Many years back, I did bike group rides (for a few months) and I remember receiving peer pressure to shave my legs… I refused to do it.
Is wearing hats in the water the “shaved legs” of foiling? 
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I am guilty of proverbially shaving my legs.
It’s a sunburn thing.
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Hat sends a very clear “I don’t fall uncontrollably” message.
Personally, I wear a helmet which sends more of a “stay out of my way because I might blow up explosively and unexpectedly” type of vibe.
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It’s just the cool thing to do. No one knows why but I’m 100 percent guilty of doing it and will keep doing it! Side note it does keep my hair out of my face especially downwinding
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The ven diagram between foiler, middle aged dudes with disposable income, and hair loss has lots of overlap just saying…
@Ctsizemore SHOTS FIRED
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some hats have a bump cap inside … so it may not only look cool, but also provides just a slight smidgen of safety beyond a bare head. Maybe just slightly enough extra protection that a wing strike is a painful bruise rather than an gushing head wound? Dunno. Every little bit helps.
Sun protection is a thing too. Most kiters I know wear sunglasses, virtually no surfers do. Ask old windsurfers about cataracts…decades of squinting into ocean sun glare…
Heck while we’re at it, Cap’n Safety also says: wear ear plugs you young bucks! Or face surfer’s ear surgery later. Having your ear cut off and ear canal dremel drilled is no fun … but you do get to save the $5-50 cost of plugs. 
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100% used for sun protection for me! Skin cancer is a real thing not a fad! 
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As much as my wife says my hair isn’t thinning I know it is. So I wear a hat.
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Just an observation. I have been on a shortboard for 25 years. I’ll go to the most crowded surf spot and there’s 50 guys out and maybe 2 have on hats. Zero of the surf pros I follow on IG have hats.
My local foil spot has 10 guys out on any given day. 8 out of 10 foilers have hats.
Pros on IG that hat it up… Bennetts, Pedigo, Kane, Finch, Eric, James Casey, Oskar, Tomo Earl, Grubb. I’m sure I’m missing others…
I think a full blown investigation needs to be done.
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I have one of those neat hats with a bit of a solid helmet protection in the front. Protects m’noggin, gives me some sun protection.
I also have an abysmally large collection of ear piercings, and when I use a hat with ear flaps and a chin strap, it drastically reduces the amount of jewelry I lose in the surf… 
40 yrs of facial sun damage from watersports.
Hat (with a hard add on liner) for this older geezer.
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Surfed for over 20 years before picking up foiling. I never wore a hat during that time. Within the first year of foiling I started throwing a hat on. Why? I saw others doing it. Figured there must be some benefit I was missing out on, and I was right. Sitting under the blazing Florida sun (even while in the water) sure is a lot more manageable with a hat on.
Could I have been wearing a hat during that previous time surfing? Sure, but I do think there is one significant difference between surfing (well, shortboard anyway) and foiling that enables more hat wearing. Generally I would be looking for the steepest, punchiest waves I could find to surf on. In those types of waves, it’s just generally easier to lose a hat if it’s not somehow attached to you. Contrast that with “ideal” foil conditions, which I think for most are generally smaller, softer, rolling type waves where the possibility of losing a lid if you fall isn’t as high and I think you have your answer.
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If you’re going to look dumb carrying a foil board to the water. Might as well go all in on it and wear a hat. 
Surfers will never be counter culture enough to do something different from the herd and wear a hat. Plus way less duck diving in a foil.
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I put a hat on to read this post.
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asymm forehead burn without it, but I started wearing a hat instead of suncream while still fin-surfboard-riding (finboarding?)
also as hdip says if you are pumping around the lineup with your hand paddles and your dw board you have given up all surf culture dignity anyway - ironically my most vocally anti-foiling friend is also the most curious… like the stretch of an elastic before it snaps
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I wear a hat to reduce the water in my eyes from that one moment before the board really gets going. When I don’t I often wish I had one, as I’ll not be able to see well during the critical moments getting out and pumping.
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Foiling is the domain of middle-aged men (with the means to buy a lot of carbon), who no longer give a flying fk about ego and style (you give that up when you learn to foil (/have kids!) as it’s square one kook-zone), and once you realise how much it saves your eyes and head from the sun, it’s a non-negotiable. Also, as someone mentioned, way less duck-diving.
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This is why I wear a hat. Conditions are so mellow when foiling you don’t risk really losing the hat and it’s much nicer than squinting and getting roasted. Also it’s nearly always good for a foil session so we are in the sun a lot more than regular surfers.
It’s also not typically not possible to wear a hat surfing unless you wear one of the bucket surf hats (which I actually wear in the summer in Florida).
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Hat makes the drip
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It has been scientifically proven to improve your pump and multiple wave connections by 55% if you wear a hat. Bonus +10% if your hat is black.
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