Is vintage felt still susceptible to shrinkage..

[djgo-cat-go]

..I asked myself after putting on a 50+ years old, unlined fur-felt hat on my towel-wet hair for three days in a row... My hair has to dry in some way and It's thick hair, so covered under a hat, it takes some time.. It's almost inevitable that the wetness will be partly absorbed by the felt of the hat..

Anyone experienced shrinkage 'from within'?

 

[djgo-cat-go]

Or is the assumption that all fur-felts are vulnerable to water wrong..? I'm new to this.. only remember shrinking my felt scout-hat when I was 12, and my mother shrinking my felt Superman-emblem that was on my favourite suit when I was 9... wasn't fur-felt in both cases though.. :-(

 

[Bantam Man]

Shrink

A quality felt hat will not shrink from the moisture coming of your just washed hair.
In the Akubra Federation debates I read that the lower quality Fed's shrink after heavy rain. And if you buy them just a little bit large, you can make them fit this way
But the better quality Fed's do not shrink -- as I can testify myself, using a Fed DLX as my everyday hat.

 

[gtdean48]

I'd be more concerned with the leather sweatband shrinking & drawing the felt with it. Leather will shrink as it dries. You sweat in a vintage sweatband & let it dry off your head, you will have a tighter fitting hat. A hat stretcher is mainly to adjust the size of the sweatband taking the felt with it. New felt will shrink some as it ages & gets more compact.

 

[Trebuchet64_Fal]

I have had no problems with the vintage hats that i wear, if anything i would speculate that they may actually loosen up a bit .

 

[John in Covina]

I think that heat was the source of most shrinkage. How it make the felt tighter i don't know but the leather sweat band maybe more susceptable to shrinking.

I recall something on Akubras where the suggestion was to buy big and using the heat of an incandescent bulb to shrink the sweat to size when new. Haven't seen that info in a while though.

 

[djgo-cat-go]

I'd be more concerned with the leather sweatband shrinking & drawing the felt with it. Leather will shrink as it dries. You sweat in a vintage sweatband & let it dry off your head, you will have a tighter fitting hat. A hat stretcher is mainly to adjust the size of the sweatband taking the felt with it. New felt will shrink some as it ages & gets more compact.

I shouldn't worry too much about it probably.. anyways, when I wear my hats, I wear em all day long without taking them off, so I reckon I don't have to sweat about a shrinking sweatband cause it dries on my head..

I also noticed the felt of my vintage 50's Champ for instance, being very tight and 'condensed' if I can call it this way.. no room for shrinkage..

and as I read back my original post I couldn't help starting to feel a little bit silly: I live in a country where it rains 7 out of 10 times and here I am, worrying about wet hair... :eusa_doh:

 

[Bantam Man]

Rain? Sometimes

Hey djgo-cat-go! Enough is enough!
Today we had the third day with nice Summer weather in a row in this country of you and me.
And we're warming up a little, every year, thanks to the climate change.

I wish it would rain a little, to keep the garden green

I shouldn't worry too much about it probably.. anyways, when I wear my hats, I wear em all day long without taking them off, so I reckon I don't have to sweat about a shrinking sweatband cause it dries on my head..

I also noticed the felt of my vintage 50's Champ for instance, being very tight and 'condensed' if I can call it this way.. no room for shrinkage..

and as I read back my original post I couldn't help starting to feel a little bit silly: I live in a country where it rains 7 out of 10 times and here I am, worrying about wet hair... :eusa_doh:

 

[John in Covina]

We just went thru our coolest June on record in LA.

 

[djgo-cat-go]

Hey djgo-cat-go! Enough is enough!
Today we had the third day with nice Summer weather in a row in this country of you and me.
And we're warming up a little, every year, thanks to the climate change.

I wish it would rain a little, to keep the garden green

Yeah Man, and I'm enjoying the sun even more, but.. 5/6 days ago the rain was coming through the roof of my house here.. much stuff ruined by the water, except the hats. Now I feel even more silly.. but your wish has come true tonight!! lol

 

[Justdog]

Felt shrinkage

So far so good for me. Since I switched to vintage Stetsons I have no issues with shrinking. This is limited though as every environmental variable I have not experienced. Today however is a good example. I took my new vintage Deluxe Stet OR outside in the pouring rain and got it pretty wet. I did this to wet the brim so I could reduce the flange angle and taper the front a bit more. After wetting and leaving to dry I had absolutely no shrinkage. So far the brim has been tapered down a bit. I would think that if you read a couple of threads on live and dead felt this might interest you.