How many types of cowboy hats are there?

The cowboy hat was first invented in 1865 by John Stetson. The first cowboy hat made by Stetson was made of felt and used primarily for protection from the sun and weather. Over time, the evolution of the cowboy hat developed into one that involved fashion. Many consumers began to purchase cowboy hats not as tools to help keep the elements off, but as symbols of the changing fashion world. With those changes, several new designs for the traditional cowboy hat were then developed.

Joella Torres is a third generation hat maker. Currently, she is the president of Manny Grammages Texas Hatters, which specializes in making custom cowboy hats. Torres said that regardless of the several different types of cowboy hats in existence, the two that stand out the most are felt and straw.

"There are a lot of types of cowboy hats," she said. "The two basic designs for cowboy hats are felt or straw. We have a style that nobody else really does. It's called a half-breed, which has the straw crown and felt brim. It's ideal for places like Texas where there might be only three months of fall and winter and the rest of the year is just hot. That way you get the coolness of the straw, but you get the protection of the felt."

Many custom cowboy hat makers will use felt because of its durability. Torres said that felt has always been a good material to make cowboy hats from because it also protects the wearer from harmful UV rays.

"Felt is the best head wear protection for your skin as far as protecting it from UV rays," Torres said. "In a straw hat, UV rays can leak through the weave, or it can reflect off the lacquer that makes it stiff. There are also some places that make a lot of canvas or leather hats, but we don't. It's a totally different process from what we do, and felt is the best for sun protection."

When deciding on a certain type of cowboy hat to buy, many consumers focus on the color of the cowboy hat. Some of the new colors that are being used for cowboy hats include yellow, green, red and pink. The traditional colors outside of black and white are the brown and grey. Torres said that consumers should also be aware that certain brown hats carry the possibility of the color bleeding in the rain.

In addition to the cowboy hat, there have been other hats throughout history that have been closely related to its design. In the 1950s, the fedora became popular. However, many didn't take to the fedora as an outside hat because of its small brim.

"The fedora is kind of a generalization of any kind of men's flat brim, short brim hat," Torres said. "There are a lot of different names for those like single dress, diamond dress, or pork pie. We use a lighter weight, less expensive material. They start at $150."