It's official - I have a mutated head.

[Biltmore Bob]

Soft hats is the answer.

 

[jamespowers]

Welcome to the strange head shape club. I have seen many different shapes and sizes. A friend of mine has a sort of flat forehead at the front and mine is more egg shaped from topview---from the conformateur anyway.
You have a few choices depending on how much you are willing to spend. A custom hat made to your specific head shape will fit much better than anything off the shelf. Vintage hats had much more specific hat sizes availble to you. I bet you could probably fit a 7 1/2(US) Extra Long Oval. the problem is finding one. The next size would be a 7 5/8 (US). They made those in long and Extra Long Oval as well. The problem is finding them. :cry:
I have not bought a new off-the-shelf hat in a very long time. I doubt they have the Extra Long Oval shapes or even Long Oval shapes anymore. I suppose it is cheaper to make less sizes to cram onto your head. :kick: You might find some though and that would be something to try on and see what fits best.
Let us know how it goes.

Regards to all,

J

 

[feltfan]

No surprise

I could tell just by looking at your avatar.

 

[shamus]

Babies who sleep on their back do tend to have flat back of skull because their skulls are still soft and haven't hardened, because their heads are growing.

It could be worst, you could have been born a Flat Head Indian or in Ancient
Egypt as a Pharaoh, of course that came with a few perks so it might not have been so bad. And neither of those groups were much into Fedoras.

 

[nicolasb]

You have a few choices depending on how much you are willing to spend. A custom hat made to your specific head shape will fit much better than anything off the shelf.

Doubtless. The question is where (in the UK) I could buy such a thing at a satisfactory price/quality ratio. :cry:

Vintage hats had much more specific hat sizes availble to you. I bet you could probably fit a 7 1/2(US) Extra Long Oval.

I thought a long oval (or extra long oval) was elongated from front to back...? If so then that's the precise opposite of what I need - I need something almost circular, unusually wide rather than unusually long.

I could tell just by looking at your avatar.

I look much more like my avatar than you would believe possible. (I guess I'm a bit less stripey ).

It occurs to me that, on an american site, most people probably won't recognise my avatar anyway - maybe I should change it....

 

[nicolasb]

The famous Bagpuss, is it not?

'Tis indeed, yes. Do they ever show that on PBS?

You'd be surprized at what some Americans know! Sorry to say, I am not familiar with all of the adventures of Bagpuss, however.

There's only 13 of them altogether, so not too much work involved in mastering them all.

 

[jamespowers]

Doubtless. The question is where (in the UK) I could buy such a thing at a satisfactory price/quality ratio. :cry:

I thought a long oval (or extra long oval) was elongated from front to back...? If so then that's the precise opposite of what I need - I need something almost circular, unusually wide rather than unusually long.

Unfortunately, I have no idea where you could get a custom hat in Europe in general much less the UK. Sorry about that.
Circular?! Now that is something I have not seen. Try the Extra Long Oval anyway and see how they fit. Some of them also give you extra room on the sides as well. I am sure there are those that would say it is a soft hat so it should conform to your head taking up the extra space one way or the other.

Regards to all,

J

 

[Matt Deckard]

You need a round oval or extra round oval. You can get that done by a competant hatter, and it is done all the time by western hatter in the US. It requires removing the sweatband of a hat that has already been purchased.


Some hatters that can help.
www.optimohats.com
www.randhats.com
www.baronhats.com
www.sundancemall.com/letitia/index.cfm -- O'Farrell hats
www.petersbros.com

 

[nicolasb]

Circular?! Now that is something I have not seen.

Or possibly triangular. Flat at the back, anyway.

Some hatters that can help.
www.optimohats.com
www.randhats.com
www.baronhats.com
www.sundancemall.com/letitia/index.cfm -- O'Farrell hats
www.petersbros.com

I'll have a browse through those websites.... In general do you think it's feasible for a hatter to make a custom-fitting hat purely on the basis of photographs? I don't have much visual sense myself, so it's hard for me to imagine what it's like for someone who does, but even so I would have thought a hatter would need to physically get his hands on a person's head (or a cast of it) in order to model something that precisely. I would have imagined fitting sessions, and fine adjustments with the buyer right there in front of you rather than conducting the transaction by mail order. I wish I had enough money to go to america just to buy a hat, but sadly I don't.