Challenge: Pith helmet remain popular

[tallwingedgoat]

I'm not quite sure why pith helmets went away. They offer much more utility keeping the rain and sun off your head than the peaked caps that replaced it. How do we keep pith helmets a common military and civilian head gear today?

[David S Poepoe]

I see pith helmets still being used by gardeners and mailmen where I live. Most often during the summer time. I've always been interested in buying one, but usually just by fezs every once in a while.

One problem is that its easier and cheaper to buy plastic versions of the classical pith helmet than it is to buy the real thing.

[MrP]

I suspect it's partly a question of fashion and also one of connotation. They often are linked with Imperialism. I think a mate of mine has one.

[Magniac]

George Orwell wrote about the truly barmy notion held by British Imperialists that the only way to avoid sunstroke was to wear pith helmuts, as the pith helmut was the only form of headware to be made of cork. This was a scientific fact.
Then the Fourteenth Army goes and wins back Burma wearing mainly felt hats similar to the broad-brimmed hats worn by Antipodean forces. There's a POD somewhere in there to save the pith helmut.

[ninebucks]

Once aerial warfare became a reality, it became imperitive that soldiers should have some upwards peripheral vision.