Cleaning a Panama (Is this even POSSIBLE?)

[Shangas]

I've been meaning to make a thread about this for weeks.

About June or July last year (or somewhere around there), I bought a rather bog-standard, medium-range Panama hat from my local flea-market. It didn't cost me much, and it's certainly not of the first rate, but it's a Panama, it's good quality, and it's comfortable.

...it could also probably do with a wash. Or something.

Long story short is that I wear this hat during warm, sunny days, and its time with me has seen it been removed from my head plenty of times to mop away excess perspiration. The issue here is that the front of the hat (the part of the brim directly in front of the ribbon underneath the peak of the 'Pinch' of the hat) has become rather...um...'soiled'...by constant exposure to sweat.

Not that I'm particularly bothered by this (it's not a super-expensive hat) and the staining is not really noticeable, but I was wondering if there's any way to clean or remove this?

Now I realise that the answer is probably "no", but I thought I'd ask anyway. I know there's a lot of men on this forum who wear Panamas as well.

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

Found this on Panama Bob's site.

Hat-care

I generally let professionals handle hat cleaning.

 

[Shangas]

Thanks for the link! I've read the instructions and they look pretty easy. I don't know how effective they will be against stains this old, but we shall see!!

 

[Ordinary Guy]

If all else fails with your attempts, contact Tom-n-Perris from this site, he cleans panama's amongst anything else you want done with your panama......

 

[nice hat dude!]

Probably not recommended but on light stains on my Western Straws I use "Clear Windex"not the blue kind,it takes away the dirt stains but doesn't seem to clean the real deep sweat stains on the brow.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

Some panama hats have been bleached white with some white coloring on them, you have to be careful. I have used a wash clothe with just regular hand soap on it, wring the extra water/soap out of it so it is not dripping wet just damp....lightly wash the area that is dirty and then rinse it off with the same wash clothe after you rinse and wring it out.

 

[Shangas]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys!

In the end, I used regular liquid handsoap, and a toothbrush and some good scrubbing. It seems to have done the trick. I'm not worried about it getting wet. It's already been soaked through once, during a monsoon in Singapore, so I figured a little tapwater isn't going to hurt it.

I've sat the hat upside down in the sun to dry it. It's 40+ degrees outside, so it'll be done in like five minutes. Once the water's dry, we'll see how well it's been cleaned.

Well that seems to have done the trick

I squirted hand-soap onto a standard manual toothbrush, scrubbed vigorously and added some water, scrubbed some more, inside, outside, all around the front part of the brim and brow. Then I ducked the brim under the tap and washed away all the soap and give it a good rinse. I patted it down with a towel and chucked it in the sun to dry.

Now the water's gone and I can take a proper look at it, I must say...

...

The result is pretty damn good. For all intents and purposes, those revolting, vinegar-scented sweat-stains are gone! The hat is now back to its original ivory white/light beige colour. Previously, the brow had been so soiled that there was a thick, toffee-brown sweat-stain on it, from inside the hat, seeping right through to the brim to the outside of the hat (yuuuk!!).

I'm glad to know that all that gunk has now been washed away! The hat does smell faintly of soap, now...