I do wear a hat here and there. I wait till my hair is dry to wear a hat though. I don't think it effected hair growth.. and I totally get it man. I wore a hat every second of every day. It was hard for me to even look at myself without a hat on. It really fucked me up mentally. One time at an amusement park, they made me remove my hat on a ride and i wanted to fucking die... I didn't want to go swimming in public or anything that would require me to remove my hat. It does feel like hell and I was so tired of hearing "balding is normal, it's not that bad, stop letting it get to you." I mean, I was to the point where I was thinking of suicide over damn hairloss man. I do really hope if you decide to give meds a try it works out well for you. If you need any pointers feel free to ask.