Friday, November 14, 2008

Good Grooming For Your Felt Cowboy Hat

By Ned Dagostino

A felt cowboy hat says a lot of the person whose head is snug inside it. No doubt you spent a lot of time getting the exact right hat that suited you perfectly. A lot of time and money and aggravation! That's quite an investment riding on your head, now, ain't it? Sure you don't want to squander it away out of negligence. You take care of it, good, proper care, the investment will grow richer as the years pass, aging gracefully, acquiring a character of its own. I can see you, ten, twenty years from now, talking about the hat to your grandson, on a chilly night, in the warm glow of a backyard campfire.

Proper care begins with prevention. If the hat doesn't require cleaning or repair, that much remedial care is also avoided. The cardinal rule is: Don't let the hat get dirty! One very simple way to keep the hat from getting dirty is: wash your hands before handling the hat. Cleaning a felt hat is very difficult, and leads to material damage.

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!

Keep the felt cowboy hat in its own box. If you don't have the box for the hat, then hang the hat on a hat stand. The hat should be stored upside down to help it keep its shape.

Protect the hat from strong heat sources. That means you don't leave the hat near the radiator or the furnace. Doing so will shrink the sweat band and that means you'll not be able to get the hat to fit you 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.

I hope you understood the tips in this article. They'll help in keeping your felt cowboy hat in perfect condition for a long time to come. - 15359

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