The best cowboy hats for beginners

If you are buying one hat and it has to work at a concert in July, buy straw - and the Cisco is the straw hat that comes up most. Resistol lists it as a 6X straw with an average 4 1/2-inch brim and a crown about 3 3/4 inches front by 5 1/4 inches back. The reason it suits a beginner is that straw is cheap enough to learn on. You will sit on your first hat, leave it on a car seat in the sun and get caught in rain in it; doing all of that to a straw hat costs a fraction of doing it to 6X felt. Sizing is the one thing to get right - measure your head and buy the size, do not guess between S/M/L.

What you give up: You give up formality and lifespan. Straw is a warm-weather hat, it will not take a season of hard use, and it cannot be reshaped like felt.

Ariat's straw hats sit a tier below the Resistol and Stetson straws in weave quality and a long way below them in price, with pre-creased crowns, bound brims and a shaped bash ready to wear out of the box. They are the right first hat for someone who is not sure a hat suits them at all. Spend an hour in one at an outdoor event and you will know whether you want to invest in felt - and if the answer is no, you have not spent much finding out.

What you give up: You give up weave density and longevity. A looser straw loses its shape faster and will not survive being packed in a bag.

Felt quality is sold in X ratings, and 6X is the point where a hat stops being a costume and starts being a hat you keep. Stetson's 6X fur felt line - the Skyline and Bar None are the two you will see most - typically runs a cattleman crown around 4 3/8 inches with a 4 1/4-inch brim and a genuine leather sweatband. For a first felt hat the cattleman crease is the right choice: it is the shape most people picture, it suits almost every face, and it is what hat shops will reshape for free if you want it adjusted. Buy felt for cold weather and for dressing up; do not buy it for an August festival.

What you give up: You give up casual wearability and money. Felt is hot in summer, it stains if it gets soaked, and 6X is a real spend for a first hat.

Resistol's 6X felt hats - the USTRC line is the common one - are listed with a cattleman's crown around 4 5/8 inches, a 4 1/4-inch brim and a leather sweatband, pre-creased and rodeo-ready. The difference between this and the Stetson equivalent is mostly crown height and brim shape, and at 6X both are honest felt. Pick between them on the crease and the color: silverbelly reads dressier, black reads formal and is unforgiving of dust, and a dark brown or chocolate hides everything.

What you give up: You give up summer use, same as any felt. And a pre-creased crown means you are buying someone else's shape unless you pay a hatter to change it.