How to Properly Clean a Baseball Hat
Posted: Thursday, March 30, 2006
by David Stone
Stone Publishing
There are certainly many approaches to washing a baseball hat, but which is the best? Well I cant tell you Ive tried all the ways to do it, but I can tell you which way has worked best for me in my many years of playing baseball and caring for dirty hats.
The First thing anyone shoulddo is simply look at the tag on the inside of your hat to see what material makes up the stinky hat in front of you. This is a pretty good start for the cleaning your hat because the tag will give you the best tips. It will say what the hat is made of and give you standard instructions for washing. Now, if you dont have the tag left in the hat or it is unreadable, dont panic. Most new hats are either one of the following:
This is a strong and durable material and has that "cotton" look and feel to it because we all know with baseball hats - the older it is the better it looks and feels to wear.
Cotton polyester:
These fabric blends are tough, bright and most often times color fast.
Jersey mesh:
This particular material is a durable, colorfast knit and a cinch to wash.
Wool:
This material is most certainly warm, but can shrink in water and/or in heat situations.
Now for the washing.
Always use a washing machine and NEVER a dishwasher. Dishwashers are made to wash dishes NOT fabric and can cause damage do to the high heat at which they wash.
Make sure to put something else in the washer with the hat, preferably the same (or close) color. This will soften up the washing cycle and make the environment more delicate for your hat. Make sure to pre-treat the liner or headband with an enzyme based laundry pre-spray before washing. Use the cold water setting, warm is also ok, but NEVER hot water. AND NO BLEACH!
Once the hat is washed it must air dry. Putting your hat in the dryer will destroy all the time you spent molding the hat to your head. I recommend for the drying part that you look for a plastic hat mold. They are out there and very cheap. They ensure that the hat keeps its form through the drying process. Not critical, but if you can get one it will make a bit of a difference in the end result. Thats it its very simple happy washing!
About The Author:
Marvin Sapp wrote this article and many other hat articles that can be found at
http://www.wearhats.info
This Article has been viewed 29,648 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
More commentsYes this was a very helpful article. However, my husband insists that the hats loose their shape when they are washed. He likes his hats stiff like when you first get them. Any suggestions?
how do you clean hats made up of nylon or acrylic???
I've read that hats made from 100% Acrylic NEED to BE Dry cleaned. Sounds Silly but the prices we pay for these $40 to $80 dollar caps it's probably worth it to Dry Clean them.
i'm tryin his method now with the hat molder and all that i'll let you know how it goes
hey i like your idea thanks for sharing
From Marquette, MI How do you clean a wool hat.
unless it's like a stain or something, this doesn't fix that but.if you just wanna clean and freshen up your 59fifty hat, just tape it down it takes me like 4 minutes and gets rid of all the hairs and lint and stuff and keeps it real fresh and clean and CRISP. i've had my hat for over a year and only got like 2 little stains on it i'm trying to figure out how to get rid of.taping is awesome though
Excellent, just the information I needed.
how do you clean a white trucker polyester hat?
Unless you buy a hat frame (which your beak will still get ruined) but you CANNOT put a hat in any washing machine unless you wanna ruin it or unless it has now shape, like a cheap snap/velcro hat... but the information about the materials is handy, i heard toothpaste to clean hats
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