My Cowboy Hat’s 5-Shot Secret

I moved to Texas in February of 2017. Though I had already owned the boots for many years, it was clear I couldn’t really be a Texan until I had the hat. Shortly thereafter I joined a friend on a trip to Georgetown, Texas, so he could pick up his newest custom-made hat, and a few months after that my own hat was born.

Nate, owner of Nathaniel’s Custom Hats, starts with a rabbit, rabbit/beaver, or pure beaver fur felted hat blank and builds his hats from there the old-fashioned way, by hand with the help of some classic machines such as the 130-year-old, Paris-made head sizer seen above.

Spikes on top of the head sizer punch holes in a piece of paper, generating a scale map of the person’s noggin. This allowed me to visualize how lumpy, oblong, and asymmetrical my head really is.

After many many hours of hand labor pressing, steaming, ironing, shaping, cutting, sanding, and blocking out the custom hat into its correct size, shape, and near-final form, that map of my grotesque head was used to set an old hat fitter precisely to the large size and freakish shape of my dome and everything is steamed, ironed, and hand-adjusted so the hat fits the wearer perfectly.

Which it does. My head fits in this hat like a key. With precisely, perfectly even snugness all the way around, a custom-made hat doesn’t feel tight, yet it won’t blow off.

I’ve owned NAA Mini Revolvers since way back when I was in California for college. I’ve carried them in two versions of NAA’s belt buckle holsters. A hat holster is just an obvious extension of that, right? Right? It’s normal. I’m normal (notwithstanding the shape of my head).

Shockingly, though, Nate had never fielded this very normal request or made a holster hat, even though he’s made hats for a handful of movies going back to or maybe even before 1999’s Wild Wild West.

So a challenge was made and Nathaniel jumped at it! He was able to shape his unique Lizard Head hat design around my Mini Revolver. He ensured the crown was tall enough and wide enough to mold the NAA Mini up into it so the gun wouldn’t touch my head, yet it also wouldn’t be obvious from the outside.

Looking at the hat from above with the knowledge of what it is, yes, I realize it’s “obvious.” In practice, I can tell you it absolutely is not. Not one single person has ever guessed what that shape on top of my hat is, even in the handful of circumstances where I’ve shown that side of it first and asked them to tell me what the shape is.

I’m also 6-feet tall, so it isn’t like many people can see the top of my hat. In my recurring dreams, and even then only where it’s legal, but simply against policy, not even bouncers with wands have noticed my little stowaway. Empty, it has never once flagged the attention of TSA or others.

Inside the hat, two elastic straps were stitched in place to retain the little 5-shooter.

This diminutive, single-action cowboy gun probably feels right at home in a nice cowboy hat, especially nestled into a recess sized precisely for its shape. The height of the crown there and the size and location of the side dents (I’m sure there’s a more official term for those, but I’m also sure I don’t know it) keep the hard steel off my head.

As a dude with a large head, a lot of cowboy hats (maybe most) look huge on me. It’s the immense real estate of the front area — they just look super wide and tall with all that surface area. One of the unique aspects of Nate’s own Lizard Head hat shape is what he calls a mule kick in the front.

It does a great job of visually breaking up all that surface space and adds subtle interest to the front of the hat. The rear of the Lizard Head receives a pinch, which serves the same purpose. I neglected to snap a photo of that feature, but you can tell it’s there in the top-down pics.

Though it’s practically illegal to wear a felt hat from Memorial Day to Labor Day — I believe they actually kick you out of The South for that — the brutal sun that flies over Texas doesn’t retire during the other nine months of the year. I asked Nathaniel to leave the brim wide so the shade travels with me.

Another thing you can request when having a hat custom built just for you is its ride height. I wanted this hat to sit low on my head and near my brow, but didn’t want it to touch my ears. Check and check.

That vertical curve in the brim from front-to-back? Totally customizable.

This one’s precisely where it needs to be to do its job shading my eyes without interfering more than necessary with peripheral vision. It sits right on top of a scope without getting in the way. Perfect. Not a coincidence.

Despite finding itself in some interesting situations, my holster hat still looks fantastic. Too clean and new looking, perhaps, given the years and the mileage on it. It isn’t surprising given the quality of the felt and the process, of course. These hats will last a lifetime — in many cases longer — even with hard use, and they age like a fine wine.

This doesn’t come cheap. A hat from Nathaniel will run $750+. I know it’s cliche to say it, but it’s an investment. One perfect hat that’ll last a lifetime is worth the price of a dozen that won’t. Given it’s completely custom-made to your preferences, you’re going to like the thing.

Nate has a whole bunch of styles from all sorts of genres — fedora, bowler, many Western styles, etc. — but it’s also fair to say that any of them are starting points for customization. Heck, he’ll even reproduce the hat from your favorite movie, aged and distressed and everything. Maybe one day mine will end up aged and distressed and look even better, but it’s sure taking its time getting there despite how frequently I wear it.

I’m proud of this silverbelly and I cannot tell you how many compliments I get on it. People somehow immediately recognize that it’s an extremely nice hat when they see it. Somehow it’s screaming “high quality” and “special,” despite how subdued and understated it really is, including my choice of a simple hat band.

Aside from a few unique firearms that have drawn peoples’ attention and my smokeshow of a wife, the only other thing I’ve received such consistent notice of or compliments on are my hand made, custom cowboy boots. Perhaps there’s a theme, here? My boots were a real financial stretch for me, but I’ve owned them and worn them very regularly for over a decade and they look better now than they did when they were new. The maker re-soles them as needed, so as long as my feet don’t get fat these things should last me a lifetime right along with my Nathaniel’s Custom Hats NAA Mini Revolver holster Lizard Head custom hat.

Good quality is good stuff, y’all. I’ll see you at the hold ’em table.