A felt cowboy hat says a lot of the person whose head is snug inside it. No doubt you spent a lot of time getting the exact right hat that suited you perfectly. A lot of time and money and aggravation! That's quite an investment riding on your head, now, ain't it? Sure you don't want to squander it away out of negligence. You take care of it, good, proper care, and the investment will grow richer as the years pass, aging gracefully, acquiring a character of its own. I can see you, ten, twenty years from now, talking about the hat to your grandson, on a chilly night, in the warm glow of a backyard campfire.

Your great looking felt cowboy hat won't look great if it is all grimy and dirty. Getting the dirt out of a felt cowboy hat is the devil itself. The felt is likely to get damaged in the process, too. As the old saying goes: 'An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure'. It means that instead of spending time over cleaning the hat up it will be better not to let the hat get soiled in the first place! The most common reason of soilage is the sweat and grime that gets transferred from your hands to the hat when you pick it up, or position it on your head. Moral: Make sure your hands are clean afore touching that felt cowboy hat.

Another thing to bear in mind to prevent the hat from getting all messed up is to handle the hat only by the brim, back and front. Resist the temptation to hold it by the crown. Using the brim to pick up the hat or to position it on your head will help to keep the hat in good shape too. An out-of-shape hat will say the same thing about you.

The hat will perforce get a little dirty from normal wear. But what about when you're not using it? Do you store the hat away? Do you know the proper way to store a felt cowboy hat? The proper way to store a felt cowboy hat is upside down in its own hat box. This way, your hat will neither get dirty nor out of shape. Lacking a hat box, you may hang the hat on a hat stand, and cover it.

Don't ever expose the hat to strong heat. That means you have to keep it away from radiators and heating appliances. Don't leave it out in the car on a hot summer afternoon. Heat will cause the sweat band to shrink. This will pull the hat out of shape. Apart from spoiling the shape, the shrinkage will spoil the hat's fit. At best, wearing the hat will be very uncomfortable; at worst, you won't be able to get your head into the hat again!

Getting your felt cowboy hat wet is not going to improve its looks or its shape. Felt does not take kindly to water. It gets all shrunk up, and crumpled, and bedraggled. Felt doesn't get back into shape very easily. If your felt cowboy hat does get wet, the best thing to do is to let it dry out. This must be done naturally. Do not attempt to use a hair drier on it or a blower to get it to dry faster. There is a trick or two in getting your felt cowboy hat to dry out properly. Rest the hat on the sweat band not the brim. Turn the sweat band inside out, so that it forms a sort of collar on which the hat can rest without putting the weight on the brim. You will have to apply a little finishing touch here and there to work the creases out of the hat.

A good quality felt cowboy hat can take an occasional drizzle. Still, if you value your felt cowboy hat you will use a hat cover. Use the hat cover when you're wearing the hat outdoors and it looks like rain. Using the hat cover to keep the hat dry will add years to its life.

Your felt cowboy hat has a tendency to lose shape real fast and get dirty just as quickly. If you follow these tips, your hat will remain in prime condition for a great many years. Maybe your felt cowboy hat may turn into a real heirloom, yet!