About a week ago, I dared to order a Shemagh [aka Palestinian/Arab Scarf; http://www.compusmart.ab.ca/spplsgt/shemagh.jpg], even though I have bad experiences with ordering scarf-like items via the web, the last thing of this type I got was a black piece of cloth which was supposed to be used as scarf/headwrap (and has a size of 50 by 50 centimeters, that's barely enough to fit around my neck once...). This shemagh, however, is about 110 by 110 cm or, in other words, more than four times the size of that other piece of cloth. When I simply stuff it into my bag, it is not larger than two of my fists and packed neatly (but without pressure) it is about as small as 5 or 6 CDs in slim cases...

It took me some time (and a little help of Google) to figure out how to wear this thing as headgear - but it feels like this is definitely worth it. Even though it has the size of some of my caps, it covers not only the hair but also the face [if I wanted to, I could even cover my eyes without having to un-cover my front neck]. It is comfortable to wear in the sun and blocks most of the wind

All in all it was worth its 10 bucks and definitely has more usabilty than a cap of this price class...

Scarf-like item eh?

well I think it looks quite good. Now all you need to complete the set is a huge pair of army hiking boots, a FAT camoflage rucksack, walking pole and to climb a mountain ;D

hehe Looks good ( although a bit strawy - like! )

Neat! Now I know what a Shemagh is

Brainless, more out of curiosity than anything else, but what inspired you to get one?

I've got most of that, Jimmy, though my boots are somewhat better than the standard german army boots (steel caps instead of hardened leather; Goretex-fabric in some less stressed parts of the boots -> your feet get less sweaty after walking a while in the boots) ... I'm not that much of a climber since I've been born and raised on flat land

Most of my camo stuff is simple night camo, i.e. black, since I often stroll around at night and don't want to be seen immediately by everybody [and that's _not_ because I'm doing illegal stuff but because I prefer to be alone, usually] ... but I've added some patches to my backpacks and bags (large backpack: a red star with a broken gun on one side and a Pumuckl-patch on the other, a german flag with the slogan "Deutsche Waffen/Deutsches Geld/Morden mit in aller Welt" ["German Weapons/German Money/Kill in all the World"] and some buttons ("Mehr Bildung fuer Faschisten" [More education for fascists]; "Fire your boss"; some more which I can't tell without having it with me); black bag: "Kein mensch ist illegal" [Noone's illegal]; dark blue bag: "Asylum: Do we care or do we calculate?"; other black bag: "Racism sucks" ... and a plain olive bag for occasions in which my patches might get me into trouble )...
...and I got some curious looks when I walked through the train station today with my bags packed for 5 weeks [about one week at home; three weeks in a workcamp; one week of work before I get the next chance to wash my clothes -> I need to carry a lot of them with me], most of them attached to the backpack and the boots hanging from them... stupid me forgot that the boots are more comfortable than the sneakers :/

what inspired me to get one was that a) it was dark-coloured (olive-black; perfect for my needs ) and it's versatility in use - headwrap; scarf; headwrap+scarf; headwrap+scarf+face cover; triangular bandage in a nice size and I can undo this shemagh faster than if I had to remove a cap, scarf and a piece of cloth covering my face - well, these points did not really inspire me to get one, I just stumbled upon it while I was shopping for shoe polish stuff --I'm going to test whether the boots last longer when they get some attention once in a while... my last pair of boots fell apart after three years or something without any care except for me removing some dirt off them every once in a while-- and I had to get my order above 25 bucks to save some postage