Please Help! I wear baseball style caps when I fish (also hike, garden, boat, etc… In fact, I have a collection different caps from various tackle shops and tackle manufacturers. My problem concerns cleaning them. After 6 months or so they all get pretty dirty and sweat stained. My wife has thrown a couple in the washing machine and the results have been a disaster. Brims have detached, lining have come apart and worst of all, the sad remains have shrunk to pin-head size. These are not cheap hats; most run from $14-$24.
Is there a good way to wash baseball style hats without having them fall apart. Above all, how do you stop them from shrinking during and after the wash? In addition to having eight thumbs, I also have a baseket-ball sized head (7 3/4) and any shrinkage means that they sit on my head like a beanie. Thanks in advance for your help. 8T
You had better learn to be a happy camper. You only get one try at this campground and it’s a real short camping season.
Wash a fishing hat? Unless they look really bad and smell even worse, they aren’t a true fishing hat. I’m afraid that if I washed one, all the luck would go down the drain with the dirt…
Best way to clean a fisihing hat is to wear it winter steelheading. The rain gets most of the sludge off and the freezing temps make it easy to break off big junks of mud and such.
8T … wash a hat ? ! ??? that’s like washing your lucky charms
I had lots of ball caps … had. Washed some - lost some. Found I had more caps than I had storage space … anyhow …
Best bet to clean a dirty cap outside the washing machine - is by hand. You’ll still get shrinkage … best thing there, is once rinsed and rung dry - wear it for about 15-20 minutes to hold size. It’ll still shrink a bit when its totally dry, but not near the amount of just leaving it from wet.
If you just got to wash the hats, there is a hat washing rack you can buy for the dish washer. I think you can get them at Cabelas, but to wash baseball style hat the dish washer is the best way to go.
Ghost
time is like a river running though the world, if you dont take a moment to sit and watch it go by we loose so much. GrayGhost
I had the same problem, always wore baseball style caps, same problem, comfortable yet not really serviceable. In later years the back of my neck started to burn REALLY easy with the ball caps style. I happened to be in a mall up in Quebec city and there they had a little shop in the midle of the aisle with brimmed hats all the way around made by Tilley. Well, let me tell you that was the best money I have ever spent on a hat, no burning and I wear it everywhere, fishing, car races, outside, hiking, etc.
Oh yeah, it washed beautifully and it has a fabulous warranty.
Dwight
[This message has been edited by DBenner (edited 12 September 2005).]
Eight
I tried the washing machine trick and it came out clean enough except for extreme shrinkage. Put it out in the sun to dry and a little later saw a squirrel wearing it up in the top of a tree.
I’m with Noahsboyz on this one…don’t clean them at all…you might wind up a Jonah and there’s nothing worse on a trout stream. Buy cheaper hats and when you find a lucky one wear it till it falls apart…then burn it and burry the remains under a full moon.
Plant a multiflora rose bush over the spot sothat everyone who passes by will curse it for falling apart…and you’ll never be bothered by nightmares or dandruff etc.
Best advice I ever gave!
Ol’ Bill
1932
[This message has been edited by snipe (edited 12 September 2005).]
Go to a wig store and purchase one of those heads that they use to store and brush the wigs on. I too have a very large head, big brain , and find it very dificult to find a hat that fits. The styro, heads are small but you can wrap an ace bandage around the forehead until it has the same diameter of your head. Once you remove the hat from the dishwasher(while it is still wet), place it on the wig head and let it dry complelty. It should now fit your noggin like a glove …
Best Regards
[This message has been edited by BenC (edited 12 September 2005).]
I have found that the easiest way to wash a ball cap is by hand. I use dish soap warm water and an old toothbrush. Scrub the living $%#@ out of it. rinse rinse and rinse somemore. I tried one of those hat racks it was ok but not great when it comes to drying hang it up with a piece of string thru the size adjuster in the back and NEVER I repeat NEVER!!! put the thing in the dryer.putting one in the dryer results in a size 4x large hat that will fit a newborn MAYBE(if it is a preme with a very small head)
I’m with Dwight on this one. I switched to wearing a Tilley hat about four years ago because the edges of my ears started to turn “crispy” after a few outings in the hot Georgia sun every spring. I switched to a Tilley based on input from some very experienced anglers on this board and it has been the best hat I’ve ever owned. I hand wash it when it needs and place it on an empty gallon milk jug to dry. Little/no shrinkage and best of all no more crispy ears and sunburned neck. I’ve had too many friends suffer with skin cancer in later years from excessive exposure to the sun and the protection this will afford you will be the best money you’ll spend on flyfishing. Just one man’s opinion.
Mine’s an australian wide brim oiled hat. Cool in the summer and doesn’t shrink in the rain. I’ve fished during downpours where I collected 4 inches of water in the rowboat… twice during the morning and the hat was fine.
I have about 100 baseball caps and still aquiring more. I usually pick out 6 or 8 to wear over a 3 month period and then wash them, put em away, and pick another half a dozen. They sell baseball caps frames made especially for washing them in Walmart. I use top rack of the dishwasher, then leave em in the frames all nice and blocked and put em out in the sun to dry. They only cost about 5 or 6 bucks, maybe even less in Wally World. I have three frames and do em three at a time. Dishwasher detergent takes out all the dirt and sweat stains… makes em look like new and no falling apart. They come out perfect. Inside and outside, the only time I don’t have a ball cap on is when I go to bed. Wife can’t stand it but they have become a part of me.
later, RW
“We fish for pleasure; I for mine, you for yours.” -James Leisenring on fishing the wet fly-
My Tilly is at least 25 Years old and has survived the washing machine many many times . In the instructions that come with the Tilly they suggest that you dry them out of the sun and never in the dryer . When still just a little damp hold the brim firmly in both hands , place your knee in the hat and pull hard , works like a charm . Tillys by the way are pre shrunk . You cant hurt one .
The secret to washing those base ball caps, or the brimmed bucket fishing types for that matter, is in the drying. Now, I’ve used those hat washing racks for placing in the dish washer (regular clothes washing machine can be hard on them), but I think hand washing a hat using a bucket and scrub brush does about the best cleaning job.
SweetiePie had one of those old timey aluminum cook/steamer pots that she lost a part for and was going to toss it out if I did’nt want the thing for the camping gear. Of course, I never throw ANYTHING away, so I set the thing aside on the work bench thinking I’d put it in the camper in a day or two, but before I did, washed a hat and was trying to figure out how to dry the hat on the clothes line when the brilliant idea hit me to slip it over the bottom of that cooking pot. Gave it a try and it just fit! So I leave the pot turned upside down with the fishing hat slipped over it and give it a day to dry and it comes out great , dry and shapped! One time I mis-placed the old pot and had washed a hat and since I could’nt find the pot, found an empty plastic gallon jug (round, not square) that “something” came in, and I turned the plastic jug upside down in the opened vise I have at the end of my work bench and adjusted the vise just so, and there’s another hat dryer!
I no longer go around with grubby looking fishing hats … I now have a little style! Plus, after the hats are washed a couple of times, they take on a salty look … like the wearer knows what he’s doing! Great look in the fly fishing shops … they are back to calling me “sir”!
Please allow me to appologize for the error that I have committed in relation to my hat problem. Under normal circumstamces, I would never consider washing any fishing gear at all. I have never washed a fishing vest in my entire life—honest
Hats are another matter altogether. Mowing a large lawn in South Carolina during the summer with the sun beating down, temperature around 96 in the shade and 98% humidity really takes a toll on hats. The sweat literally drips off the brim. You can wring out the hat. Several months of this use gives the hat a distinct aroma that many (actually most humans) seem to find offensive.
Since I am follicly challenged, I also like to wear these hats to work, restaurants and other places where genteel individual may be found. Hence my question. 8T
You had better learn to be a happy camper. You only get one try at this campground and it’s a real short camping season.
[This message has been edited by Eight Thumbs (edited 12 September 2005).]
I wear a STETSON, best fitting hat I have ever owned. Many different styles (not just western cowboy styles). Hats are made from Beaver Fur, that is matted, and then molded into shape. If you are ever in St. Joseph Missouri, Stetson has a Outlet Store, where you can buy a Stetson for a lot less!
Hot day the head stays cool, rain will not wreck the hats shape, and you will have a hat to last a lifetime.
Great protection for the head, ears, and neck.
~ Parnelli
Chartered Member of “Friends of FAOL”!
Down in the meadow in a little bitty pool
Swam three little fishies and a mama fishie too
“Swim” said the mama fishie, “Swim if you can”
And they swam and they swam all over the dam
[This message has been edited by Steven H. McGarthwaite (edited 12 September 2005).]
The only way to wash a hat if you absolutely have to, like when you’re mom tells you it’s either going to be washed or thrown away, is in the dishwasher. I just stick it on the top rack and let it go. I’ve washed just about every ball cap I’ve owned that way and it seems to work great.
, and find it very dificult to find a hat that fits. The styro, heads are small but you can wrap an ace bandage around the forehead until it has the same diameter of your head. Once you remove the hat from the dishwasher(while it is still wet), place it on the wig head and let it dry complelty. It should now fit your noggin like a glove 