Club Obi Wan

Ok, I've read that several of you guys take the liners out of your fedoras for summer. My question is why? Does it make it cooler, or is it just to keep the liner clean?

I've kinda wonder about that myself, as though the liner would be less insulation there, air is still not moving through the felt in hot weather, so how is removing it making it cooler? I've never been able to tell any difference myself! Regards! Michaelson

First ask what the liner is made of. I believe it is satin. This is a sythetic material and acts as an insulator. I've also see plastic bonded to the liners. Fur pelts also act as an insulator. Since a large amount of the body's heat loss is via the scalp you have a double insulation, or with plastic, tripple insulation sitting above your head. Taller hats provide a larger volume of air to dissipate the heat so your head remains cooler. I pull out the liner in warmer weather (SoCal) and it seems to feel cooler to me. Even silk liners would tend to insulate. Try blowing thru the fur of the hat then try blowing thru the fur and liner. I think you'll see a difference.

On Petersbros., Akubra and other hats where the top of the liner has that plastic layer, it makes a difference as the felt allows the steam from the sweat to pass (like Sympatex or similar products), where as the plastic won't. If you have a pure satin or silk liner, it won't make a big deal.

With that said; if you sweat easily in summer time, removing the liner helps keeping it clean. Once the sweat penetrates the leather from the sweatband, you might get brown stain on the liner that are tricky to remove.

IF you decide to remove the liner, be carefull on the hats, where the liner is glued into the crown. Remove it slow and carefully. To put it back in, you can either sew it back or use a few spots of double tape (the tape that has glue on both sides). The double tape can be remove easily without stressing the felt the way glue would.

Regards,

Marc

I'm not sure about all hats (I know in the PB they glue the liner in) but in the Adventurebilt hat it should be easy to remove the liner, as its loosely sewn in. You could probably just snip the thread, pull out the liner, and then when you want it back in the hat just sew it back in. :junior: -IJ

Thanks for the replies guys. Clinton, I take that you don't want your hat to have that sweat stained Cairo look.

I have an AB so it won't be any trouble to remove/replace the lining. Apparently it doesn't make much of a difference either way.

I always take the liner out of hats. The sweatband, too. I think they're uncomfortable.

I guess if you grease back your hair or don't use shampoo, you'll get stains on the liner. Mostly the sweatband is the main contact area that gets the perspiration and grime. Guess you could put a strip of material between the sweat and felt. Sort of a cut-down liner in the summer to block stains?
My hat liner doesn't touch the top of my head due to the high crown and the fact that I pull my hair back in a pony tail.

I remove my liners from my summer hats. Is it cooler? Heck, I don't know, but it looks cooler. To me, for here in the south, the perfect summer felt hat has no liner and no sweat band. It is amazing how much cooler a felt hat is without the sweat. Plus, when you put the ribbon on super tight to help hold the hat to your head, you get an instant Cairo look. Fedora