Something terrible happened the other day...

[suitedcboy]

My experience with downsizing hats is that cloth strips work best. Foam expansion pushes the sweatband over when it expands off your head and wrinkles the sweatband in my experience.
Wearing hat until it is damp with sweat and then having the foam push the sweat inward when it expands off your head is a recipe for the wrinkled sweats you see in so many Ebay ads.
With cloth that is dense and will not compress and expand you can wear hat and have sweat dampened and it will do its normal leather shrinkage from wetting without the wrinkling from foam pressure. Folded paper towel strips work OK too.

 

[tonyb]

Why apply a permanent solution to a temporary problem? ...

Yes, of course. I somehow overlooked that part about Egghead expecting to grow his hair out again.

The padding-under-the-sweatband solution is predated by the sweatband itself, but only just barely, I'd guess. Among the little pleasures of digging through the old hats that still occasionally turn up at antique malls, etc., is investigating what may be lurking under the sweatbands -- typically folded pages from old magazines and newspapers.

Included in a stash of old hatters equipment I came across a couple of years ago was a couple of boxes of these things. I've used some, from the other box, but I think I'll just leave this box as is, for the novelty value more than anything else.

 

[EggHead]

Thanks guys! A lot of advice here. I am not sure if I want to grow that foot of hair again, but it will be fuller, i.e. normal length in 2-3 months. Among felt hats, Blacksheep still fits the best because it's actually 58.4cm so a little padding worked on it and I hope that in 2-3 months I will remove padding. Akubras, while I ordered 59cm, I think they come a little larger, I had to pad them even before I cut the hair, so I was thinking of some permanent solution to shrink them down to at least 58.4cm or even to 58cm. I tried panamas and surprisingly they fit better now, I think because they are light and my hair now sticks out because it's short and holds the hat.
I may try Tony's solution first on the cheaper panama and see how it goes.

 

[gtdean48]

...

Those look just like the strips I cut from felt squares I buy at craft dept of Walmart. I do like them over the foam strips I've gotten with Akubras.

 

[danofarlington]

Thanks guys! A lot of advice here. I am not sure if I want to grow that foot of hair again, but it will be fuller, i.e. normal length in 2-3 months. Among felt hats, Blacksheep still fits the best because it's actually 58.4cm so a little padding worked on it and I hope that in 2-3 months I will remove padding. Akubras, while I ordered 59cm, I think they come a little larger, I had to pad them even before I cut the hair, so I was thinking of some permanent solution to shrink them down to at least 58.4cm or even to 58cm. I tried panamas and surprisingly they fit better now, I think because they are light and my hair now sticks out because it's short and holds the hat.
I may try Tony's solution first on the cheaper panama and see how it goes.

Next time you cut it, send it to me.

 

[EggHead]

Well, I think I resolved the issue.

I first tried sewing up the back of the sweatband diagonally. I decided not to cut anything in case something doesn't work out.
An easy choice was my older panama hat that need some sweatband work anyway. Here is the picture.

That worked out well and fit was better.

So then I proceeded with an Akubra, again not cutting anything, just folding (puckering) the rear part of the sweatband and making a few stitches. I hope these pictures show it.

I didn't like it. First, the sweatband stretched out too far in in the back and didn't budge anywhere else and just didn't look good. When I put the hat on, it sort of wobbled on my head a bit. I think it was too heavy for that stretched out piece of leather to hold it. I concluded (unless I did something wrong), that this method works when one has a light hat and needs only 4 mm or so to reduce. 10mm was too much.

So I went to local fabric store (Britex) here in SF, and bought 1/2 yard of felt. Dark brown, wool/rayon, or something like that. 100% wool was too thick. This one was about 2mm. and $4.50 for 1/2 yard.

I cut out strips of between 3/4" and 1" wide and 18" long. Each hat required 2 1/2 of these strips and I was good.
I found out that cutting by blade was not working too well, the felt was ripping, so I used scissors.

I found that long strips of soft felt work a lot better at padding than paper towels or other stuff. They are soft, yet do not rip apart, thick enough to handle easier behind the sweatband, unlike paper which wants to fold. Felt strips also stick to each other and the hats felt.

 

[monbla256]

Yes, of course. I somehow overlooked that part about Egghead expecting to grow his hair out again.

The padding-under-the-sweatband solution is predated by the sweatband itself, but only just barely, I'd guess. Among the little pleasures of digging through the old hats that still occasionally turn up at antique malls, etc., is investigating what may be lurking under the sweatbands -- typically folded pages from old magazines and newspapers.

Included in a stash of old hatters equipment I came across a couple of years ago was a couple of boxes of these things. I've used some, from the other box, but I think I'll just leave this box as is, for the novelty value more than anything else.

That's the same kind that David Morgan and John Helmer send with their hats. They work WELL

 

[Dundee]

I have also found that crafter's foam works well. Strips cut from take out foam trays also works.

 

[EggHead]

I have DM's strips,. They are different. Much thicker, shorter and different material, seem more "foamy". Here I found that I could control length and width. With longer and wider strips (in my case), I found that they don't produce as much puckering of the sweatband as either DM strips or paper towels. Also, with going around full head, hat seems to fit more comfortably than just placing thick pads on the sides. Not arguing here, just FYI for those who are interested.