SunBody Hats

What to do with a SunBody Hat in the Winter-Part I

We received this email from Laurence in Massaschusetts today:

I bought a great Sun Body cattlemen's hat when I was in San Antonio last week. Now that I'm home in the cold, wet Northeast, I probably won't wear the hat on a regular basis until the sun returns in May.  All winter long, of course, my house will be heated and the humidity will be very low. Will that affect the hat in a negative way? Any ideas on how I should store my hat over the winter?

Thank you - and I love my hat!

Laurence

Here's my reply:

Dear Laurence,

I often travel to New England around Christmastime.  Someone told me that people there switched to wool and felt hats in the winter.  Looking around, however, I saw that most people weren't wearing hats at all! 

We have customers in Idaho that buy and sell  and wear palm leaf hats year round, including winter months. 

I've had cowboys from Montana tell me they prefer their palm leaf in wet winter weather to a felt hat because it will shed most of the water, whereas a felt hat will soak it up and become very heavy.

So, why not wear it in the winter? 

As far as the dry heat goes, the hat will be fine.  However, it will likely dry out and become brittle. To freshen it up and restore flexibility before using it, I suggest getting it wet.  You can spray it with a bottle, hold it under a faucet, or dunk it - whichever is most convenient.

Enjoy!
Jimmy Pryor

How are you using your SunBody palm leaf hat now that the days are cooler? 

 

Help Us Choose Our Contest Winners!

Congratulations to all of our finalists.

This year we received so many submissions we are calling on YOU, our customers to help us decide. 

We are going to award 1st place with the opportunity to choose ANY hat from the SunBody catalog! 
2nd place will receive a $50 gift certificate to SunBody Hats! 
3rd place will receive a $25 gift certificate to SunBody Hats! 

We look forward to your input - and we thank you for your continued support!


HOW TO VOTE?
Casting your vote is easy.  Take a look at the finalists photo gallery (click on any of the above images) and submit a comment in THIS BLOG ENTRY. There should be a white space below for comments. If you don't see it, click on the title for this entry and look again.
Tell us the NAMES of your TWO favorite photos and why you like them.

This blog entry is dedicated to our finalists, and we gladly welcome your top picks if we may have missed one.  You can see all the entries in "2009 How Do You SunBody Contest Gallery"
Take a moment to look at each photo, and read the stories behind the guys and gals in their SunBodies.
THEN CAST YOUR VOTE IN THIS BLOG ENTRY.

Your friends may vote too.  Simply pass on the link. 

And The Winners are...

We received so many wonderful photo's this year we couldn't pick just one. 
This year SunBody Hats annual "How Do You SunBody?" contest has two winners. 
Congratulations to you both!

The first winning entry comes to us from Blue Grass, IA

Tammy sent us this picture of her son Ethan feeding their horse, Blondie.

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The 2nd winning picture came to us from The Red Boot Ranch in Statham, GA

Looks like graduation day!

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We want to thank EVERYONE for entering, and be sure to take a look at ALL of our contest entries both this year and last year. 

It's NOT TOO LATE for you to send us your picture and receive $10 off your next SunBody Hats order.  We love getting pictures from our customers, so keep your photographs and testimonials coming! 

SunBody Goes For The Gold!

This is how I sun body!

 

First of all, the car you see me standing next to is my 1999 (the last year made) Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4. This car was in the first movie, The Fast and the Furious. It was supposed to be the staring 10-second car that Paul Walker was to drive, but in a major scene, he could not fit through the moon roof to jump out as the car was traveling fast next to a large truck being hijacked by a bad character, Vinnie. They replaced the VR-4 with a '95 red Toyota Supra but kept my black car for a few other scenes in the drag racing sequence.

 

Anyway, I was preparing to drive to the pool where I coach swimming. I have had 4 Olympians in the past and have a young man now who stands a great chance of making The Olympic Team. In the next few days, t Olympic Trials, we will know.

 

I have had several skin cancers over the years resulting from my being on deck in the blistering sun. The high-quality and large size of the Sun Body hats that I wear help to keep me protected, along with sun screen, of course.

 

You can see two different models of a similar style, both of which have a 5" brim to protect my face, ears and neck. You can also see, if you look closely, the USA Olympic medallions that are available at the Olympic Training Center where I have also coached. I am proud to display this medallion and all it represents.

 

Thank you, Sun Body, for having such functional apparel for someone in my profession.

 

Coach Ed Nessel, R.Ph, MS, MPH, PharmD.

Viera, Florida

The Wild West Herbalist

By Jesse Wolf Hardin

The Wild West is thought to have been a dangerous place, and certainly would have been a lot more so without the help of local healers.  In a region where university trained doctors were far and few between, it was mostly informally trained women who were the repositories of practical medical wisdom.  They assisted with births and brought grace to the moment of dying, were called to administer elderflower and yarrow to feverish children, and tend plow cuts and bullet wounds, packing them with poultices made from plantain or usnea.  Those with Native American blood or education were known as Medicine Women, while to the Hispanics of the Southwest they were called Curanderas. Their methods and cures were a reflection of local culture as well as local biota and an inspirited landscape, and every region featured its own pharmacopeia of indigenous plant species.  From secret Basque cures to Apache remedies, local homemade medicines were usually more available and often more effective than expensive imported pharmaceuticals.  In point of fact, the proliferation of so-called “Patent” medicines, often with harmful additives as well as wood alcohol, was one factor explaining why the overall health of men and women on the American frontier was actually better than that of folks living then in the large Eastern cities.

Kiva Rose embodies the Medicine Woman Tradition, drawing from the traditions of the past even as she finds ways to bring natural healing and herbal wildcrafting to the modern world.  Living seven river crossings from the nearest road, her home serves as a wilderness teaching center for herbal students from all over the country, gals who join in plant-identification walks where they’re shown how to select, harvest and utilize powerful wild herbs like estafiate and oregano de la sierras.

Known for dressing very nattily and with a taste of the Old West, there is no part of her wardrobe more treasured – or put to more uses – than her open crowned SunBody hat.  She has used it to transport minnows to the river, saving them from the sad fate of an evaporating tributary, and filled it with seeds to tempt chipmunks into her lap.  But more often, it protects Kiva’s fair complexion from a blazing New Mexico sun until she gets deep into her favorite patches of plants.  She then flips it over as her students smile and watch, her SunBody magically becoming a finely woven plant basket, soon overflowing with her canyon home’s herbal bounty.

Darlene SunBodies in Vail

Miller Ranch in Minturn, CO

My horse Rebel and I ride the Vail Valley and I won't go without my Sunbody hat!

Darlene Daugherty

A SunBody for your Tux

This photo was taken of me @ my brother in laws wedding, tux shirt,pants,my boots and the great Sunbody hat I bought last year. It was not a western wedding till I made it that way.

 

Thanks for a great,long lasting hat.

- Josh Luchtel,Phx,Az.

Not Just Fashion, Protection, Too

Dear Sunbodies,

My hat is not just an essential fashion statement, I use it for protection from the sun and brush.  I trail ride over very rough mountain trails full of big trees and low branches, I need a hat that protects my head from abrasions and hard knocks.  I also need a hat that will keep me cool in the sun.  That is why I have chosen Panamanian straw for my straw hats from Sunbody Hats.  They hold up during my riding and when I come home I look great.  Thank you SunBody Hats.

Carla

Thanks, Carla. For clarification, Panama hats are made in Ecuador from a palm called jipijapa.  They are usually woven hats. Guatemalan palm leaf hats are made from Guatemalan palm (sabal guatemaltensis).  They are a "sewn braid" hat, made by sewing together long strands of palm braid.  Both use palm leaves.

- Jimmy

Cowboy Challenge and the Grand Canyon

Hi Scott,

You're going to love this.  I have a small riding school in Georgia, the Red Boot Ranch.  We had a Cowboy Challenge Event for the riders, and they all got Sunbody hats at the end of their ride.

 

I also had 7 folks with hats on a trip to the bottom of the Grand Canyon last week.  We called ourselves the 7 Sombreros for fun;
five of us had on Sunbodys and we all could have sold ours off our heads to folks we ran into on the trip from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon to Monument Valley to Flagstaff and to Phoenix!!!

 

Susan Carse-McLocklin

Red Boot Ranch

Statham, Georgia

These are great, Susan! Thanks for sending them. - Jimmy Pryor, SunBody Hats

Genuine British Bard in his SunBody

I am told I am one of only about ten genuine British Bards practising today. This means that I write and perform my own poetry and song with a great variety of musical instruments including harp, Lyre and Native American Flute. I am a storyteller and my music can help in meditation and healing. I have been trained in the martial art of Fencing (sword play) and the Law having spent many years as a Coroner and a Judge. I am also a painter and watercolour artist.

The picture shows me wearing my one of my Sunbody hats at a charity art exhibition in the delightful old fishing port of Whitby, North Yorkshire England. It was from this Port that Captain James Cook set sail to discover Australia and New Zealand and from which the Captains Scoresby (Father and Son) went whaling in the Arctic. Captain Scoresby senior invented 'The Crows Nest' and his son, Captain Scoresby junior has been acknowledged as the Father of Arctic Science. Captain Scoresby junior gave up whaling to become a clergyman saving the souls of sailors in Liverpool where he established a floating Church.

I wear a Sunbody hat Winter and Summer and always when I am on stage performing. I wear a Sunbody hat as my trademark.

Tony Morris

http://www.tonymorrispoet.com