For Those Who Cover Their Head At Mass...

[MarysLittleFlower]

Thanks everyone! :) I bought a summer cotton beret and had been wearing that. However, recently I moved to a new place and live near the TLM now, and I've started wearing the veil again :) a number of girls in the parish wear mantillas and a few wear scarves (like light summer scarves). If I have to attend a NO I guess I can wear the summer beret or the scarf? I think it's so courageous how some of you said you wear the veil though few others, or no one else, does this.

 

haha I can imagine how distracting the feather hat would be at Mass :P it's enormous! I just thought, it must be heavy on the head too.

 

I'll definitely take a look at the link with the snoods, because I wanted one for the summer anyway :) thanks!! :)

[ChristinaTherese]

In the way of wearing veils when nobody else was, I have a slightly amusing (or maybe I'm just easily amused, which is very possible) story from last Sunday:

 

I went to the parish that the Legion of Mary is at, because we/they (I'm not a member, but I'm often there, so I don't know which pronoun I should use) were doing the May Crowning. It was a Mass at which plenty of people were wearing jeans, but I'm so used to wearing my veil that I'd be thinking about that fact that I wasn't wearing it if I weren't and that seemed really counter-productive. However, I meant to take it off when I went up to crown Mary, so as to not distract everyone. The time came, I went to get the crown (this is when I had meant to drop my veil down onto my shoulders like a shawl), and I totally forgot about my veil. About halfway up the aisle I realized it was on my head, but it really wouldn't have been a good idea to take it off then. (I'd meant to put it back on when I got back to my pew, too.) I don't know what people thought.... I do know that I was the only veiled woman in the entire room and it doesn't matter what they thought very much anyway.

 

So, that wasn't courage (as you mentioned people having), so much as absent-mindedness. :hehe2:

[AnneLine]

I think some people also select things more like a giant headband, which would work for some hair types.

 

My hair, anything falls right off of it no mater how many pins I add on.   I have VIVID memories of when I was a postulant with one of those lacy headcovers with a comb that are suposed to stick on the hair... augmented with about 10 bobby pins... and it STILL went sailing like a mad seagull into the center of the choir each and every morning when we did bows during the Liturgy of the Hours.   

 

Shiver.  still bad memories of the scoldings I would get from teh postulant mistress... 

 

Finally learned to hold the ends of the mantilla AND my office book at the same time... and no more sailing mantilla problems.....

 

[TheresaThoma]

For daily Mass during the summer I would wear a bandanna. Typically though I just wear my mantilla. I was worried at first about distracting others or what they might think but I have since gotten over that.

I have had a few older people (who probably remember them from they were younger) come up and compliment me about my veil and tell me how happy they are to see someone wearing one. 

[EmilyAnn]

I just wear my mantilla. I am the only one, and it's really not as scary as you think it's gonna be. :) Usually I wear a smaller, black mantilla - my hair being a very dark brown. I found it a lot easier to be comfortable with the black due to the similarity to my hair colour, it makes me feel less like I am "standing out". Nowadays you can get mantillas in so many colours (or make your own, which is what I did) it's fairly easy to find something close to your hair colour if that makes you feel more comfortable. Although, on Palm Sunday Sister ME asked me if I wanted to take the offerings up. I happily agreed...forgetting I was wearing my new, larger bright-white mantilla. I don't think I have ever walked with my eyes so focused in front of me! :hehe:

 

Before I had my mantillas though, I had some gauzy-type scarves that I wore. That was simply because I grew up in the Middle East so was accustomed to wearing a headscarf that way anyway (learnt the tricks to doing it without pins). 

[MarysLittleFlower]

Thanks for the replies! :) I wear a scarf too at times now. Something interesting: yesterday I went to Adoration at a nearby basilica and several of the women there wore scarves and one had a mantilla! It made me glad to see :) I wore a white scarf. I don't feel that worried wearing headcoverings other than a hat to the basilica though, because of just how it is - it seems more traditional (people there receive Communion kneeling, there's always people praying in the church or doing devotions, daily holy hour at 3 pm, Confession offered 4 times a day, an Adoration vigil once a month, lots of traditional art/music, etc). Headcoverings just seem to fit in naturally. :) And of course in the FSSP parish, there's no issue at all. I think at my home parish, the difficulty was partly that the interior of the church is so bright, and it's not shaped in the cross way but in the more modern way, so everyone can see everyone... also my hair is light so both a black or a white mantilla would be very noticeable. I've worn hats there. I'm still learning how to wear scarves. I might make a beige coloured headcovering/veil for the situation if I can't attend the TLM parish or the basilica.  :)

[MarysLittleFlower]

Another idea I had was to make an 'infinity scarf' and wear it as a headcovering. That way you can come into the church just wearing it as a scarf, and then use it to cover your head. :) the ones I saw in the store though were too big... they look good as scarves but I'm not sure about headcoverings. Might be a good idea to make one.

 

By the way... if you go to a Catholic wedding, baptism, etc, (something with formal dress), do you wear a headcovering? I'm so used to them now that I don't think I'd be comfortable with nothing on my head. What kind of headcovering could it be? A white veil might be "too much like the bride's" unless perhaps it's a wedding at a Latin Mass parish and others wear veils too. (I've never been to such a wedding though so I dont know what they do).

[ChristinaTherese]

Another idea I had was to make an 'infinity scarf' and wear it as a headcovering. That way you can come into the church just wearing it as a scarf, and then use it to cover your head. :) the ones I saw in the store though were too big... they look good as scarves but I'm not sure about headcoverings. Might be a good idea to make one.

 

By the way... if you go to a Catholic wedding, baptism, etc, (something with formal dress), do you wear a headcovering? I'm so used to them now that I don't think I'd be comfortable with nothing on my head. What kind of headcovering could it be? A white veil might be "too much like the bride's" unless perhaps it's a wedding at a Latin Mass parish and others wear veils too. (I've never been to such a wedding though so I dont know what they do).

The infinity scarf worked well for me for the summer. Of course, I found that I liked to wear it in such a way that it felt that it looked too much like a nun's veil, but it probably didn't really have to be that way. And my veil was definitely not the only reason someone asked me if I was a nun (and I'm pretty sure that others have assumed I was and just didn't ask, unless that was truly an isolated incident) and I wasn't wearing the scarf-veil that day anyway, I was wearing another one that I had made myself. But the scarf worked pretty well, except that it was a tad warm to wear while biking in 80 degree (or maybe it was warmer, I don't remember) weather.

 

And I think I'd just wear a veil anyway. I mean, Jesus is still there, right? Besides which, I'd be thinking too much about why I wasn't wearing a veil and whether I mightn't etc. for at least a bit at the beginning, because I often overthink that. Shying away from white might be a good idea, though, but there are a million and one other colors that veils come in, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem to not wear white. Of course, I was going to wear my cream veil at my brother's wedding anyway.... (Until they called the wedding off, which is another story entirely.)

[Ice_nine]

I usually wear a tam and tuck my hurr in it. Am I the only one?! So hipster. Some Polish lady a few weeks ago made me feel really uncomfortable about the whole thing, but I've moved on from that traumatic moment.

[MarysLittleFlower]

what's a tam?

 

(sorryy I dont' know lol :))

[Ice_nine]

basically it's like a larger/floppy beanie/hat type thing. Here's a picture of one, but they come in various sizes/patterns/styles/colors etc

 

http://www.etsy.com/listing/41487183/teal-green-slouchy-beanie-dreadlocks

 

 

[MarysLittleFlower]

Oh I see! I understand now :) for summer I have a beige cotton beret that I wear sometimes. It's a beret though, so it's a bit smaller. I actually like bigger hats (cause I think small hats look strange on me) and one of my winter hats is kind of like this only pink: http://tinyurl.com/ltqn9e6. I think they're more mainstream now than hipster :P where I'm from, most people tend to wear them over other type of hats. Maybe mine is less hipster looking though :) And I really like berets as long as they're not tight.

Edited May 20, 2013 by MarysLittleFlower

[Ice_nine]

Yeah I guess tams could be called berets on steroids :). That description would've done it. I didn't know what they were until I started making them and I was like hmmm, I like these thangs. I have a somewhat unhealthy affinity for hats tho :saint:

[MarysLittleFlower]

hahahaha nice description......

 

I also like hats. Check out my hat thread in open mic ;)

[Kayte Postle]

When I first decided to start veiling I went out and bought some plain black, comfy, jersey cotton and made it into a scarf. I usually wrap it so it looks like I'm wearing an infinity scarf (kinda like this,/ this shop has a lot of beautiful veils). It's really nice cause putting it on/taking it off is super easy, and the jersey has enough grab on my hair that it doesn't slide or move around during mass. I wear it instead of a mantilla because I'm not exactly a lace kind of girl, and me wearing a lace mantilla would stand out in a distracting way. At my home parish I'm the only one who veils, and at my university parish I'm one of three who veil. It's hard sometimes, but veiling just helps me so much in so many ways that it's all worth it.