Sandbox / The Hard Hat Wick Check

The Hard Hat's description is ambiguous, with its first half being about concealing something hard underneath a hat to protect yourself, while the second half and image are about having a metal plate in your head that protects you from head injuries or psychic attacks. These seem like two distinct tropes, so this is to check to see how the trope is being used in the wild.

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Metal Plate in head 11/35, 31%

1. Disability Immunity: The Hard Hat is when a steel plate left in the skull from surgery makes someone immune to Mind Rape.
2. Guns and Gunplay Tropes: A steel plate in the skull from a long-ago injury. Might become handy one day and defy a Boom, Headshot!.
3. Immunity Attrition: The Tommyknockers: due to a metal plate in his skull, Jim Gardener is initially unaffected by the alien spaceship, while everyone else around him slowly starts to "become" (mutate into aliens).
4. 'Tis Only a Bullet in the Brain: Knight Rider: Police detective Michael Long takes a .32 pistol shot to the head after a sting operation goes sideways. He needs extensive facial reconstruction but comes away with no apparent brain injury thanks to a surgical steel plate in his skull from a previous injury.
5. Characters.Golden Kamuy The Hokkaido7th Division: He has a huge metal plate on his forehead. Cranial fluid still oozes out from time to time.
6. Characters.The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: He has a metal plate in his head.
7. ComicBook.JFK Secret Ops: Kennedy has a metal plate in his head from his assassination attempt.
8. Film.Bulletproof: Carter has a metal plate in his head that was implanted during surgery after he sustained a gunshot wound. It turns out to be an effective weapon in hand to hand combat.
9. Film.National Lampoons Christmas Vacation: Eddie mentions he once had a metal plate in his head, but would forget who he was whenever his wife turned on the microwave, so it was replaced with plastic. Inverted in that he doesn't use Clark's non-stick spray when going tobogganing because he doubts the strength of the plastic.
10. Film.Scanner Cop: At the end, Glock initially resists Sam's psychic attack because of his steel plate, though it peels away the hair on his head. Sam then concentrates really hard and gets the desired result.
11. Literature.The Tommyknockers: Gardener and Ev Hillman are immune to the effects of the spaceship, because they have metal plates in their heads (Gardener because of a skiing accident, Ev because of a war wound). Anne Anderson is somewhat protected by extensive metal dental work. In case of Gard however, several weeks of working day in, day out to dig up the ship eventually results in so much exposure to the ship that despite his metal plate, he too slowly starts to "become", making it harder for him to keep his mind from getting read.

Hat protects character 9/35, 26%

1. Characters.Rurouni Kenshin The Ten Swords: He wears a steel-lined headband to protect his head, as his "fall" was caused by a bullet to the forehead. I guess?
2. Characters.Spider Man The Animated Series: His skullcap is plated in Adamantium, allowing him to shrug off any sort of impact to the head.
3. Characters.This Bites Straw Hat Pirates: In Chapter 38, his cap is added, padding and metal plating changing it from accessory to armor. Multiple tropes are listed on one line
4. ComicStrip.Knights Of The Dinner Table: A throwaway gag in a filler strip has Newt claiming his character is crouching real low and taking cover behind his "Kevlar watch cap".
5. Fallout4.Tropes D To I: Some hats can be upgraded with ballistic weave, giving them protection that actually outclasses any non Power Armor helmet.
6. Literature.Butler Parker: Butler Parker usually wore a bowler hat that was fortified with a steel inlay - both as a weapon and to prevent being knocked-out from behind.
7. Series.The Avengers1960s: Steed's trademark bowler hat was lined with steel, though he more often used it to clonk people than to protect himself.
8. SpongeBobSquarePants.Tropes D To I: "An experienced fry cook always keeps a brick of lead under his hat," to prevent other employees from stomping or harming it, as Squidward learns.
9. VideoGame.Kerbal Space Program: Kerbonaut helmets are apparently hard enough to survive impacts that would otherwise kill the wearer.

Misuse: Construction hard-hat 3/35, 9%

1. Characters.Digimon Rookie Digimon: Wears one on its head, given it's a hard-working digimon.
2. Characters.Left 4 Dead: They got 'em, but they don't offer any protection from headshots.
3. Characters.Team Fortress 2 The Engineer: He wears one. Backwards and crooked.

ZCE, unclear use, misuse, and potholes 6/35, 17%

1. Hard Head: The Hard Hat may be the reason for this.
2. Hat Damage: To prevent this, see The Hard Hat.
3. Weaponized Headgear: The Hard Hats are especially useful for this.
4. Characters.Suikoden V Foreigners: She wears a peculiar (and not especially flattering) bullet-shaped helmet incorporating a cape. Just a hat
5. Characters.Tales Of Legendia: Played for Laughs. Will bonks him on the head and the impact results in a different sound, which he Lampshades. ZCE
6. VideoGame.Hard Hat: Not to be confused with The Hard Hat.

JFF, Indices, and laconic 6/35, 17%

1. Cranium Coverings
2. Tropes in Shining Armor
3. AlliterativeName.Tropes F To L
4. ImageSource.Live Action Films M To Z
5. Laconic.The Hard Hat Defines it as "A hat concealing some form of head protection."
6. WeAreNotAlone.Tropes E To L Links to a Wikipedia page on construction hard hats