in the morning," says Louie Fenerlis, the manager and a haircutter at the Custom Barber Shop on Brattle St. "They come in here with hat heads."

In addition, Fenerlis says the numbers of the hatted are boosted by bad haircuts given by other Square establishments.

"We're always fixing haircuts from Great Cuts or someplace lese," Fenerlis says. "They'll probably sue me for saying that."

As Fenerlis knows, the baseball hat has many purposes. The inside of a cap can offer a haven to shield the hairless or those who have become follicularly challenged. Khoi T. Luu '94 says he has been wearing a baseball hat recently to cover his mostly barren head.

"For me, it's pragmatism," says Luu. "I shaved my hair during reading period on a whim."

Luu said he shaved his hair, which is growing back nicely, "just to do something."

"I know I have to live with it 'til the spring," says Luu, who was wearing a plain yellow hat he borrowed from his roommate.

The cap can be a way to make the best of a bad situation.

"I keep getting bad haircuts--horrendous hair cuts,' says David S. Franklin '96. "I have a permanent hat head now."

"And I used to have a side part, but that won't go anymore," says Franklin, removing a white and orange Princeton hat to expose a truly bad haircut.

...and Other Excuses

For some students, the baseball cap can be a statement of belief, political and otherwise.

"It's a conservative, Irish Catholic statement," says Brendan M. Murray '93 of his Notre Dame hat. "And I'm a fan of what the Catholic Church represents."

Murray says rooting for Notre Dame was a part of his education.

"I went to Catholic school, and the nuns urged us to pray for them to win on Saturday," says Murray. "And I've continued to do that."

Daniel L. Kosowsky '93, who is Jewish, says he would cover his head with a yarmulke anyway. So when he has a bad hair day, a cap accomplishes a dual purpose.

"I'm going to throw something on my head anyway," says Kosowsky, a Brookline native who prefers caps for the hometown Celtics and Red Sox.

One group of students has started wearing hats with the letters "FCS" embroidered-standing for "Final Clubs Suck."

On a lighter note, other students use baseball caps to demonstrate their hometown pride.

"I'm from I.A-that's why I'm wearing it," says Marc E.Warner '94, who dons a black Los Angelers Raiders cap in the Lowell House Dining Hall. "It's just been my style since I knew what style was."

Fernando A. pizarro '96 found his cap an ally when he wanted to change hairstyles.

"I'm letting my hair grow-and it's in that yucky in-between stage," says Pizarro, wearing a white crew hat with crossed oars.

Not everyone is so forthcoming about their choice of headware. One student wearing an Atlanta Braves hat-red and blue, with a gaint white "A"-snorts that he wears the hat because "this is one grade I'll never get at Harvard."

And not everyone chooses their hats. Some caps are gifts and are worn out of obligation.

"My girlfriend gave this to me," says O'Brien, wearing a "Big Island Ski Co-Hawaii" caps because of what he called a "bad hair day."

The baseball cap can also signify a method of hero worship.

"Shaq, man, it's the Shaq," says Daniel S. M. Kwon foot, 1-inch rookie basketball players Shaquille O'Neal. "That's all there is to say."

Jason N. J. Tavano '94 works with his rommate, Shawn E. Fibkins '94, at the front desk of the Malkin Athletic Center. So he sees a lot of caps.

"I think after a while, a hat become an extension of your character," says Tavano.

And Fibkins believes your baseball cap tells a lot about attitude. "There's definitely a look with hats-a real ratty hat," he says. "A lot of guys wear that hat to show they don't care how they look."

A Gender Issue?

While many Harvard men favor has, few female students were baseball caps. And many women who do choose to don their hats backwards-ostensibly to keep the hair out of their eyes.

"I was just at boxing, and I needed to hold the hair back from my face," says Christine M. Hinkley '93, as she sits down to dinner at the Kirkland House Dining Hall. "There are a fair amount of women who will were a baseball cap to keep the hair out of their face."

Hinkley say she won't speculate why men seem more attached to the hat as a vehicle of self-expression than women.

"I'd hate to speculate," says Hinkley, who wears a white Harvard sailing hat backwards. "For women, your hair has to be at a particular length. If it's too long, you can wear a pony tail. If it's shorter, you don't need the hat."

Men interviewed also see the use of caps as a hair issue and not a gender issue.

"When you have long hair, it doesn't go crazy," says Eric S. O'Brien '93. "[Women] don't need the hat."

'I keep getting bad haircuts-horrendous haircuts. I have a permanent hat head now.' David S. Franklin '96

'There's definitely a look with hats--a real ratty hat. A lot of guys wear that hat to show they don't care how they look.' Shawn E. Fibkins '94