Whilst checking the Salewa quickdraw specs for another thread, I spotted a nice-looking High Loft ThermalPro hooded fleece. I thought it might make a nice companion to my MEC T3 hoody, so had a closer look, and then spotted the 'W'.
http://www.salewa.com/en/warmup-polartechighloft.html/
Which prompted an email to Salewa to ask their reasoning, and whether they thought men didn't need hoods. Apparently, they don't know. I've suggested it might be a question for their market research/product development people; I assume
someone took an active design decision, based on some rational argument.
Now, given that women tend to keep their hair longer (both in length, and in age...), it strikes me that long hair and a hood aren't great partners, whereas the current fashion for men for shorter hair, and the issue of male pattern baldness would suggest men might be in need of a hood as much as, if not more than women.
Or do men just wear hats?
I note that hooded base/light mid layers such as the R1, Eclipse, T3, etc are popular with a climbing niche market.
So, hoods, yay or nay, and why/what for?