Nothing is as good as that of getting the right cowboy hat. It is either you are preparing to attend country music festival in Nashville or you are working in the ranch in Texas and you want your hat to look good and fit well. Now that hat you have so well fitted on you makes you have a headache in an hour. The hats become smaller with time because of the sweat and heat. There are those that simply do not fit out of the box. It is not necessary to give it back or to suffer. This is something that can be corrected very easily at home using few basic tools and a lot of patience. We shall go through the very process of stretching a cowboy hat just as you can be able to wear it comfortably throughout the day.
The Reason Your Cowboy Hat is So Tight.
Cowboy hats can be considered an investment and they have an interplay with the environment. When you wear your hat when you are out in the American hot summer you will sweat. The sweat is soaked in the interior leather sweatband. The sweatband naturally dries as a result of which it shrinks. This is done slowly to the extent that it may take years before you realize it until the day when the hat seems to have become a vice-grip on your temples. The other usual offender is the act of leaving your hat in a car with a lot of heat. Solar radiation will bake the materials, and result in extreme shrinkage when thrown on the dashboard of your truck by the sun when it is hot. The shape and the fit may be distorted even by a sudden downpour after the water evaporates. The knowledge of the reason why your hat shrunk will make you avoid the same situation once you stretch it out. The main consideration of the stretching would always be the sweatband since this is the structural background against your head. By pulling the sweatband the rest of the hat will all fall into place.
Pre-Preparation: Before You Start find out what you are going to wear on your hat.
You can never make your hat change shape or size, before you know what it is made of. The cowboy hats are mainly of three types namely; felt, straw and leather. Felt hats have been manufactured using beaver fur, rabbit fur or wool. Fur felt of high quality is extremely strong and it is a steam responsive material. The wool felt is slightly more difficult to stretch and it is still possible. Straw hats are in demand during summer but they are finer. The excessive force on a dry hat made of straw will break and destroy the weave. It is necessary to add a soft moisture to the straw to make it soft and then put some tension on it. The hats that are made of leather are tough; at the same time, they need special leather conditioners to be able to stretch without cracking. Do not be like a heavy wool felt hat with a straw hat. Test the tag by putting it in the crown to be sure of the material. This is because once you are aware of what you are dealing with you can select the safest and most effective method below.
The first one is by using Steam to custom fit.
The only sure way of softening the fibers of a cowboy hat with water is to use Steam. This is an excellent technique with felt hats and can be utilized very safely on hat wares made of straw. This is aimed at warm and plastics of the sweatband. You may either use a special steamer of clothes, or boil water in a tea kettle. Bring to a boil so as to have a continuous flow of steam coming out of the spout. And hold your hat in your brim, and hold the inside of the crown above the steam. Hold the hat six inches off the spout in order not to wet the material. Gently spin the hat such that the steam reaches the totality of the inner sweatband. This should be done between one and two minutes until the leather becomes warm and soft. When the band is soft within a short period of time put the hat on your head. Pull it down to the very point you wish to have it. You must not take off the hat on your head till it cools and dries. This normally consumes a duration of twenty or thirty minutes. The material will also remember the shape and size of your head and when it cools down it will fit perfectly on your head like a custom.
Strategy 2: The Hat Stretcher Strategy.
In case you just need more space with steam or have to stretch a hat to the full size you require a mechanical hat stretcher. A hat stretcher is a piece of wood, having a metal turnbuckle at the centre. It is a cheap device every regular hat wearer must have in his/her possession. The procedure to follow using this method will be to apply steam to the sweatband as in the first method. The band is heated in order to avoid the material to tear as a result of pressure. After warming the band, then put the closed hat stretcher in the crown. Ensure that the blocks of wood are pressed into the leather sweatband. By slowly rotating the center handle, the blocks are expanded. Keep turning it until you discover hard resistance but do not over crank or you are likely to snap the internal stitching. Take the stretcher in the hat and leave it there. This would allow the fibers hours to slack into their new expanded state. In the morning switch the handle in the reverse direction in order to release the tension and take out the stretcher. Put the hat on right now. In case it is still tight repeat the procedure to another night. This is the very procedure which professional hatters apply and it has the most lasting effect.
Technique 3: The Knee Stretch Technique.
At times you are already out in a rodeo or an event and you notice that your hat is causing you headache. There is no kettle of steam or wooden hat stretcher about. The knee stretch technique can be used in such circumstances. It is a short-term guide adjustment that offers a short-term remedy. Get down and sit down and put the hat well on your knee. The crown must be turned outwards and the knee against the front section of the inside sweatband. Then, put your hands at the back of the sweat band and tug that way towards your body with continuous even force. No jerking or ripping of the material. You would like to make the leather a little bit longer. It is also possible to spin the hat and pull the sides in case it is pinching your temples. This technique involves the physical force of your body to be able to tear the fibers apart using mechanical force. It will not provide the complete upgrade size but it is usually sufficient to ease the tension so that you can have the rest of your evening. It is very dangerous to do so with old stiff hats, which may snap when tugged at too fiercely.
After Stretching: Caring for Your Hat.
After you have managed to stretch you hat you now need to maintain that perfect fit. Stay out of excessive artificial heat with your hat. Do not leave it in a car with a lot of heat. It should not be put close to a radiator or a campfire. In taking off your hat do not lay it level to the brim. A cowboy hat should always be kept upside down with the crown so that its shape would not be lost. In case you sweat a lot in your hat you should wipe the leather sweatband of your hat with a damp cloth once the sweat is removed. This eliminates the salt deposits which make the leather to dry out and shrink. Suppose you were stretching your hat with a wooden stretcher, you would do well to keep the hat in with the stretcher in it but not very hard. This serves like a shoe tree and avoids the curling in of the sweatband with the changing of the ambient humidity. With a properly maintained hat, the hat will retain its shape over the years implying that you will not be required to stretch the hat severally.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it possible to stretch a two-size hat of cowboy? No. As a rule, you can get a cowboy hat as far as a full size without breaking it. Any further attempts to stretch it further will distort the crown, as well as most probably tear the sweatband off the felt. In case one of the hats is drastically too small then you have to change the hat or buy another one.
Will the stretching of the hat destroy the shape of it? When performed properly stretching is concentrated all on inner sweatband and the bottom of the crown. It must not have an influence on the form of the brim or the crease at the top. But when one tries to stretch the hat with the help of extreme force and does not steam the hat, it becomes deformed at the lower part of the crown.
Is it possible to heat the hat with the help of a hairdryer? The risk of using a hairdryer is high. Hairdryers blow dry air that has the potential of drying the leather sweatband and worsening the shrinking. The reason why Steam is preferred is due to the fact that it will add moisture to the heat that will cause the fibers to bend.
So long as a hat is stretched, how long will it remain so? A hat that has been steamed and shaken to dry will tend to keep the shape forever unless one exposes it to excessive sweat and extreme heat once more. This is as long as you merely pulled it over your knee and the stretch might not last more than a few days before the leather becomes tight once more.
Final Thought
Cowboy hat is also not something that makes you feel pain but it must be a comfortable extension of your personal style. Wearing a tight hat is another frustration that is easy to do away with as you can see. You can easily make the hat fit exactly to your requirements by reading the material of your hat and simple equipment such as steam and a wooden hat stretcher can make it a perfect fit, all at the comfort of your own home. It is better to take your time, work the material slowly and never leave the hat in a form other than the one you wished to keep it. Take good care of your hat and it will help you all the year round and all the way.
