The safest place for your hat is on your head! Let it stay there as long as possible. Don’t wear the same hat day after day! Get several hats and rotate them.
Try not to grab your Fedora by the front pinch. You will make a mark and eventually weaken it. Please hold It by the brim.
The biggest threat to your precious fur felt hats is attack by the larvae of the common clothes moth.
The biggest threat to fur felt hats is attack by the larvae of clothes moths. The second-biggest risk is the arrival of mold due to humidity. When not wearing them, keep your hats in moth-proof bags - a fine mesh laundry bag is perfect - and/or boxes containing both dehumidifier and moth repellent tablets (some of them don’t smell too bad).
The ideal storage location is somewhere airy, dry and dark. Don’t leave hats, especially straw hats, close to air conditioning units or in the full glare of the sun.
If you aren’t storing them in bags, at least brush felt hats every two weeks or so. Get a stiff horsehair brush, with dark or light coloured bristles, depending on the hat colour.
Brush the whole hat vigorously, with anti-clockwise strokes. As well as getting rid of dust, this will be enough to interrupt the life cycle of the clothes moth, whose larvae love to eat high quality fur felt. Brushing will get rid of any eggs before they hatch and start feasting.
Please don't do this!
Hats like to be worn in all normal kinds of weather. But no hat enjoys being soaked, baked or frozen. If it gets rain-soaked, allow it to air dry. If a straw hat becomes dehydrated, gently mist spray it with water or take it into a steamy bathroom for a few minutes. Then let it air dry. If it becomes drenched in sweat, let it air dry and then use a damp cloth or disinfectant wet tissue to clean up any grease and deal with the salt marks as best you can.
Fur felt hats are highly water resistant. For added protection against the elements, use Scotchgard or equivalent spray. The rain will then more or less roll off. Wool felt hats, on the other hand, do not like rain and will easily shrink. Waterproofing spray will delay, but not prevent, shrinkage in wool felt. Panama hats can be cautiously sprayed, in order to prevent dirty marks.
Steaming is good for all hats, unless they’re made of soft wool felt, silk or satin. Wave the hat around in steam from a boiling pan of water, from a kettle, or an actual steamer, for up to 45 seconds. This will greatly benefit fur felt and straw, as well as temporarily softening the hat, which allows you to reshape it if you want.
As for dirt removal, disinfectant wet tissues are excellent for cleaning leather sweatbands, removing dirt and for dealing with any problems associated with your careless storage of last year’s Panama.
