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Originally Posted by OC Richard

I think the sun and heat in the US southwest is similar to parts of Australia, and in both places the Scottish community has adapted a bit.

Here's an Australian pipe band, I love the hats! Why get a sunburned face and neck?

https://i.imgur.com/VYmz4yi.jpg

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Your right mate, I think we have very similar climates, apparently we have a bigger hole in our ozone layer here so the summer sun is savage! bad sunburn in under half an hour.
I like those hats in that Aussie band. Many other bands are wearing what we used to call giggle hats in the military, which are sunsmart but I think look a bit daggy (a dag is someone with no fashion sense :) ). Better than sunstroke though!
It's a tough one finding a hat that looks good with a Highland outfit, the best I have seen was a bloke wearing an Australian army style 'slouch hat' with the brim down ( the famous brim up look was so that your 303 didn't knock your hat off whilst carried at the slope)

I saw him and thought 'that looks bloody good, very Scottish and very Australian.
We older Australian's are very proud of our 'diggers', our soldiers (and air force and navy bods).
Because the second World War saw a huge citizen influx into the Australian army the hats became the norm after the war for blokes out working in the sun.
The thing that really makes the slouch hat look great is the pugaree, a tradition gained from our Sihk mates during the Raj (British rule of India).

You could pin a clan badge to the front of the pugaree (you can see a badge on the hats in this pic) and it would look right.
Going to get one myself this summer. The hats dull khaki matches well with most tartan and even argyl tweed jackets. Probably would look odd with black jackets.
Attachment 39237
Attachment 39238

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OC Richard

I think the sun and heat in the US southwest is similar to parts of Australia, and in both places the Scottish community has adapted a bit.

Here's an Australian pipe band, I love the hats! Why get a sunburned face and neck?

https://i.imgur.com/VYmz4yi.jpg

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Attachment 39239
Found this photo of a band of ex-servicemen and women, they look good I reckon.

The Kiwis wear these, they look smart with the kilt. I only wish they could shorten their jackets a bit!

https://i.imgur.com/utNm3VE.jpg

I used to have a great photo of a Massed Bands/March Past (in Texas perhaps) in which all the pipe bands and Drum Majors were wearing cowboy hats. Unfortunately I can't find that photo now.

At our California Highland Games it's Glengarries for the band competition and Massed Bands and sunburns do result!

It's standard for us to slather ourselves with sun-block at the Highland Games.