Club Obi Wan

Hello everyone. I feel like kind of an idiot. I just received my first AB today in the mail. The hat looks PHENOMENAL. Oh man, I knew I was going to be impressed but I am just bonkers with excitement. The only bad thing, I gave my measurement to Steve when I had considerably longer hair, and since I'm almost out of college I've gone back to cutting it shorter. With my longer hair this hat is the perfect size...now it is slightly large. So, if I turn my head upside down the hat will fall off every time.

I was thinking, is there an easy way to just get some extra padding in there or something? Any suggestions?

I was thinking of taking a ride to Optimo hats, as I live fairly closeby in the Chicagoland area. Do you think they would be able to do anything to make it fit just a teensy bit better?

EDIT - I am really probably making it sound worse than it is. It fits pretty well; just a tiny bit loose. I'm going to head out to Optimo tomorrow. It says they have a "downsize" or "upsize" at $10 per size. Does anyone know what this entails? Also...I'm reluctant to give it to them as I definitely want to have it for this weekend...I wonder if I slip them a few extra bucks...

Cheap and simple solution. Go to a craft supply store (Michaels, Rag Shop, etc). Ask if they carry sheets of thin craft foam. Buy a sheet, cut a couple of strips (slightly thinner than the hat's sweatband), and tuck them under the sweatband. If the hat is looser on the sides, place the foam strips on the sides. If it looser front and back, place them there. For a really loose hat, put strips at all four points.

If the hat starts to feel snug, remove a strip.

That's it.

DO NOT get it resized! It's totally unnecessary.

One thing I fear if I DO go with the resize: even the "one downsize" by Optimo might make the hat too tight. It really is very close to a good fit, just a little bit loose.

I still am kinda curious as to how Optimo goes about resizing fedoras though...

I agree with CJ... I ordered my Akubra in size 61 because my hair was longer, and happend to me the same thing... my head shrank and what I did was to put the foamy thing that comes with the hat inside the sweat band and... the problem was solved!... Btw my head is about 59 cm, and the hat fits perfect now.
And... umh... could you post some pics of your brand new lid?

Best Regards!

-Alfonso

I will post pics as soon after this weekend (I don't have my own digital camera). The hat is SWEET though!

Relax, I picked up an AB and it seemed Huge. After wearing it for a few days, it snugged up quite a bit. You'll be fine.

I did the felt thing that Chewy suggested. It really worked quite well, I got a couple pieces of brown felt from Michael's and it really helped. Hopefully it will form to my head a little bit too so I can eventually remove them. But thanks again for the advice!

No problem. Odds are, if you wear the hat often, you won't need the felt strips for more than a year.

Shoot - check this out: 7 5/8 is slightly too large for me. EVERY cool hat I have is that size but what I do is turn the leather out so that the hat stands on leather.

I then fill my sink up with about an inch or two of hot tap water and set the hat in there to soak for a few minutes such that most of the leather strip is submerged but that NONE of the fur is touching.

I then take the hat out and let it dry over night, leather still turned out.

Lastly, I wake up in the morning and turn the now dry leather back in, put it on, and I am in business.

This is more difficult with Marc's hats as kangaroo seems to shrink less than other skins - just my experience.

Check out the nearest Western Store in the Greater Chicagoland Area and they should have felt strips for hat sizing.