Rad hoses will get hard with pressure once the system is up to temp, this is normal and not a symptom of anything.
A faulty thermostat or headgasket failure will lead to over heating, although it is possible to have a head gasket fail slightly and not have the car overheating.
Best thing to do is a Hdrocarbon sniff test, it will tell you in 1 min if the head gasket is gone or not