Do good quality straw hats fray or rip over time?

[Genuine Classic Gangster]

I have never owned a good quality straw hat before, but I may wish to buy one.

Before I can know if that is a good use of my money, I need feedback from you gentlemen.

To illustrate my concern, I have included pictures of the fraying on my $99 (I realize that I cannot expect good quality at that price) Magill straw hat that I bought a few years ago. The first two pictures are of the edge of the brim.

The third picture is of the inside of the crown at the center: in that area, the straw pokes into into my head, like a bunch of thorns, which is quite annoying and uncomfortable. Long before I took the picture of that area today, the straw there used to poke out much worse, until I used my fingers to break off the longest and most offensive pieces. Originally, that area had a sticker over it that said, "Genuine Panama Made in Ecuador," or something like that, but that sticker failed to stick any more after some rain fell on the hat. I suppose they put that sticker there to try and and shield their customers from the poking problem, and/or to hide the problem from their customers by hoping it won't come up if the sticker stays in place.

Here are my questions:

1. Will fraying issues like the ones seen in those pictures develop also in a good quality straw hat?

2. Optimo has told me that they only offer two options for edges on their straw hats: bound or raw. This puzzles me because I thought that underwelts on straw hats are possible to make. I believe my Magill hat as shown above has an underwelt, does it not? If it does not have an underwelt, then what kind of edge does it have? If it does have an underwelt, do you have any guesses as to why a company like Optimo does not offer underwelts in that sort of style on their straw hats?

3. Are the brim edges of good quality straw hats vulnerable to getting ripped over time? By the same token, in case something happens to the raw edge of a good quality straw hat do you think I would be wise to get a brim size that is larger than my ideal size as a kind of "insurance policy?"; or would I be wiser to just get the ideal size of brim for me and not worry about the edge getting damaged? This decision is very important to me because if I buy a good quality straw hat then it will require me to use money that took me an extremely long time to save up; hence I will want the hat to be usable for as long as is possible.

4. Are good quality straw hats vulnerable to having the straw in the center of the crown on the inside start to poke into my head, as does the Magill hat shown/described above?

 

[TheDane]

Are we talking straw hats or Panama hats? If Panama hats - are we talking Cuenca or Montechristi? Straw is a lot of very different things

 

[Genuine Classic Gangster]

Are we talking straw hats or Panama hats? If Panama hats - are we talking Cuenca or Montechristi? Straw is a lot of very different things

Those are great questions, but unfortunately I do not know enough about what those terms mean to be able to provide any meaningful answers.

Since I am familiar with Optimo Hat Company and likely to buy from them if/when I get a good quality straw hat, then I request if we can apply my questions to:

1. Optimo's Montecristi Panama hats that are below the Superfino grade.

and

2. Optimo's Milan hats.

 

[CRH]

Yes, hats will wear in and wear out just like any other article of clothing. Any type of straw will eventually break and fray but a well built lid will wear better than a cheapo. Most any type of "straw" including paper straws will fair better over the long haul if given a light dose of moisture periodically - just wipe down with a damp cloth. A drenching, however, may deform a straw, especially the softer ones but that can be fixed with proper massage.

I have an Omish straw for summer work and general bumming that is woven from either wheat or oats and reinforced with thread stitching. That one gets the garden hose when it gets dirty!

 

[TheDane]

1. Fraying will always happen to any kind of a straw hat - even Optimos fine Montecristis and Milans. It's all a matter of time, but the better quality - the longer it takes.

2. I don't think Optimo makes any straws with bound brims.

3. Well, any straw hat will eventually end up with a frayed brim edge. As said: It's a matter of time. No, you shouldn't choose a wider brim.

4. No, I have never experienced or heard of that.

 

[Genuine Classic Gangster]

Thank for the feedback.

So, might investing in lightweight felt hats - rather than straw hats - be a wiser choice, since lightweight felts do not inherently get worse over time, as straw does?

 

[TheDane]

Well, any hat decays with time

 

[Genuine Classic Gangster]

Well, any hat decays with time

What would a felt hat's form of decay entail?

How come the vintage hats that are very popular among the members here have not decayed even though they were made decades ago?

 

[TheDane]

Felt hats often shrink if exposed to much rain - and they generally loose some of their shape with time. Both vintage straw and felt hats are popular among members due to their higher quality. Back in the day it was common to have your hat(s) cleaned and blocked from time to time. Many of the hats, now up for sale/auction, have been cleaned and blocked - others have hardly been worn.

 

[CRH]

All of my hats have some degree of arthritis by now. No wait.....

Jeeze, I need a new hat!

 

[Genuine Classic Gangster]

So, if good quality hats are going to fall apart anyway over time, what do you guys think of the idea of exclusively buying low quality beater hats?

 

[CRH]

So, if good quality hats are going to fall apart anyway over time, what do you guys think of the idea of exclusively buying low quality beater hats?

To go with your low quality beater shoes and your low quality beater pants, shirts, coats and underwear, you mean?

Keep going and we'll end up with a low quality shave. :eeek:

 

[job]

Beater hats have their place.
I have beater straw hats for yard work and nicer one's for everything else.
Personally I plan on passing my hats down to my son. A quality hat can last a life time or two etc.



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[CRH]

Good idea.

 

[Tomasso]

I have a 20+ year old Montecristi that is fraying a bit at the pinch. My fault for mishandling it but I don't mind the look. I term it character; rather than beat up.

 

[CRH]

OK, who wants to start the "What dumpy old hat are you wearing today" thread?

 

[Huertecilla]

Beater hats have their place.
I have beater straw hats for yard work and nicer one's for everything else.

I get given several beater straw hats yearly and they are not expected to last long under the merciless sun in the bone dry summer months.
All vegetable fiber weave hats have fundamentally the same issue with becoming brittle by the combination of UV and dryness.

I am awed by the realy good quality ones but cost imo too much in comparison with vintage felt ones.
I understand the hours and craftsmanship involved MUST fetch that price, that they can actually be quite good vfm, but that does not make the end product functionally an any better hat in comparison to a good quality vintage felt costing a LOT less.

Even when comparing modern made hats there is no contest. 80 Euros buys me a very neat ISESA felt handmade lightweight crushable by Miroc in Granada which will worryfree out-anything an 80 euros Panama.
I am looking forward to the ISESA factory visit to see what they themselves make under their Fernandez & Roche brand.

 

[Huertecilla]

OK, who wants to start the "What dumpy old hat are you wearing today" thread?

I have put it on the to-do list for the weekend and will post my little red riding hoed.

 

[Genuine Classic Gangster]

To go with your low quality beater shoes and your low quality beater pants, shirts, coats and underwear, you mean?

Keep going and we'll end up with a low quality shave. :eeek:

I see what you mean.

But at the same time, I feel like I'm caught between a rock and a hard place. I seem to be unable to win either way. My choices are:

a. spend tons of money on high quality hats that will look great for some time, and then look bad.

b. spend much less money on low quality hats that will look okay for even less time than high quality hats, and then look bad.

What I really want is a third option like this:

c. spend tons of money on high quality hats that will look great forever.

A couple of years ago I stopped shopping at my local hatter's shop because I was tired of buying Biltmore President hats that would last for only about 2 years. After 2 years, they would shrink & lose their shape too much to be usable anymore. Subsequent to the closure of Biltmore's factory in Canada, my local hatter started charging ~$200 CAD for a Biltmore Royal, whereas before the closure, $200 CAD could buy me a Biltmore President and the Royal was closer to ~$135 CAD. Moreover after the closure, my local hatter told me that they could not even get a Biltmore President any more, not even at a higher price.

The combination of me being fed up with needing to buy a new hat every 2 years along with the higher asking price for a lesser quality hat than what I was already used to was the straw that broke the camel's back and caused me to forsake my local hatter and graduate to high end bespoke hatters.

My thinking was that from now on, I will save up money for a long time and then pay out a lot, even though doing that hurts me financially, so that I can avoid having to buy new hats all the time, as I had do during my Biltmore era.

Now I seem to be hearing from you guys that going high end will not make my hats last either. That is changing my thinking again, and making me wonder if I should forsake my plan to buy high end hats since that plan isn't going to give me what I really want.

Maybe going back to low quality beater hats is the best solution for me, at least until such time as I can get my income high enough so that I do not care about the money that I spend on hats. If I had a lot of extra money, these issues would not matter to me nearly so much.

 

[TheDane]

So, if good quality hats are going to fall apart anyway over time, what do you guys think of the idea of exclusively buying low quality beater hats?

Do you buy cheap cars, because a car will run down in X number of years? Or refrigerator, laptop or TV-set? It may be a problem, that a hat wears out in 25 years - and it may not.

Maybe you should define your expectations instead ... how long do you expect a hat to last? Anything will fall apart over time