Choosing A Pipe that Fits Right

[TheIdahoan]

Have you seen some pictures of people using a pipe where it looks like it just fits? Doesn't look goofy or dumb, it just works.

How do we achieve that look? What is it that makes it work?

Now that the question is asked, here's the backstory:

I'm fairly deaf, something like 85% hearing loss but I have hearing aids that are quite decent and I sometimes hear better than I let on I overheard a coworker say to another coworker not 10 feet away say, "He looks dumb as shit with that pipe, but I gotta admit, it smells good".

Do I actually care? Not particularly. If I did I wouldn't been seen outside my backyard with my pipe. I'm still going to smoke my red rusticated Peterson Outdoor Tankard but hey... if I can figure out that formula that makes me with a pipe look good, I'm gonna use that formula.

 

[warren]

I'm satisfied with a satisfying smoke. How I look to others? Simply not a concern. My buying criteria does include the look of the pipe but, not how I look with a pipe.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

The key to things like this is to be comfortable and confident. If you feel right with your pipe (or insert whatever thing like a wacky hat or loud suit) and exude the sense that you’re not worried or concerned about what others think, people will pick up on that and be accepting.

 

[warren]

Quite possibly you look uncomfortable/unnatural with a pipe. How long are you a pipe smoker? Maybe in time you will look more natural with a pipe. Do you wave it around as an affectation? Are you acutely aware that you are being watched and judged? Just stop caring what others say. Sit back and enjoy your pipe without a care to the voyeurs.

 

[tklee]

You could probably tell them back, "Next time I'll dress up like Hugh Hefner to smoke pipe."

Nah... Don't need to care what those dumbs said.

 

[fireground_piper]

I imagine there’s some similarities to glasses. Some pipes, like some glasses, fit a particular face and structure more than others.

 

[mso489]

If it's important to you, take a look in the mirror with different pipes and select those that you feel comfortable about in public. In private, it hardly matters.

When you go to a pipe shop, you can't "try on" pipes because you can't, or shouldn't, stick them in your mouth. But working with the pipes you have, you can probably figure it out.

A small person might look odd with a huge pipe, and a very large person might look funny with a very small one.

I rarely steal a look at myself in the mirror with a pipe. It always looks okay to me, but probably I am too easily pleased. I'm pleased to be pleased.

If you are pretty vain (you know who you are) or find yourself smoking in public a lot, just spend some time on it and figure out which pipes go with your shape head, face, body type, posture, and coloring.

If you are really "styling," you might work on how different pipes go with different outfits. It's a whole new hobby.

 

[orvet]

I have seen people who smoke pipes that fit their personality and their face and body type. I had a gentleman who worked for me a burly fellow who wore Pendleton wool shirts and smoked large freehand briars. It fit his persona perfectly right down to the burn holes in his Pendleton shirts!

I used to smoke large straight Billiards, general GBDs and Comoys. Being a larger person myself, and representing the smoke shops I tried to present a professional yet comfortable image. I think I mostly succeeded.

Since I have been retired now for almost 20 years, I don't own a suit and about as formal as I get is jeans and a henley. I no longer care how people perceive my image and I smoke smaller pipes most of the time as a convenience. I don't usually have time to finish a large bowl and Dentures make clenching a large pipe impossible.
Smoking is something that is relaxing to me and I think worrying about how people perceive my looks, or lack there of, takes away from my enjoyment. So I don't worry about it!

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

Have you seen some pictures of people using a pipe where it looks like it just fits? Doesn't look goofy or dumb, it just works.

How do we achieve that look? What is it that makes it work?

Now that the question is asked, here's the backstory:

I'm fairly deaf, something like 85% hearing loss but I have hearing aids that are quite decent and I sometimes hear better than I let on I overheard a coworker say to another coworker not 10 feet away say, "He looks dumb as shit with that pipe, but I gotta admit, it smells good".

Do I actually care? Not particularly. If I did I wouldn't been seen outside my backyard with my pipe. I'm still going to smoke my red rusticated Peterson Outdoor Tankard but hey... if I can figure out that formula that makes me with a pipe look good, I'm gonna use that formula.

So you do care or you wouldn't have suggested you or anyone else may look goofy or dumb, or suggest you might figure out a way to "look good" with a pipe.

I think I've taken a selfie or two out with my dog, otherwise I don't think I'd know what I look like - no mirrors on the deck, lol. BTW, the dog and myself ....... looked amazing.

Work on not caring!

 

[fireground_piper]

So you do care or you wouldn't have suggested you or anyone else may look goofy or dumb, or suggest you might figure out a way to "look good" with a pipe.

I think I've taken a selfie or two out with my dog, otherwise I don't think I'd know what I look like - no mirrors on the deck, lol. BTW, the dog and myself ....... looked amazing.

Work on not caring!

I think there’s a healthy boundary of presenting for yourself vs presenting for others. I brush my hair, shower, wear clean clothes and fairly clean shaved because I like it. Sometimes I wear a particular pair of shoes or shirt because I like them and am in the mood to spruce up my attire that day.

That doesn’t have to mean you are doing for others. Sometimes it just feels good to present good.

 

[hall222]

Do you.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I'm satisfied with a satisfying smoke. How I look to others? Simply not a concern. My buying criteria does include the look of the pipe but, not how I look with a pipe.

^^^^
This

 

[bobpnm]

To me, fit means something different. A pipe fits me if I like holding it and if it is comfortable to clinch. I have very rarely encountered a pipe that is a bad smoker. If it meets my criteria above, 90 percent of the time the problem is me.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

I think there’s a healthy boundary of presenting for yourself vs presenting for others. I brush my hair, shower, wear clean clothes and fairly clean shaved because I like it. Sometimes I wear a particular pair of shoes or shirt because I like them and am in the mood to spruce up my attire that day.

That doesn’t have to mean you are doing for others. Sometimes it just feels good to present good.

I agree 100% but that’s not what the OP is on about.

 

[mso489]

A certain amount depends on age. College age smokers and younger may be suspected of smoking weed in their pipes when they're not, thus distracting from any other aura they might present. Us senior folks may look like we are living history, and young children will ask us if we ever met George Washington.

If you are slightly dressed up, which can be very slightly in this age and time, people might guess you are a professor or mathematician, especially if you smoke a full-bent pipe.

Glasses and a pipe have a high probability of suggesting that you are an egghead of some kind.

I think large people smoking small pipes can look pretty good, like they are taking a quick smoke in a dynamic turn of life. Short spare people smoking extra large pipes can increase the size of their personality and use this to take the conversational stage if they are so inclined.

If you dramatize yourself properly, you can get away with a lot. You have to live up to the pipe.

 

[mso489]

Some pipe smokers are pretty good at pointing with their pipe to make a point, and pausing to pack or relight the pipe with gestures of grandeur. My dad was a long-time smoker (of Granger, only owning one pipe at a time), and he looked completely natural incorporating the pipe in his manner and conversation.

 

[Doctor Chopper]

I am not sure you could judge yourself with a selfie pic. I never thought about it, but I will need to ask my wife with different pipes. She will probably just look at me, roll her eyes, and say "You look dumb as shit with that pipe, but I gotta admit, it smells good".

 

[Papamique]

Yes! Some people look ridiculous with their pipes in my opinion. Pipes can be an accessory like a watch or necklace or cuff links. Of course if you are happy and confident with your look that does go a long way like with anything. The following excerpt is from an old smoking pipes article-

“generally, I would say that those with large and/or mostly round and oval faces look best with medium to larger shapes, bent or straight. Billiards, brandys, apples or even blowfish and egg shapes all seem an agreeable fit. Such folks might avoid stubby nosewarmers and short or squat bulldogs and Rhodesians. In fact, any noticeably abbreviated shape seems a bit out of place with this facial type. If you are a big guy or lady, medium to larger pipes seem "right".

Very slender or diminutive sized folks look more balanced with smaller pipes. Picture a shorter and/or smaller person with a huge freehand. Now conjure the same smoker puffing on a medium to smaller apple or bent billiard. Would you agree? Just as a portly gentleman might wish to avoid large polka dot shirt patterns, so too can it be well to apply the same care in choosing a pipe shape when thinking about one’s overall visual impression. I have included a crude graphic to help illustrate these notions:

Ok, the above not withstanding, I would never choose to purchase or smoke a particular pipe solely on how I will appear smoking it. There is a long list of qualities that, to me, take much greater precedence. Still, in all, my old photographer’s eye does exert it’s influence. Cheers and happy smoking to all, whatever choice you make.”

I guess it only matters if it matters - TO YOU.

 

[lkwttwkl]

I think it dose in someway but i cant say it clearly, its kind of a feeling. The pipe can match with face shape,body shape, outfit, age, character, etc. A pipe fit Arnold Schwarzenegger sure looks strange for Albert Einstein, so what?

 

[OzPiper]

Some look a million bucks no matter how they’re dressed/accessorised.
I realised a long, long time ago that I wasn‘t ever going to achieve that suave, debonair man of the world air.
But I still dress presentably, unless I’m slopping around in the backyard.

Since I smoke at home almost exclusively, very few people see me with a pipe in my mouth
But there ARE pipes so ugly I refuse to allow them near me