Felt Hat Care: What You Should Do

About Felt Hat Care, Hats, as a whole, add a distinct feel to your appearance and countenance, not only as a clothing accessory.

This distinct feel your hat brings is why you need to take your felt hat care seriously.

As you may already know, felt hats are clothing accessories that require much care and maintenance. 

Properly maintaining your felt hat would improve its lifespan while maintaining its fashionable appeal.

Knowing how to care for your felt hat has plenty of merits, and this guide will share crucial insights to apply for your hat’s optimal care. 

Table of Contents

How to Care & Repair Your Wool Felt Hat

Cleaning

One of the taboos of felt hat care is hand washing it.

By washing your felt hat, you only distort its shape and form, losing its fashionable appeal.

Below are the ways to properly clean surface stains on your felt hat.

  • Using a fluffy bristled brush, scrub out every surface stain on the hat from the middle back of the hat in an anti-clockwise motion.
  • Continue brushing in soft and lengthy pats until the stain is thoroughly clean.
  • Remember not to brush too hard to avoid spoiling the felt material.

In cases where your hat got soaked by the rain, put it out to dry immediately.

You can dry your hat by placing it to dry naturally on a platform or filling the inside with tissue paper that doesn’t have any form of coloring or pattern.

The hat’s filling allows it to retain its shape during drying.

Rolling

Another good way to care for your felt hat is by rolling with a lint rolling brush or taping.

This method helps to wipe out all the dust particles that may have settled on your hat.

There are also some rollable felt hats that this rolling is perfect for. Follow the steps below to care for your rollable felt hat.

  • Align your felt hat from the top to the bottom.
  • Using your lint roller, lightly roll your rollable hat to form an ice cream cone shape.
  • After successfully rolling up the hat into a cone shape and cleaning up the dust, use the practical leather trimming method to maintain it.

Rolling helps for easy safekeeping in case you need to embark on a journey.

Packaging it in a dust-proof bag would be best, and you’re ready.

Handling

Properly handling your felt hat is another crucial way of caring for it.

Though felt hats are generally sturdy, when you properly handle your hat, it would even last longer.

You can adequately handle your hat by following the under-listed steps.

  • Please do not carry your hat at the brim to avoid it from warping in the long run. Instead, hold your hat by placing your hand inside it.
  • For hats that have their brims facing downward, do not place them on plane surfaces, or they will get deformed.
  • For fedora hats, ensure you don’t carry them using the pinch located at the forefront of your hat because it will deform your hat’s structure as time goes by.

The crucial thing to note when handling your felt hat is that you should never place a hat on a plane surface with its brim facing down.

Always allow your hat to rest on its upper side to balance the weight.

Storing

Storing your felt hat when it’s not in use is another way of preserving it. Below are steps for you to follow in storing your hats.

  • Keep your hat inside a box or place it on a smooth covering.
  • Ensure that you keep your hats out of moisture and direct sunlight. Also, make sure that its ventilation is appropriate.
  •  For cases where your box doesn’t come with assistance for the hat, simply fill the inside with plain and colorless tissue paper. Using a plain and colorless tissue will ensure that no print or pattern is transferred onto your hat as time passes.
  • Remember not to place your hat down on the brim to enable it to retain its form without flattening.
  • For those who own rollable hats, ensure you unroll them occasionally so that removing the folds won’t get challenging. 

If you don’t have a hat stand where you keep your hats when you return from your day’s activity, simply construct one yourself.

Making a hat stand at home is made possible using materials that are easily accessible at home.

You can use cardboard to form a curved cylindrical structure or wrap a cylinder. 

Also, note that the length of your DIY hat stand should be higher than your brim’s position to ensure that the brim doesn’t get supported by the table or surface where you place your stand.

How to Care Different Materials of Hats

Wool Felt

Light-grey wool felt hat

(Light-grey wool felt hat)

Although some wool felt hats are made from waterproof materials and would remain like that for a long time, be sure not to wear them in the rain.

Without proper care for your wool felt hat, you will notice that your hat will either start fading, shrinking, or losing its form.

So, for your wool felt, use the above-highlighted methods to guide how to care for it adequately.

Panama Straw

Fancy-looking Panama straw hat

(Fancy-looking Panama straw hat)

Panama straw hats are fashionable and artistic as their hand-woven look gives off that artistic yet fashionable appeal.

Unlike the wool felt, when taking off your Panama straw hat, do not do so by clutching the pinch.

Instead, take it off by its brim. Also, do not wear your Panama hat in the rain regularly.

It is capable of soaking up a bit of water, and this would make your hat fall out of shape with time. 

Another thing to note is that you should not wear your Panama hat under severe hot weather situations.

The straw could get dried up and come to be brittle.

So, to prevent your hat from becoming so dry in those kinds of weather situations, use a moist spray to spray your hat from time to time.

Paper/Hemp/Raffia

Paper hats for birthday parties

(Paper hats for birthday parties)

It is vital to keep your paper hat from water.

Those paper hats are from paper, and their form gets distorted once wet. Still, you can wear it in the sun as it is convenient due to its weight.

Hemp hats have the same care method for them as Raffia hats.

They are more durable than paper hats, and you can wear them under the shower for the more stiffened ones.

Cloth

Hats made out of cloth are the easiest to maintain.

Clean it by lightly dabbing on the spot that needs cleaning up, or wash it gently by hand if the stains are too persistent.

Ensure you don’t soak or use a washing machine in cleaning the cloth hat.

Leather

Paper hats for birthday parties

(Classic black leather hat)

For leather hats, if it gets stained, clean it dry using a wet handkerchief. As for dust particles, gently brush them away with a fluffy bristle.

Remember to occasionally treat your leather hat with textile waterproofer for those who live in areas prone to constant rain.

Conclusion

With these steps and pointers, you can now give your felt hats the care they deserve.

Remember, do not place the brim of your felt hat on a plane surface and avoid constant wearing under the rain.

Also, use a lint roller to remove tiny specs and hairs from your hat and ensure you preserve them appropriately.

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