Hat Care

General Handling Guidelines for Hats

Storage

Store your hat upside down on the crown. If you place your hat brim-side down the forces of gravity will eventually flatten your brim's carefully crafted curve. At a minimum, store your hat in the original hatbox if it comes with one. Also consider buying wall hanging hat caddy or a plastic molded hat carrier to properly store your hats.

Handling

Always have clean hands when your handle your hat so as not to leave dirt prints or skin oils on the hat. Handle your hat by the brim, not the crown. This will keep the crown from becoming crushed and misshapen.

Wool or Felt Hats - General Care

• Spray your hat with a water and stain protector to minimize spotting from body oils and water.  We recommend our U.S. made Silver Canyon Water and Stain Repellent Protector.
  
  • Link to Silver Canyon Water and Stain Repellent Protector:  https://silvercanyonboots.com/pages/search-results-page?q=water+stain+protector
• Brush the brim & crown counter-clockwise (as you hold your hat with the back of the hat facing the floor) with the direction of the fur nap. This will keep your hat dust free and looking good.
• Brush the top of the crown front to back.
• Be aware a small amount of wool will remain on the brush after each use. Therefore, you should have a hat brush for each color of your hats to keep you from transferring the different color from your other hats to the hat you are brushing. This is especially important when cleaning a dark hat with a brush from a light hat or vice-versa. To make it easier to remember which brush is for which hat, hat brushes are available with both light bristles for your light colored hats and black bristles for your dark colored hats.

Wool or Felt Hats - Cleaning

• Cleaning powder is available to remove light stains.
• Sprinkle the powder on the spot.
• Using a hat sponge and a circular pattern, gently rub the powder into the spot.
• Do not rub so hard as to remove wool from your hat.
• Brush powder off hat when done.
• Steam area to restore a uniform nap to the fur.

Wool or Felt Hats - Water and Stain Repellent and Hat Covers

• Spray your hat with a water and stain protector to protect your hat from the typical mist and rain.  We recommend our U.S. made Silver Canyon Water and Stain Repellent Protector.
  
  • Link to Silver Canyon Water and Stain Repellent Protector:  https://silvercanyonboots.com/pages/search-results-page?q=water+stain+protector
• Use a plastic hat cover in heavy rains to keep your hat dry and to keep it from losing its shape.

Wool or Felt Hats - Wet Hats

• Turn your hat upside down and let your hat dry naturally.
• Do not apply heat.
• Wool/Felt or Wool/Fur blend hats may be sprayed with a water & stain protector to minimize  shrinkage which may ruin the hat.
  • Link to Silver Canyon Water and Stain Repellent Protector:  https://silvercanyonboots.com/pages/search-results-page?q=water+stain+protector

Fur Felt Hats - Reshaping

• Fur felt hats may be reshaped using steam from your tea kettle.
• Apply a light coat of steam to the part of the hat you would like to reshape.
• Do not soak your hat.
• Then, with your hands form that portion of the hat to the shape you want and hold until dry.
• Repeat as needed.
• Apply hat stiffener spray to restore "body" to the fur felt if it the hat will not hold its shape.
• Note - wool hats are generally not re-shapeable using steam but they also do not lose their shape like fur felt hats do.

Wool or Felt Hats - Resizing

• It is common during the hotter months for your hat to get slightly tighter. This is usually caused by removing your hat with a damp sweatband and leaving it in an environment which allows the sweatband to dry. Your hat will generally stretch back to its original size with wear.
  • If you need to stretch your hat, see Hat Stretching instructions below.
• To size a hat down, use our foam size reducer hat tape at the "4 corners" (forehead, back of head, left ear, right ear) of your head which you can find at this "hat tape" link. 

Straw Hats - General Care

• Generally worn for one or two summers. Straw hats are made of natural fibers, which are hand-woven together. Straw hats have a wire in the brim edge, which allows shaping of the brim. Most straw hats are given a coat of plasticizer to protect the body from weather and to increase the life of the hat.
• Straw hats require little care. When dirty, wash with mixture of light soap and water. Rinse and dry with towel or let air dry.

Hat Stretching

You should be able to stretch your hat approximately a half (1/2) size.

Items you need:

• Tea Kettle
• Hat stretcher like a "Hat-Jack" which you can buy on Amazon or at your local hat store.
  • Like a shoe stretcher, the adjustable Hat-Jack wood device acts like a jack inside the hat to expand the size.
  • Bonus: the Hat-Jack can also be used to maintain a hat's size when not in use and works for both felt and straw hats.

Instructions:

• Insert the Hat Jack and tighten to the current size so you know where to start.
• Heat up the tea kettle or pot of water until the water begins to boil.
• Hold the hat's brim to get a good grip. Next, angle the hat so that the interior is about six inches away from the steam of the kettle or pot.
• Hold hat to steam for approximately 45 to 60 seconds, ensuring enough steam reaches the hat’s inside band as well. Goal is to get the hat damp but not wet.
• Place the hat stretcher inside your hat and crank the device open until it's taut and slightly past your starting point from step 1. Make sure the hat stretcher is placed against (not above) the hatband, otherwise it might leave an imprint on the crown and ruin its shape.
  
  • Caution - watch both the sweatband and hatband as you tighten the Hat-Jack to make sure you're not breaking the stitches as you do not want to "pop" the stitches.
• Let hat dry and leave overnight. Then try on the hat.
• Repeat the process in incremental steps if further stretching is necessary.
• Once you think the size is close, steam and wear the hat while letting it air dry and stretch and form to your head.