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No, stretching a hat rarely ends well unless you are talking about change in the shape a bit to a long oval or if you are just nudging it out a bit. Vintage hats tend to run small due to leather shrinkageover the years. At a 58.5cm I would size up to a 59 and use spacers/pads in the sweat to bring it closer to your size. The first thing you need to do is determine your head shape...that is equally important as the actual size measure.How tight is your range of hat size that you would consider buying?
My experience has been limited to S/M/L/XL sizing, which isn’t super precise. I’ve measured my head at 58 and 59, and tonight my wife said it was 58.5. Which puts me into a Large with some amount of padding, depending on the hat, since I don’t want to risk the Medium being too small.
For hats that are sold by the centimeter, I figure to buy 59. In American sizing, the charts I’ve seen have leaned me toward 7 1/4.
My quandary comes from the following pic on a listing for a vintage fur felt hat that has a 7 1/4 tag but measures on the small side. With my measurements and this hat’s credentials, would you recommend going for it and potentially having to try to stretch it?


