You know, over the years, I have, on occasion, tied me up a bandana around part of my face when walking fields, working outside in the winter, cold weather fishing, etc. Occasionally a face mask is a better option, but there are certainly days where you really want to control the amount of coverage and exposure – both from the elements, and because you want to completely disappear.
I first saw the Hoo-Rag product on Instagram, of all places. Their tag line is “The Better Bandana” – not a bad start, and got my attention. After all, I do keep a couple bandanas handy in my hunting and fishing bags, my camera bag, and in the car. They seemed to have a pretty strong presence there on Instagram, and shared a lot of really cool stuff under hashtags like #RockTheRag, #TheBetterBandana and simply #HooRag. Being the marketing/branding guy that I am during those times when I am not afield, I really liked what I saw from a branding perspective.
Looked like a pretty cool company, with an excited and engaged audience, enjoying the products in all sorts of ways I could imaging myself benefiting from. I came to the conclusion one day in January that I simply had to find out for myself whether or not this was going to replace my old handkerchiefs and bandanas – a couple of which, as my wife would attest to, I have become very attached to.
As much as I wanted to rock a skull-face – of which they have numerous really cool prints – It just wasn’t going to be practical in my situation. While so many of their prints are clearly fun, and designed to make various fashion statements, I was in this – at least initially – for very functional purposes. I was looking for a solid combination of concealment and warmth, while also being able to call through the fabric. A nice bonus would be the ability to wear glasses without major fogging. And, finally, durability. In some of the masks I’ve acquired over the years, you stretch them out a few times and they never retain their shape. There is not a great deal of durability and retention to them. So, in summary, my brain was in this mode:
– Effective & practical pattern
– Concealment
– Warmth
– Can I blow a call through it?
– Glasses fog
– Durability/shape retention
Being – as you can tell if you are on this site – an avid (I say “avid” – wife says “psychotic”) waterfowler – the “Technical Fowl” pattern was a no-brainer for me. Unless they can come out with an Optifade pattern in the waterfowl (a la Sitka) this would definitely be my huckleberry. And hopefully would have a more inviting look to incoming fowl, versus a skull pattern, however cool it may be.
The pattern was an easy win. Definitely fit in with just about anywhere I am hunting. Matches up pretty well in most marshy situations. No complaints whatsoever on the pattern. As far as concealment goes, I wasn’t sure at first how well it would stay up on my face. But with the ability to wrap it up over my head (these things are surprisingly long, enabling you to do a lot more with them than you think!) I could get it up over my nose, under my eyes, and it would actually stay there. Total ninja mode. I could move it down around my chin when I needed less concealment, or even slide it down and off of my head and add warmth/concealment to my neck as well.
Speaking of warmth – another pleasant surprise. For something as light weight as these are (making them comfortable and easy to wear) they did a great job of knocking down the wind. They are not going to replace the heavy face mask required for those blistering cold days outside of the blind, but they were definitely ideal for both warmth and concealment – keeping the wind and cold off of your neck and cheeks.
Next concern for me was blowing a call through it. Often times I am hunkered in a ghillie suit out in the open, making this an important point for me. Being able to call through this would, indeed, be a huge benefit. I have to say, the first time I tried, seemed like it took a bit of extra wind, but as I continued on, I either got used to it – quickly – or I was over-thinking it, because I had no problems at all with calls. Which is good, as I’ve settled for lesser masks for exposed situations like this based on this factor alone.
This one is kind of a bonus. I really had no huge expectations on this one, as shooting glasses fog up with just about any mask on. I will say, this didn’t seem as bad, but still had some issues in full-on ninja mode. A simple solution was to just slide it down under the nose, and the fogging disappeared. Sunglasses/shooting glasses were fine after that, and any concerns would be alleviated with a stripe or two of face paint on the nose.
Finally, as many times as I stretched this thing around my head and torqued it around in different configurations, surely this thing would lose it’s shape… right? No problem. I figured it would be sliding off of my face by the end of a long day afield. It did not, at all. Retained its shape, very resilient, no worries. If it did expand a bit after a long weekend of face-time, it came out of the wash like new. Been washed 6-8 times now, having survived on into the snow-goose conservation season, and has not lost it’s color, shape, anything.
So far, a very solid product. I actually tried to find something wrong with it. After picking it up, I thought surely it was too thin to stay warm, not durable enough to hold up to 3-4 days a week of grinding, or would slide off my face after stretching it around for a couple hours. I was wrong. This product was actually pretty solid, across the board. And now I keep finding myself browsing through them all, wanting one for every outdoor activity I can come up with.
I have a few bandanas to replace now, with a number of fishing trips on the books – and of course, summer time coming up. I’m definitely hooked; an instant Hooligan. And I will own more of these. I’ll gladly – and highly – recommend the Hoo-Rag. you don’t see me in many of my pics, but on the rare occasion you catch me doing the selfie, I’ll probably have a Hoo-Rag on…
One more note – as a photographer, I have to say, I found a new (?) and creative use for the rag. It made an absolutely awesome, perfect camo/dust sleeve for my Canon 70D with the vertical batter grip on it. I mean perfect. I can work the lens just fine, see everything on the back, and feel and work my buttons through the fabric. Worked out so well that I will probably have a few camo patterns on hand just for this. 🙂
Check them out Hoo-Rag online.
Or just get right to the Hoo-Rags…
