If you wear a Panama hat one advantage of using the hat reducer is that it can prevent sweat stains which look gross and are nearly impossible to get rid of. I sweat mainly around the forehead so having that additional layer helps. It also creates a bit of space and improves airflow.
I loved your video, Can you help me? Can you give me some advice? My head circumference is 21.26 inches and I want to buy a hat that is 22.75 inches. Can this be made to fit my head with some foam tape or is the discrepancy to big? Many thank, ADN
Good info, I'm from the Planet Sirzona and my head grows as much as a1" per-day, on Monday and Thursdays only! What can I do, it shrinks on all the other days????? Thanks for the info, I'll just wear a Spandex Sock ! Hahah. ;-))
We always recommend sticking the reducer to the hat. I feel like this is especially true with a leather sweatband. The leather can get lumpy if you stick it to the inside of the leather. When reducing a hat that has a leather sweatband it is also better sometimes to use half strips instead of full strips so it doesn't get as lumpy. Keep in mind too that their is different types of leather sweatbands. There is imitation leather which looks like a leather sweat but is very thin and doesn't take well to hat reducer at all, there is a a cow hide split leather sweatband which is bonded leather and those are usually a bit stiffer and lastly there is roan leather sweatbands which are usually sheep skin or dear skin. Those are much softer and take to hat reducer much better. Hope this info was helpful and my apologies for the delay in reply!
Would you recommend this for men that have hats which no longer fit due to not having as much hair as they did when they were younger? I've got an old Aegean wool cap that I adore but I've not worn it in years since I started shaving my head. Tried to keep wearing it initially, but after nearly losing it to a stiff wind a few times, I opted to put it into retirement.
Absolutely. The Aegean wool caps should have a sweatband with a stiff liner band underneath (most Aegean wool caps do anyway). You can apply hat reducer under the sweatband and stick it to the liner band which you will find under your sweatband. You can certainly reduce the size enough to make up for not having as much hair so it grabs better and take that hat out of retirement : )
Unfortunately, hat reducer only works in blocked hats with sweatbands. With a flat cap (coppola) you would need to sew in a fabric reducer in the back of the hat on top of the existing sweatband in order to reduce the size.
Depends on the hat reducer that's in there, as there are a few different kinds of hat reducer out there. However, most hat reducers should take the wash ok, but worse case it will loose its adhesive and fall out. In that case you will need to apply some new reducer and your good as new.
My apologies for the delay in replying to this message! If there is no sweatband in the hat one cannot use hat reducer to size it down. A full service hat shop that makes hats or blocks and cleans hats should be able to add a sweatband for you. It's always good to have a sweatband in the hat because it protects the hat from daily sweat etc. and more importantly having a sweatband is more comfortable for sure.
