Sunday, November 30, 2008

Good Grooming For Your Felt Cowboy Hat

By Ned Dagostino

A felt cowboy hat is not exactly cheap. So it is worth your while to take good care of it. If you take good care of it, it will not only last you longer but it will look every bit as good as it did when you bought it!

Your great looking felt cowboy hat won't look great if it is all grimy and dirty. Getting the dirt out of a felt cowboy hat is the devil itself. The felt is likely to get damaged in the process, too. As the old saying goes: 'An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure'. It means that instead of spending time over cleaning the hat up, it will be better not to let the hat get soiled in the first place! The most common reason of soilage is the sweat and grime that gets transferred from your hands to the hat when you pick it up, or position it on your head. Moral: Make sure your hands are clean afore touching that felt cowboy hat.

Another simple way to prevent soilage is to handle the hat by the brim, never by the crown! Apart from preventing soilage, this will help to keep the hat in good shape. The more you handle the crown, the more it will get out of shape. There's nothing worse than a bedraggled hat sitting on top of your head, I'll say!

When you're not wearing it, store the hat away in its original hat box. If you don't have the original hat box, then find another one of suitable size to accommodate your hat. Never leave the hat lying around on a table or other exposed place. Do you know the proper way to keep a hat in storage? The proper way to store a hat is upside down! Store it on its crown not on its brim. The brim will "wilt" with the weight of the hat if it is stored for any great length of time. If you choose to hang the hat on a hat stand, then of course, the hat goes right side up!

Don't ever expose the hat to strong heat. That means you have to keep it away from radiators and heating appliances. Don't leave it out in the car on a hot summer afternoon. Heat will cause the sweat band to shrink. This will pull the hat out of shape. Apart from spoiling the shape, the shrinkage will spoil the hat's fit. At best, wearing the hat will be very uncomfortable; at worst, you won't be able to get your head into the hat again!

Getting your felt cowboy hat wet is not going to improve its looks or its shape. Felt does not take kindly to water. It gets all shrunk up, and crumpled, and bedraggled. Felt doesn't get back into shape very easily. If your felt cowboy hat does get wet, the best thing to do is to let it dry out. This must be done naturally. Do not attempt to use a hair drier on it or a blower to get it to dry faster. There is a trick or two in getting your felt cowboy hat to dry out properly. Rest the hat on the sweat band not the brim. Turn the sweat band inside out, so that it forms a sort of collar on which the hat can rest without putting the weight on the brim. You will have to apply a little finishing touch here and there to work the creases out of the hat.

If you get caught in a chance drizzle and the hat gets wet, it won't matter much, but don't let that happen too often. If you expect to be out in the rain often, then you'll be wise to buy a hat cover. Use the hat cover whenever you're going out and there is a sign of rain. It will add another year to your hat's life.

The tips given in this article will keep that hat on your head for many, many years! Your hat will be lookin' good, and you'll be lookin' good yourself! As we cowboys always say: A good head in a good hat! - 16003

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