Guys get knit-picky about hats

Maybe the heat has gone to their heads. The mercury is topping out at 90 degrees and L.A.’s mayor is urging energy conservation so we don’t blow the grid. But that hasn’t stopped men from sporting wool caps all over town.

They’ve been spotted on skater dudes in Santa Monica, on rocker wannabes in Los Feliz and on Whole Foodies in Hollywood. Alain Mazer, communications director for sportswear brand OP, was wearing one at the Tropicana bar at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on a particularly steamy Saturday night.

“On hotter days people will say, ‘How can you wear that?’ ” says Mazer, who favors plain black cuffed styles along with caps emblazoned with the name of the band Fu Manchu. “When you have a big mop on your head like mine, it’s a convenient way to keep your hair in order.”

U2’s lead guitarist, the Edge, has been wearing knit caps for years, but it was hip-hop artists who really brought them to the mainstream.

And this summer, it seems beanies -- or skullies, as they are also known -- have become part of the messy L.A. male uniform of baggy shorts or slouchy jeans, flip-flops and grubby T-shirts, coiffed facial hair and tattooed arms.

They’re not last winter’s leftovers. Beanies in wool or acrylic, ribbed or smooth, cuffed or flat, with a striped band or a band logo, have been in stock all summer at retail outlets such as Energie on Melrose Avenue, Dogfunk.com on the Internet and even Barneys New York in Beverly Hills. The edgier ones have flame, skull or camo designs.

“You will see lots of skaters wearing them,” Mazer says. “Plus, they fit your head and don’t obscure your face or eyes and block your vision. So there is a utility factor.”

Headgear of all sorts has long had a place among celebrities striving to go incognito in Hollywood. Trucker hats soared to popularity on the heads of Ashton Kutcher and Justin Timberlake in 2002, and newsboy caps gained exposure from Janet Jackson and others in 2003.

But this new wave of knit caps is notable for its seasonal inappropriateness. The phenomenon is on par with college kids wearing flip-flops in the snow and surfers donning sheepskin Ugg boots on the sand.

“You don’t feel hot in them because they are loose knit,” Mazer insists.

Not everyone is buying it.

“It truly baffles me,” says Darren Gold, owner of the boutique Alpha Gear for Gents on Melrose Avenue. He offers his own explanation: “Now that guys are really getting into accessories, they want to keep the looks that they feel comfortable in even if they aren’t completely working with the weather.

“Other than baseball caps, which not every guy likes to wear, there really are no other stylish hats that aren’t over the top, so maybe they just keep wearing what looks good. Summer or winter, sometimes you just don’t want to be seen with just-rolled-out-of-bed hair.’ ”

Sitting in a vibrating massage chair while getting a pedicure at the Nailtica salon in Los Angeles, makeup artist Gregory Russell pulls off his navy-blue knit cap, shakes out his wet blond curls and explains, “They are great when you haven’t done your hair.” But even he admits, “It’s pretty hard to wear them when it’s so hot outside.”

Jeremy Goldberg, a freelance photographer who lives in Carthay Circle, disagrees. He says that wearing knit caps in the summertime is not as crazy as it may seem because in L.A. everyone’s in the car all day, in a controlled climate.

Goldberg is a bit of a cap snob in that he will wear only styles that he’s purchased in Tokyo. (One is black and cuffed, the other gray and ribbed, with a “tufty thing” on top.)

The last time he wore a knit cap was last week when he was photographing a cast member of “The O.C.” at Leo Carrillo State Beach.

Goldberg refuses to characterize the trend.

“I don’t feel genre or subculture identified. The function of the knit cap is ‘I like the way it looks,’ ” he sniffs. “It doesn’t do the dishes.”