The Long Oval Unfortunate's Club

[The Good]

I'm suspecting that I may be long oval. My vintage Stetson, a 7 3/8 long oval fits just fine, comfortably. My Fed IV Akubra on the other hand is the standard size 59, round oval, and fits a little tighter; noticeably so. Of course, due to exposure to the elements, it may have even shrank down a size.

 

[scottyrocks]

Im a 7 3/8 LO. I have a very vintage Royal Stetson in this exact size that fits me beautifully. I also have some Akubras that are, as mentioned here, standard ovals. I bought them in my true size, and they were snug front to back and too big on the sides. I wet and wore them repeatedly and they became LOs. Also, I never experienced brim warp. The hats all look and fit great.

I recently reblocked one of my Fed IVs on a 7 3/8, LO, crown style 52 block I bought via the Lounge. The hat fits even better now, and still no brim warp.

Maybe its just the resiliency of Akubras.

 

[hasselhoff]

7 3\8 LO... My Fed IV has these weird bumps on the brim... Anyway to get rid off those (haven't found any!).
I guess I'll have to get 7 1\2 hats...

 

[Rodkins]

I'm a 7 3/8 LO and I have to say that the medium sized hat jack stretcher is perfect for turning a regular 7 3/8 into a long oval. I've found that if I do this for a while at first the hat conforms and fits well over time.

 

[donnc]

Swoopy brims are almost out of the question; our head shape flattens every brim out.

I have a couple hats here at hand, and am trying to guess what kind of swoopy we're talking about?

When I wear a hat that's a little rounder than my head, which is usually the case, it seems to exaggerate the `snap'. The worst case is actually the perfectly unswoopy brim - no snap, no nothing, so any distortion of the brim shape in whatever direction, is in the wrong direction.

 

[scottyrocks]

Right. Snap brims will snap and hold their shape even if the hat is pulled in weird directions a little bit. Brims with no binding suffer from the wrong-head-shape weirdness blues.

 

[Mobile Vulgus]

I have a couple of 7 LOs and they seem to fit much nicer than my regular 7s. But I couldn't tell you for certain that I am a 7 Long Oval size, really.

 

[Ordinary Guy]

I am a tweener size LO....

That is to say I am a 57 1/2 LO.. a wretched mess I am... Never could figure out what hats didn't fit me right, I could put two of the same make, model, size on and they would fit different...

Thanks to Art and his conformer, I now know what i am and I have a list of 4 more hats I need from him.... LOL

 

[ScionPI2005]

According to Art's conformer, I'm a 7 LO. While this is the size that seems to fit me best, I have hats ranging from 6 7/8 to 7 1/8 LO and regular oval that fit well. Some modern produced hats don't seem to have a problem, even though I'm assuming they're regular oval. In my experience, it seems like I mainly have to focus in getting the size right, and then with a slight modification (tissue under the sweatband on the sides), I can get a hat to work for me.

 

[shango]

Does anyone know when Stetson stopped making OR in long oval sizes?

 

[Wildblue]

Yes, I too sing the blues as a man with a massive noggin, and Long Oval to boot! 7 3/4 LO here. If I buy ANY commercial hat, it's at best snug at front and back, but if it wobble my head side to side, the hat easily shakes with the big air gaps there. Nowadays, it's nearly impossible to find a quality hat in stores that fits me at all with the big head, much less is accommodating to a LO.

The only hat I've been able to buy actually made LO was my custom Brent Black panama, which he did use a LO block on for me. Other than that, the best luck I've had is NOT buying a size up and trying to shrink or use felt under the hatband, but rather go ahead and buy the 7 3/4 (or roughly 62 metric) and try to have it re-blocked for my LO. I was even unable to buy my custom Akubra Lawson as a LO direct from the factory, and you would imagine they'd be one of the most likely to do that.

 

[Bob Beecher]

BIG Heads Unite!

This is my first post and I'm just getting into wearing hats .... because....

Hats have never fit me in the past!

I got my big head from my mother. When she was a new recruit in the USMC, she got in trouble for walking around the base without a cover because they had nothing to fit her large head. They had to special order it and she had to wait a couple of months.

My dad is an actor and, when I was a kid, I used to try on his hats he kept for costumes. My two favorites were a dark grey newsboy cap and his Stetson Homburg. But, I've grown since then. I'm 6' 6" and about 240 lbs.

Over the years, vendors and the like have given me ball caps. Here's how the exchange usually went:

Me: "Oh, that's not going to fit me."

Them: "Sure it will. It's adjustable. See? In the back, here!"

Me: "Trust me. That's NOT going to fit me."

If they insisted, I'd put on their stupid ball cap with the little plastic sizer pulled all the way out and it would look like a beanie sitting atop my head. They would frown and say, "Well . . . you can give it to a friend, then." Fine!

I finally figured out that I wear a size 8 hat. Yep, I measured and it came out to about 25 inches in circumference. So, I ordered a size 8 Dodgers cap online. Finally, I was able to wear a cap.

But, I don't like ball caps. Despite their popularity, I think that, unless you're a professional baseball player . . . or you're a nine-year-old boy, a grown man simply looks ridiculous wearing a baseball cap. Wearing them backwards or sideways is just, well . . . asking for even more ridicule.

I really like the look of the fedora and have a love of swing jazz, too. I play trombone is a swing jazz band and was imagining myself wearing some classy hat with a 1930s or 40s look. So, I ordered a gray Stetson Temple in a size 8 and loved it when I tried it on for the first time. I wore it to the Rose Parade in Pasadena earlier this year, along with a long black coat and gray scarf. Snazzy!

The hat's nice, but I live in L.A. and the Temple is too warm for most months out of the year. I just ordered a Dobbs Harvey straw fedora in their "sand" color. That should look nice with my cooler clothes.

So, my choices for hats are limited to those available in sizes 8 or XXXL. That cuts out a LOT of choices. Anyone else have this problem?

Thanks for bearing with my first -- and overlong -- post.

 

[frussell]

I got a Dobbs Arcadia at the start of the summer in a size 8, and it's a great straw with vintage lines. Not a stingy brim, nice wide ribbon, pretty untapered crown. There's photos somewhere here of RBH wearing one. I got mine from the Hat Brothers site, after a few reminders, they got the hat to me at a good price. Akubras from Hatsdirect go up to your size, occasionally in different models, but definitely in the Federation IV. If you stick with hat wearing and want more, Art Fawcett or TonyB at Tumwater Hats could make something for you. I've got 7 7/8 fedoras from both that were well worth the money. If you need a great silverbelly cowboy hat, PM me, as I've got an 8 that I just can't get to shrink down to a 7 7/8. I feel your pain about the weather, I'm closer to Palm Springs, and several degrees hotter year round. Welcome to the Lounge, and you're definitely not alone. Frank

 

[Atticus Finch]

I wear a size 7 3/4 in vintage hats and a 7 5/8 in new hats. Yes, as a Large Noggin' Lounger (a term coined on FL by gtdean48), you'll find that your choice of nice hats will be limited. But that can be a good thing. I've always thought if I was a size 7 1/4, I'd be bankrupt from buying vintage hats.

I think many hat retailers carry stock sizes only up to 7 3/4 or 7 7/8. If you're a size 8 you may have to invest in a custom hat for a comfortable fit. But the good news is there are more and more custom hat makers in operation and the internet gives one access to most of them.

AF

 

[Jedwbpm]

I am a 7 5/8 do I count has a Big Head?

Jeff

 

[pjt113]

I always thought I wore a 7 5/8 which was tough to find, then I took a vintage OR to Optimo for a complete rebuild and they measured me at 7 3/4! So it will be tougher to find nice vintage hats in my size.

BTW, Optimo did a fantastic job, I've never had a hat fit as well.

 

[job]

I'm also a 7 5/8 and a long oval. I bought Tesi hats at 7 5/8 (USA size)that were loose but a 61cm Akubra fits pretty good dispite being a long oval.I have went the custom route so I get the best of everything. ( fit, finish, options, ) I'm not going to buy new hats forever so I might as well do it up right.

 

[Bob Beecher]

I got a Dobbs Arcadia at the start of the summer in a size 8, and it's a great straw with vintage lines. Not a stingy brim, nice wide ribbon, pretty untapered crown. ..., but definitely in the Federation IV. .... Frank

The Arcadia looks very similar to the Harvey, 2½" brim and all. Oh, and I've been thinking about a brown "Raiders-style" fedora. I've checked out the Federation IV and a few others. I don't know if I'll need a cowboy hat yet.

 

[Wojo]

I am also cranially endowed with a size 8.
The owner of Hats Plus in Chicago is also cursed/blessed with a large head and tends to keep a decent selection of modern lids in our size.

Do you guys also have trouble finding glasses that fit? Most glasses tend to look like pince-nez on me.

Wojo

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Seven and five eighths here too. About impossible to find vintage hats in anything over 7-1/4 to 7- 3/8. The available sizes curve falls off the chart sharply after that. If I do find one now and then, the auctions go way over what I would reasonably pay for a hat I have never even tried on to see if I liked the look of it. Seems all we can do is buy newer manufactured hats, and even those come at a high cost.
Is there a way to shrink my head??? :frusty: