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.

Fur and Wool Felt Hats - General Care

• Spray your hat with a water and stain protector to minimize spotting from body oils and water.  We recommend the Silver Canyon Boot and Hat Water and Stain Repellent which you can find at this link:  https://www.westernoutlets.com/search?q=water+stain
• 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 fur 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 furs 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.

Fur and Wool 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 fur from your hat.
• Brush powder off hat when done.
• Steam area to restore a uniform nap to the fur.

Fur and Wool Felt Hats - Hat Covers

• Use a plastic hat cover in heavy rains to keep your hat dry and to keep it from losing its shape.

Fur and Wool 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 wool shrinkage which may ruin the hat. 
• We recommend the Silver Canyon Boot and Hat Water and Stain Repellent which you can find at this link:  https://www.westernoutlets.com/search?q=water+stain

Fur Felt Hats - Reshaping

• Fur felt hats may be reshaped using steam from your teakettle.
• 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.

Fur 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.
• To size a hat down, insert foam hat tape inside the leather sweatband. Hat tape is available at your western retailer.

Straw Hats - General Care

• Generally worn for one or 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.