Kats Goes Cowboy: We can’t Resistol shooting the cowboys and their hat heads

Saturday, Dec. 11, 2010 | 5:48 p.m.

Tomorrow, for the first time in two weeks, I will not wear my cowboy hat.

But my head will feel as if I am wearing my cowboy hat.

This is a condition I call Phantom Hat, which causes a sensation around your skull, a feeling that you are wearing a cowboy hat even when you’re not.

Before this year’s National Finals Rodeo, I’d not worn a cowboy hat for more than 30 seconds at any time in my life. Nearly two weeks later, I’m still not quite used to having such a wide-brimmed lid covering my dome. I’m still knocking my hat off when I forget to remove it as I lean into my car, and every time I lean toward someone to better hear them during an interview, we bump hats.

This happened midweek at South Point, during the Buckle Presentation Gala at that hotel’s showroom, when I was talking to outgoing Miss Rodeo America Kelli Jackson. We knocked hats, and she said, “You should just take it off.”

“But,” I said to Miss Rodeo America, “I look really stupid with hat head.”

Then I thought what it would be like to invite some of the thousands of men wearing hats at the Thomas & Mack Center to do before-and-after shots of what they look like with and without their hats. So we did that, Sun photographer Sam Morris and I, roping in those willing and those who resisted pose for these shots.

Our post was just off the Jack Daniels' temporary saloon on the concourse level of the Thomas & Mack. We worked as the event played out on several monitors nearby. It was a hoot ’n a holler, and I thank all of those who took part, and even those who declined, who gave such reasons as “I have no hair” and “I’m having a good time sittin’ here drinkin’ and watchin’ the rodeo.”

But we had a good time of it, and we hope you enjoy these vintage-style shots of the men with and without their lids.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.