For men and women, a warm-weather straw fedora hat is both trendy and practical. A cowboy cap, a Panama fedora, and a wide-brimmed hat that hides the summer sun are only a few of the styles available.
You need to know the type of straw you’re playing with before you roll up your sleeves and start wiping because not all straw is made together. The list goes on and on with shantung straw, Toyo straw, Panama straw, cotton, raffia straw, seagrass, and so on. Since each straw has a particular degree of water resistance and longevity, check the hat care label and see whether you can wash it with water.
If your hat isn’t labeled, pay attention to how close the weave is. A straw hat with a loose-knit is unlikely to be as durable as one with a fine weave. Often, just because your hat is pricey does not mean it can survive getting soaked. So before you treat a straw hat with water, make sure you’ve done your research.
How Often Do You Clean Your Straw Hat?
A proper washing once or two times a year will keep the straw hat in satisfactory condition, even though it doesn’t need regular deep cleaning. You may clean many straw hats with water and a gentle stain remover, but others can get misshapen if they get too wet. In both cases, avoid the water-based steps and only use a cleaner and a soft brush. If you’re unsure which route to take, clean a tiny region under the rim as a measure to ensure the medication won’t hurt it.
It can also go without saying that the only way to deal with any dirt or stain on a straw hat is to keep it from happening in the first place. Even the neatest hands will soil the brim or crown of a hat with time, so strive to stop touching the cap as much as necessary, and when you do, treat the smallest area possible. Another issue with a straw hat is that the straw splits around the top, near the snap. You can prevent it by handling the cap by the brim instead of the crown.
What is the proper way to clean a Straw Hat?
As fashionable as straw hats are, cleaning and maintaining them can be difficult. If you wash a straw hat in liquid, it would most likely lose its form. Furthermore, oils on even the healthiest of hands will stain the brim or cap of a straw hat with time, so you should touch the hat as little as possible, and once you do, treat the smallest area doable.
Steps for cleaning a straw fedora
- To clear extra dirt and debris, clean the hat thoroughly yet softly with the soft bristle brush.
- One part rubbing alcohol to 1 part water in the bottom spray bottle To make a whole hat, you won’t need anything.
- On a soft rag, spray the solution.
- Wipe the fabric over the whole cap; measure a small, innocuous area first to ensure the hat can withstand the solution without staining.
- Spray the solvent directly on the dye and brush it out with persistent stains. It’s important not to soak the straw in the solvent, as this might cause the hat to curl.
- Wipe the whole straw hat off with a clean, dry cloth after being washed in this manner.
Things to remember while cleaning the straw hat
- Remove any ribbons or trim from your hat before beginning the cleaning process. Then, separately clean them by dusting or hand-washing. A bit of steam or ironing may also revive them.
- To compress a curled straw brim, place the hat on a level surface and place something thick, such as a side table book, over it while it dries. To keep your hat clean, put a pure fabric or cotton tee shirt among your hat and your heavy object.
- It should carefully wash the fabric bits by scrubbing them in a circular motion with a damp cloth dipped in laundry detergent or Woolite. The fabric fragments could then be rewashed, without soap, with a second wet cloth.
- Before you add some liquid to the mix, make sure the hat is completely dry. Using talcum powder or cornstarch, lightly coat the dye. Enable the powder to absorb the stain for an hour or two. Then, wipe away the powder and see if the issue has got resolved. Don’t panic if you don’t. You haven’t finished yet.
That’s about what there is to it. Little more care and affection will go a long way toward extending the longevity of your straw hat, and as you can see, washing a straw hat is a breeze. If the stress of caring for a hat is gone, you will enjoy wearing it, and your summer outfit would never be the same.