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Answer

I prefer title case for email subject lines - they are, essentially, the headline for your communication. No periods. 

Question from Yorkshire, UK, on July 25, 2025

The following appeared recently:

Which is grammatically correct: hard-hat tours or hard hat tours?
from Reading, Pennsylvania on July 17, 2025

Hard-hat tours. Otherwise, it could be misunderstood as a difficult tour of a hat.

The following, however, is from the entry on hyphens:

two-word terms, particularly those used as nouns, have evolved to be commonly recognized as, in effect, one word. No hyphen is needed when such terms are used as modifiers if the meaning is clear and unambiguous without the hyphen. Examples include third grade teacher, chocolate chip cookie, special effects embellishment, climate change report, public land management, real estate transaction, emergency room visit, cat food bowl, parking lot entrance, national security briefing, computer software maker.

Is your judgement genuinely that the phrase hard hat tour risks – in all seriousness – being misunderstood as a difficult tour of a hat? How does it differ in clarity from emergency room visit? One is far more likely to visit a room as a matter of urgency than to undertake a challenging expedition through an item of headgear, but somehow, emergency room is judged to be obvious where hard hat is sufficiently obscure as to lead the reader into an assumption of something fundamentally ridiculous (and well-nigh impossible).

I would offer that the actual answer to this question is that Merriam Webster lists hard hat with no hyphen and attests its first use as being in the 15th century, which makes it rather more established as a term than the acceptably nonhyphenated climate change, computer software or chocolate chip, and so – although there is no fixed rule on hyphens – the writer can be confident that the reader will not mistake the phrase for indicating a difficult tour of a hat, so no hyphen is required. The opposite to the answer as given, in other words.

Answer

It was an lame attempt to be funny. Take away that part of the answer, I would still hyphenate it. A hard hat is an actual item, not just a hat that is hard. In this sentence, the hyphenation makes it clear, which is everyone's goal at the end of the day.  But as you say, there is no fixed rule, so you are free to do whatever you wish. 

Answer

It's an odd structure, for sure, and could add confusion. If you get to decide, definitely director of marketing. If you have to use the managers' preference, just be consistent and do it all the time, and know that you are right!

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