Hat cleaning shortcut?

[se couvrir]

I can’t find a great deal of information on hat cleaning in the threads, so thought it might be best to now start a new thread to share my experience and hope that it helps others.
I use large, strong dog wipes containing aloe-vera for my black Labrador. Some of my hats being grubby, my thinking was ‘if those wipes are gentle enough on his fur, why not use them on a fur felt hat’? Aloe-vera is used intestinally and cosmetically so can’t really be very harsh. And yes, before anyone points it out, I know that dog fur is not dyed! – but, all being well.........
I used a wipe to spot clean a small area under the brim of one hat with success, so continued to clean the whole hat and found no problem with the dye – none whatsoever came off onto the wipe.
I then went one step further and (although the wipes are very moist to the point of being wet), I used some additional liquid aloe-vera on a particularly grubby hat with complete success.
To date I have completely cleaned three fur felt light-grey hats; a Pilgrim, a Borsalino, a beaver (Castor Hudson) from Chapelier Adrien, Paris and a long hair brown/green Fléchet – all vintage hats. I also used a wipe to spot clean a rusty-looking mark of unknown origin from the underside of the brim of an almost white unworn Wormser with success and no visible trace of it having been done.
The results are that all hats (and hatbands) were cleaned and deodorised really well and when dry were gently steamed and brushed and suffered absolutely no deleterious effects whatsoever. So guys, before going to the lengths of a naphtha bath, it might pay you to try out this method first for general soiling, although I don’t think it will remove anything really oily.

Chris.

 

[tonyb]

Wow.

While reading the first few sentences of your post I was thinking "maybe for dark hats," but then you go on to say that it worked well on light-colored hats as well. I feared that it might darken the lighter felts, but your experience says otherwise.

Sounds like the aloe vera is adding a bit of what we call "luring." Does it seem to have any effect on the "hand" of the felt? Does it feel at all smoother or moister?

 

[hatsRme]

Hats off to you for creative thinking, Chris. Do you have before and after photos? Sounds easy, almost painless!

Also check out the threads contained in this sticky. There is more than one thread on hat cleaning methods.

 

[se couvrir]

Wow.

While reading the first few sentences of your post I was thinking "maybe for dark hats," but then you go on to say that it worked well on light-colored hats as well. I feared that it might darken the lighter felts, but your experience says otherwise.

Sounds like the aloe vera is adding a bit of what we call "luring." Does it seem to have any effect on the "hand" of the felt? Does it feel at all smoother or moister?

Hi Tony, No,I have not been aware of any appreciable change at all in the felt - with your great experience you could quite posssibly tell me otherwise. I can say that it did not change the colour, but certainly seemed to revive it.

Thanks hatsRmefor the heads up with regard to the sticky - will look through them as time allows. Unfortunately I did not think to take before and after pics.

Chris