"I didn't take a shower today," says Sadoski. "I'm a big sports junky-I like the Florida colleges, and I like the style of the hat."

Andy D. Nguyen '94, uses a cap even when he does take a shower.

"I just got out of the shower," says Nguyen, donning a red Harvard hat with a black "H."

The baseball hat can give the basic nurturing that everyone needs on a cold day.

"It's cold," says Jan Erzberger '94, tredging in from the winter weather to the relative warmth of Quincy House. "I don't wear it often."

Hair...

Some longtime observers of Harvard hair say the use of caps has reached epidemic proportions.

"Seventy percent of the guys who go to school here go out with a baseball cap in the morning," says Louie Fenerlis, the manager and a haircutter at the Custom Barber Shop on Brattle St. "They come in here with hat heads."

In addition, Fenerlis says the numbers of the hatted are boosted by bad haircuts given by other Square establishments.

"We're always fixing haircuts from Great Cuts or someplace lese," Fenerlis says. "They'll probably sue me for saying that."

As Fenerlis knows, the baseball hat has many purposes. The inside of a cap can offer a haven to shield the hairless or those who have become follicularly challenged. Khoi T. Luu '94 says he has been wearing a baseball hat recently to cover his mostly barren head.

"For me, it's pragmatism," says Luu. "I shaved my hair during reading period on a whim."

Luu said he shaved his hair, which is growing back nicely, "just to do something."

"I know I have to live with it 'til the spring," says Luu, who was wearing a plain yellow hat he borrowed from his roommate.

The cap can be a way to make the best of a bad situation.