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Friday, November 14, 2008

Good Grooming For Your Felt Cowboy Hat

By Ned Dagostino

A good quality felt cowboy hat is quite expensive. Apart from the money value there will also be a pride of ownership associated with the hat. Naturally, you won't want to see the hat become unwearable in a year or two. To prevent that from happening you must take good, proper care of the hat. Good and proper care will see the hat last for a good many seasons, its looks gaining character, so to speak.

Prevention is better than cure! That adage is equally applicable to felt cowboy hats. This means that you should do everything to keep the hat from getting soiled. That includes washing your hands before picking it up. This is important because cleaning a felt cowboy hat is really difficult. Besides, too much cleaning can actually damage the material.

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.

Keep the hat away from strong heat sources. The inner sweat band will shrink if it is exposed to heat. That's a sure way of getting rid of your felt cowboy hat!

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.

Your felt cowboy hat has a tendency to lose shape real fast and get dirty just as quickly. If you follow these tips, your hat will remain in prime condition for a great many years. Maybe your felt cowboy hat may turn into a real heirloom, yet!

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