Hat care and storage

[Bufflehead Jones]

I know that many of you said that you store your hat on a hat rack, but I don't have a hat rack and would rather store my hat on a shelf in the closet. I know that you should set your hat on it's crown and not it's brim. I did a search on the topic and I still have some questions.

If you hang your hat on a hat rack or a peg, wouldn't it cause a dent on your hat over time?

I see a myriad of hat storage products online, hat stretchers, hat rack for the headrest of your car, hat rack for the back of your car seat, the front of your car seat, your sunvisor, to sit on your desk, a plastic hat rest, and hat boxes.

There is a little plastic hat rest that is on all the websites. This would work for me as it could sit on a shelf. But, the sides of it taper toward the top, I suppose so hats of various sizes will fit on it. Will the taper of the hat rest cause the sides of a hat sitting on it to taper? Are any of these products any good? What is the best way for me to store my hat on a shelf?

They say that hat boxes have a hat rest or a hat retainer inside of them, if so, is this an acceptable thing to store a hat on to protect it and prevent taper? What is this hat retainer like?

I saw a post about hat stretchers where someone said that the plastic ones were better than the wooden ones. Why? The wooden ones have a taper to the edge of the hat stretcher, will this cause the hat to taper or help prevent it? Do the sides of the plastic ones taper?

I know that you should brush a hat counter clockwise as viewed form above the crown, and someone has asked which way should you brush the underside of the brim. But, this still was never answered to my satisfaction. Sorry, if I am being dense and am the only one that didn't get it.

I want to thank everyone for the help. I always was under the impression that you sat a hat on it's brim, and not on it's crown. I thought this would dent in the crown. I have already learned that my thoughts here were incorrect. I appreciate having COW as a source of information on this and many other topics.

[Mike]

I can't answer all your questions as I've not been privy to all you're inquiring about, but I can take a shot at a few. When on a shelf, I generally now store mine on the crown to prevent taper. This should not affect the top of the hat, however don't store them on the crown when wet with a hat stretch in them. The extra weight causes the top to flatten out. Learned this the hard way.

I think one of the theories behind plastic vs. wood hat stretchers is that wood is porous and soaks in the sweat whereas plastic will allow the moisture to absorb into the sweatband thus making stretching stay or not cause the band to shrink. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I've only got the wood stretchers at the moment, but would like to get at least one in plastic as I've noticed the band on my Optimo feeling a bit more tight lately. The wood is tapered, and if you have to crank them out to do any stretching, the taper will transfer into the hat. This happend on my PB, I have a dent in the middle of the ribbon if you look at the profile. I've since sanded out the taper on the stretcher.

Hope this helped on some of the points.

Mike

[Michaelson]

Just to poke my head in, the only hat I have out on a hat rack is the current daily wear hat. It's never hung up long enough to develop any of the mentioned problems. All other hats are stored away in their original boxes, bags, and interior frames. I have one PB plastic stretcher, and yes, it does help keep the crown from tapering for the reasons given by Mike. Regards. Michaelson

[Pyroxene]

I always was under the impression that you sat a hat on it's brim, and not on it's crown. I thought this would dent in the crown. I have already learned that my thoughts here were incorrect.

Just to chime in here,

I, personally, set and store my hats on the brim. Just like this.



I like my brims floppy and loose so that it's my head that creates the swoosh in the brim.



It's a lot easier in maintenance too because you don't have to have a hat rack to put the hat on. Nor do you have to set it on it's crown. I would always get flat spots on the crown when I did that.

Now, I just toss the hat on a chair, stool or whatever.

So, to each his own.

Pyro

[Bufflehead Jones]

Ok, the hat stretcher questions are being answered. If the taper in the wood hat stretcher causes a hat to taper, then why do they put it there in the first place. It would be easier to make them straight sided. They are making the manufacturing harder than it needs to be. Are there folks that want taper in their hats, I suppose?

[Mike]

So is that enough information to thoroughly confuse you?

I think most fedoras done today are short crowned and tapered, thus the tapered stretcher would be more appropriate than with our "stovepipe" Indys.

Being a Washingtonian, have you seen Arch out on the streets for reactions to "The Passion"? I believe his fedora to be more the standard today. He probably loves the wooden implements.

Mike

[Michaelson]

It's the leather sweatbands that are the problem. When stored over a period of time and not worn, they tend to shrink a bit, making them pretty uncomfortable when you get them back out. The 'hat maintainer' keeps them in the correct size. Regards. Michaelson

[Bufflehead Jones]

Let's see if I have this straight. As far as a wooden hat stretcher that I already have, I need to start sanding. I have a big head so I hope this doesn't make it too small to fit in the hat.

As far as the tapered plastic hat rest, not a good idea for an Indy style hat.

I am about to get a hat more expensive than any I had in the past and with a less expensive hat, it wasn't such a big deal. I have always just set the hat on the shelf with the front of the brim hanging off the edge of the shelf so it would not bend it back up. Of course, these hats were tapered from the get go, so who cared. As far as what Pyroxene said, maybe this wasn't as bad as I thought. But, I thought that from reading here that setting the hat on it's brim may cause it to taper.

Any response to how to brush the underside of the brim? Anybody have one of these hat boxes that they sell? I would like to know what they are like on the inside as far as what the hat rests on.

What to do with my hat when it's not on my head, maybe I should try just wearing it to bed.

[3thoubucks]

I think the "hat retainer" you mentioned is a carboard cone, say shoe box thickness cardboard. One opening on mine is 6 inches across, the other 7 1/2. But it has slots and a tab for adjustment to fit inside different sized hats. It's about 5 inches tall. This is what I keep my hat on, on a table, only I've turned the retainer upside down, so the hat rests on it on the hat's brim, just outside of the hat opening. The shape of my hat doesn't get altered or flattened anywhere, and the thin edge of the retainer can't gather much dust when the hat's not on it. You could make one easily, since it doesn't need to be cone shaped. You could use a piece of tupperware or a coffee can, but you could press a cardboard one oval.

[JerseyJones]

My NogginTops table stand is in my office ( works GREAT ) and I just got some wire racks for my house bound hats. Once my PB and Keppler and ultimately Optimo and possibly HJ's arrive, I may have to reconsider the rack, but we'll see.

Ken

[Ken]

My NogginTops table stand is in my office

Exactly what I use. Its real nice for display as I keep my whip loosly coiled around it too. You see the hat and whip but not the holder. Also I think a pretty practicalw ay of storage.

Ken

[Bufflehead Jones]

I don't see a table stand at noggintops.

[Band Director Jones]

I keep two hats in rotation right now, the rest are in boxes with hat retainers in them. For my two rotation hats, I used to use one of those plastic table stands from Noggintops(the standard hat rest). Now I use a wire stand that is like a basket and allows the hat to "hover" upside down. The only part making contact with anything is a little area around the crown. Pictures of this are below. I picked it up here and I love it. It is perfect for drying you hat properly when it gets soaked. Once, I got one of my hats drenched and rested it on it crown to dry it. Even with out a hat retainer the top was a little flattened. This hat rest eliminates the problem. I highly recommend these. I own two now, and am soon going to get a third.

[Ken]

Bufflehead Jones

http://www.noggintops.com/cgi-bin/webc. ... 4481664.ff

Ken

[Pyroxene]

Looks like they changed. They are now showing a different stand.

[Ken]

I ordered mine a week or so a go and received that. What was the older version like that made it so different?

Ken

[Pyroxene]

I ordered mine a week or so a go and received that. What was the older version like that made it so different?

Ken

My coffee may be gettin weak but the way I understand it used to be a cool wire stand. Now it's a black plastic holder. Am I right or do I need to switch to Espresso Blend?

Pyro

[Band Director Jones]

I ordered mine a week or so a go and received that. What was the older version like that made it so different?

Ken

My coffee may be gettin weak but the way I understand it used to be a cool wire stand. Now it's a black plastic holder. Am I right or do I need to switch to Espresso Blend?

Pyro

This is the same stand I bought last year at this time. When did they have a metal stand? The only metal stand I've seen is like the one I have pictured above, and the only place I've seen it at is a Western shop called Drysdales. And it is nothing like the Noggintops one.

[Pyroxene]

The only metal stand I've seen is like the one I have pictured above, and the only place I've seen it at is a Western shop called Drysdales. And it is nothing like the Noggintops one.

AH! I am drinking the wrong stuff. Thanks for clearing that up. That's exactly the information I was looking for. You know what it is...I didn't see the "here" hyperlinked when I first read your post. Sorry for the confustion.

Pyro.