Hat drenched, Tried fixing, hat ruined?

[Pompidou]

I should've posted here before attempting to solve my own problems, but here goes. My hat got soaked with water. It's a stetson whippet - the one I'll be photographing soon enough. My stetson pamphlet said to treat water blotches with talcum powder. I've covered my hat in baby powder. I'm praying it's not going to ruin my hat. I tried quickly brushing it off, and it seemed to dig deeper into the hat. I reapplied the talcum and am waiting overnight. Hopefully the hat dries and I can see what happens. Did I do the wrong thing? I'm thinking I might have to buy a new hat. I'd hate to rub all the fuzz off my hat before one week of use.

 

[Lefty]

You'll be fine. Let it dry, then brush it with a hat brush.

BTW, don't worry about your hat getting wet. A hat of any quality can handle the rain.

 

[Pompidou]

Thank you, and that's good to know. If I hadn't joined the forums here, rain wouldn't have worried me. I read about the tragic decline of the Stetson product. I read about how low quality hats bleed the color and fuzz off in the rain. I suppose I put 2 and 2 together, or I thought I did. Little did I know the first number wasn't a 2, so I needn't worry. Stetson probably isn't a low grade of that degree. We'll see what happens. When I was 100% ignorant, I would've worn any hat in any weather, figuring, if you can't wear a hat outside when it's not sunny, what good is it? A little knowledge is often worse for me than no knowledge. I've gotta become especially knowledgeable now, lest I find myself looking silly.

 

[Lefty]

If it doesn't turn out well, a rep. of HATCO (the company that owns the Stetson name) posts here. You can either try contacting him or calling Stetson. They seem to be pretty good about customer service, though I have no experience.

 

[Pilot99]

If it doesn't turn out well, a rep. of HATCO (the company that owns the Stetson name) posts here. You can either try contacting him or calling Stetson. They seem to be pretty good about customer service, though I have no experience.

Yeah I have a couple of friends who have bought new Stetson's with some minor issues and the company has been very good with customer satisfaction from the stories I've heard from them. If worse comes to worse I'm sure they'll be able to accommodate you.

 

[Pompidou]

I got it looking good enough today. I need to buy a hat brush at some point. The talcum didn't come out neatly or evenly. I tried one of those air cans for cleaning keyboards. Made the problem worse. What I ended up doing was taking a brand new paintbrush I picked up alongside the aircans and intentionally resoaked my hat, while "painting" the water on counterclockwise. It's drying now and looks the same pleasant brown as the day I got it.

I would never complain to Stetson for my stupidity. In the event the talcum made things irreparable, I'd use the hat as a beater and/or buy a new hat. I gave my first hat to a friend. Now I have two. A Baileys Porkpie and a Stetson Whippet. There is a learning curve to hats, that's for sure. I don't know if hats are just more high maintenance than any other article of clothing, or if I just don't care about any other article of clothing. Probably the latter. I'm the product of a disposable society.

 

[Andykev]

Silver Label Miracle Spot Remover

You should not apply talcum powder to a WET anything. The water spots are what result after the had dries, and you can see the "water spots" (now dry).
They are caused because our hats collect dust, and when water and dust mix, it makes the spots.

The talcum powder trick is used to smooth out the spots.

I would recommend you use "Silver Label" miracle spot remover, made just for this purpose. It is coarser than talcum powder.

 

[scottyrocks]

Worse comes to worse, you can apply some Fullers Earth to it for that well-lived-in look.