Damn the Weather Top Hat

Wool Felt

Not all wool felts are created equal. There are dozens of steps in producing wool felt and some of these steps are unfortunately cut out to make less expensive hats. We always have a few price point hats on hand, but most of our wool felt hats are made in the United States in heritage factories. These hats are treated to make them water resistant but we don’t advise you to wear your hat in a heavy rain. Our hats come in a wide range of colors and finishes – most of our wool felts have a matte finish but we have a few with a longer hair and a bit of shine. These hats make good everyday and fashion hats and take a fair amount of abuse.

Fur Felt

The hats your grandparents - and their grandparents - wore were made from fur felt. This traditional felt is usually made with a blend of rabbit and wild hare from Eastern Europe , but other types of fur, including beaver, can be used. The material is dense and thin with a crisp finish and most of our hats have either a bound edge or a raw edge to better appreciate the crispness of the hat. Finishes can range from a soft matte to velour to a long hair shine or a tussled long hair.

Hat Handling 

• The best way to keep your hat looking fresh and new is to handle it as little as possible.
• The oils from your hands will leave marks over time – especially on light colored hats.
• When you pick up your hat, do it with two hands by the brim. We know it’s what they do in movies, but don’t pick your hat up by the crown and definitely don’t grab it by the pinch. This is especially important with natural straw hats, which will crack open and you will be very, very sad.
• Many of our hats come already treated to be water resistant, but as a general rule, don’t wear your hat in heavy rain; light rain or drizzle is usually fine. Some brands and materials do better than others. 
• Light colored hats can show spotting from acid rain. Check our materials guide if you have questions about a specific material.
• If you get caught in the rain, sleet, or snow, shake as much water off the hat as you can and let your hat to dry overnight.

Hat Storage

When you put your brimmed hat down on a flat surface, you should rest it upside down with the crown touching the surface and the brim up (resting your hat brim side down will take the curve out and flatten the brim).

• You can hang your brimmed hat on a hook or a peg but you want to make sure that the peg isn’t poking the hat out of shape. Avoid sharp or pointy pegs.
• Long term, you should store your brimmed hat in a hat box.
• This will help maintain the shape and keep your hat free of dust, especially in the off season when you might not wear it for months. Head forms are also good to use. In the store, we use old industrial wooden spindles, candle sticks, and wall mounted candelabras.
• If you have a hat with feathers and a cat, you definitely want to store your hat in a box year-round - your cat will find and destroy those feathers in a hot second.

Caps, casquettes, and other cloth hats usually easy care.

• Like brimmed hats, they can be hung on a hook or peg.
• When you put your caps away for the season, you can stuff them with tissue paper to hold their shape and prevent deep wrinkling.
• Linen caps are particularly hard to keep wrinkle free. 
• You can steam your cloth hats using a tea kettle or pot of boiling water or by using the steam setting on an iron to send out bursts of steam.
• Never iron your caps.
• Be careful not to burn yourself - steam is hotter than boiling water!

How to Clean a Hat

The first thing to understand is that hat cleaning is a specialized process that needs to be done by a professional. DO NOT ever put your hat in a washing machine or give it to a dry cleaner unless they specializes in hat cleaning (which is rare). You can gently spot clean most hats, but there aren’t a lot of places where you can get your hat cleaned these days, so you’ll want to do everything you can to keep your hat in good condition. Prevention is the name of the game.

• For felt hats – lint roll your hat regularly and use a hat brush (make sure you watch our how to use a hat brush video) to get at deeper dirt and, especially with long hair hats, keep the finish looking top notch. Bonus points if you use steam with your hat brush (use a tea kettle or a pot of boiling water if you don't have a kettle).
• For synthetic straws – brush off dust and gently wipe down your hat with a damp cloth. Be mindful of the trim, which might spot if exposed to water.
• For natural straw – brush off dust and be kind to your hat. Spot clean as soon as you notice a spot. Shantung is particularly difficult to clean.

If your hat needs restoration or refurbishment beyond these simple steps, we recommend you send it to a professional. Contact our friends at McLaughlin & Hayes.

Okay, let’s talk about sweat: it’s gross and we all want to pretend it doesn’t happen, but it does. It’s best to be prepared, especially in the warmer months.

• You can spray the inside of cloth sweatbands (the part that faces the hat) with scotch guard to make it harder for sweat to get through to the outside of the hat.
• If you’re having a sweaty moment, when you take your hat off, set it crown side down on a flat surface and flip the sweatband up so that the sweat dries out of both sides of the band, rather than through the hat. BUT if your hat has a cloth or grosgrain sweatband, it's possible that your sweatband may shrink. If you're worried about it shrinking, keep your hat on until the sweatband dries (doing so will give you a really good fit). 
• The thing that is most likely to start looking bad is the hat band. You can get the band changed (this is a service we offer in the brick and mortar store) or you can put an interchangeable hat band over the existing hat band.

If you have a question about care or storage, call us at 937-222-HATS and we'll help you understand best practices, or drop us a line and set up a FaceTime or Zoom consult - sometimes it's easier to see than to tell.