Well as a professional hat wearer (I never leave the house without one on) I can safely say it depends on what the hat is made of. Cotton hats such as baseball caps and floppy bucket hats can usually be thrown in the washer with your unmentionables. Canvas and other stiff fairly waterproof hats should be scrubbed with soap, water, and a stiff brush (see panel one). Leather hats and felt ones such as fedoras and good quality fake fedoras should be dry cleaned as you suspected (generally speaking the dry cleaner doesn’t laugh if it’s an expensive hat (mine was returned in a garment bag though, which I found hilarious). Hope this helps fellow hat wearers. Keep Up the Good Work Adam!
You split an infinitive in panel 1. You should say either, “I have no idea how properly to clean a hat,” or, “I have no idea how to clean a hat properly.” This comment is pretty much a joke, since people always comment on typos you make and so forth.
If it is a felt- or furhat then use a hatbrush (just google it)
I got mine from hatsandcaps(uk)/villagehatshop(us) – they also have a good section on caring for hats in general.
Oh, and do order an extra one, they are excellent for cleaning drapes, sofas with textile covering (no more crumbs in the sofa – yay) and such as well…
Oh, and for whatever-entity-you-worship’s sake, do get a disposable sweatband (they do reduce the hatsize by about a quarter however) – since this solves the issue of the stench/dried sweat, especially if you are lucky enough to the find the velcro kind where the detachable part can take a washing machine (just have a spare laying around and after each warm day just toss the sweatband into the 60c/140F laundry and apply a fresh one – and you have fresh hat).
(Yes, I wear berets daily (pure wool, handwash, dry on flat surface), panama-hats (dispose of, order a new one, disposable sweatbands can lengthen the life quite a bit) when out partying and bowlers (felt, hatbrush, sweatband) when I need to be proper)
Okay, it’s getting downright scary how many of these I read and go “Yeah, me too.” My field-work hat….has character, as my family says. Had it for 12 years, 2 continents, 4 different deserts, and 2 rockhammers, and still have no clue how to clean it. I figure, long as it doesn’t walk away from me I’m good.
There was an episode of “Gator Boys” where a major thread was getting Jimmy’s hat cleaned. Florida Everglades have to beat the desert for making hats ultra stanky.
Heh! I was just pondering this the other day – and pretty much standing the same way as in panel two.
I gave up and just put the hat on.
“This shirt is dry clean only. Which means… it’s dirty.”
– Mitch Hedberg
Well as a professional hat wearer (I never leave the house without one on) I can safely say it depends on what the hat is made of. Cotton hats such as baseball caps and floppy bucket hats can usually be thrown in the washer with your unmentionables. Canvas and other stiff fairly waterproof hats should be scrubbed with soap, water, and a stiff brush (see panel one). Leather hats and felt ones such as fedoras and good quality fake fedoras should be dry cleaned as you suspected (generally speaking the dry cleaner doesn’t laugh if it’s an expensive hat (mine was returned in a garment bag though, which I found hilarious). Hope this helps fellow hat wearers. Keep Up the Good Work Adam!
Well, thank goodness you didn’t post this yesterday.
You need a good hat brush for felt hats like fedoras
You split an infinitive in panel 1. You should say either, “I have no idea how properly to clean a hat,” or, “I have no idea how to clean a hat properly.” This comment is pretty much a joke, since people always comment on typos you make and so forth.
Meh. It’s not a hard and fast rule. Let’s live dangerously.
Split infinitive isn’t wrong, that’s made up bs from the 19th century that only grade school teachers care about.
Well, you can’t split an infinitive in latin!
Except we’re not speaking latin…
Quid dicis?
Awww! You said a swear!
If it is a felt- or furhat then use a hatbrush (just google it)
I got mine from hatsandcaps(uk)/villagehatshop(us) – they also have a good section on caring for hats in general.
Oh, and do order an extra one, they are excellent for cleaning drapes, sofas with textile covering (no more crumbs in the sofa – yay) and such as well…
Oh, and for whatever-entity-you-worship’s sake, do get a disposable sweatband (they do reduce the hatsize by about a quarter however) – since this solves the issue of the stench/dried sweat, especially if you are lucky enough to the find the velcro kind where the detachable part can take a washing machine (just have a spare laying around and after each warm day just toss the sweatband into the 60c/140F laundry and apply a fresh one – and you have fresh hat).
(Yes, I wear berets daily (pure wool, handwash, dry on flat surface), panama-hats (dispose of, order a new one, disposable sweatbands can lengthen the life quite a bit) when out partying and bowlers (felt, hatbrush, sweatband) when I need to be proper)
I have NEVER thought about this before, and now I can’t think of anything else!
Just like Billy Crystal in City Slickers, it’s a baseball cap for me. Machine wash, hang on doorknob to dry.
They used to use mercury to clean men’s hats. Hence ‘mad as a hatter’…
I thought mercury was used to make, not clean, the hats. I could be wrong.
It *was* used for making felt – for use in hats – but I really thought I’d heard it was also used to clean them.
Everybody’s missing the main point here…Adam…you have unmentionables? Yoiks!
Okay, it’s getting downright scary how many of these I read and go “Yeah, me too.” My field-work hat….has character, as my family says. Had it for 12 years, 2 continents, 4 different deserts, and 2 rockhammers, and still have no clue how to clean it. I figure, long as it doesn’t walk away from me I’m good.
There was an episode of “Gator Boys” where a major thread was getting Jimmy’s hat cleaned. Florida Everglades have to beat the desert for making hats ultra stanky.
Haven’t had it in a Florida swamp yet. It was in an Alabama swamp, but that’s not as good.
I just barely got the irony in the last panel.