Do you buy a straw hat every year?

[Samsa]

Reading back through some older threads, I discovered that it was customary to put one's fist through the crown of one's summer hat come September 15. I doubt many people do this anymore, but am curious as to how many of you buy a new hat every summer and then throw it away (or consign it to the oblivion of some closet) come cooler weather.

This question also occured to me at my local hatter today. The dye from the ribbon or sweat band of my panama has stained the straw right where the brim meets the crown, and was told that it is pretty much impossible to clean. Which makes me think that I'll be buying a new one come next spring...

 

[mysterygal]

*girl stepping in* I have a cheapie straw hat that I bought for the sole purpose of wearing outside for yard work, that hat I plan on tossing at the end of summer. I have recently purchased a black straw hat that I plan on keeping as long as possible since I think it's absolutely adorable.

 

[Rick Blaine]

Not every year...

... not at 30 - 70 beans apiece

 

[MattC]

My Dad

Who died in '78, but always wore hats tended to keep his winter hats (Cavanaghs late in life) but always to wear his straws for a single summer and then get rid of them. I don't think he put his fist through them. I do remember that he moved from fairly stiff straws to very fleixible and light ones as he got older.

 

[Pilgrim]

With the price of hats, I'll get every single day I can out of them!

 

[Tomasso]

I discovered that it was customary to put one's fist through the crown of one's summer hat come September 15.

They weren't wearing Montecristis.

 

[SHARPETOYS]

Like a fine wine.

Not me...
I'm on my 4th year with my Montecristi... I have a couple that are over 80 years old.

The boater straws was the ones they punched a hole thru. A 25 cent straw in its day.

 

[Not-Bogart13]

A steady rotation

I don't usually junk a straw after only one year. It depends on how messed up they get. Since I tend to be careful, even a cheap one can last me a few years as a "be seen in public" hat. When sweat or some other deterioration becomes unseemly, I rotate them to a BBQ hat... the hat I wear while cooking outside, and I won't cry if it gets singed, stained by BBQ sauce, or whatever. Meanwhile, my previous BBQ hat becomes my yardwork hat, and by then my old yardwork hat isn't even fit for that anymore, so then I junk it.

However, I really like my new Milan. I hope it lasts a long time. Next summer I will get a second one, though. The brown ribbon makes the hat a poor match with gray clothes. [huh] I'm thinking a bleached milan with a black band.
NB

 

[Hemingway Jones]

I take good care of all of my hats. I will be buying three "straws" this year, well, two panamas and a Dobbs 5th stingy. I hope to keep them all for a long time.

 

[Samsa]

To those of you who keep your straws for several years:

What do you do about sweat? I've been wearing mine more or less everday for the last couple months, and there's a slight coloration of the straw right below the ribbon. Does this happen to you? If so, what do you do about it?

 

[J.B.]

Reading back through some older threads, I discovered that it was customary to put one's fist through the crown of one's summer hat come September 15.....

I think this pretty much was a "boater/skimmer" hat thing in the 20's and 30's made popular with the college crowd?! (Think swallowing goldfish, wearing camel hair coats, men's glee clubs, etc.?!)

In the late 40's, 50's, and early 60's -- almost all hat wearers did buy a new straw at the start of each straw hat season but -- as you know, hat stores and hat cleaner/blocker shops were ubiquitous at that time!! Frankly, it's just too much hassle to boot up, go online, try to pick a good 'un without seeing/touching it, and then hoping your purchase makes it to your house from 2000 miles away in one piece... It was just so easy to bop into a hat store on "Straw Hat Day," buy it, and walk out with it on your noggin?!

This question also occurred to me at my local hatter today. The dye from the ribbon or sweat band of my panama has stained the straw right where the brim meets the crown, and was told that it is pretty much impossible to clean. Which makes me think that I'll be buying a new one come next spring...

You see that a lot -- particularly among straw cowboy hats -- here in L.A... (I've had a few ruined, myself.)

To be honest, I just pitch 'em. But a few years ago, I just started carrying a nice large linen handkerchief with me and pausing occasionally to wipe off the sweatband. Sweat stains bleeding through on the straw have become a non-issue since then...

 

[tonyb]

I've tossed out some straw hats, but those were modern cheapies. They look good for a couple of months of regular wear but, as Samsa and Not-Bogart13 noted, they start to show sweat stains. And they can break, too, which leaves 'em unfit for anything but dirty work.
I scored what must be a Montecristi (1,200-plus WPSI) over the winter; it's seen frequent use over the past few weeks. I'll admit to babying it more than I ever did those bought-new-at-the-hat-store straws, cuz I'm guessing it's at least as old as I am (I've reached the age when a person gets mail from AARP) and I'd like to extend its life a good deal more, like a coupla-three decades. If I'm reasonably careful with it, and a bit lucky, it should survive at least that much longer.
Panamabob's website has lots of info on caring for your straw hat, including cleaning tips.

 

[SHARPETOYS]

I use this alot and it works great... Nu Straw.

http://www.mens-hats.com/IBS/SimpleCat/product/ASP/hierarchy/0F/product-id/492260.html

And Straw Stiffner

 

[Samsa]

I use this alot and it works great... Nu Straw.

http://www.mens-hats.com/IBS/SimpleCat/product/ASP/hierarchy/0F/product-id/492260.html

And Straw Stiffner

Thanks for the advice! I had seen the Nu Straw cleaner recommended elsewhere in these forums (maybe by you?) I think I'll have to give it a try - it's a lot cheaper than buying a new hat!

 

[squid]

Thank you Sharptoys. That's exactly the kind of info I need.

 

[tonyb]

So Sharpetoys, do you use that stuff on that vintage extra-super-duper-fino-fino-fino-fino-fino (etc.) lid of yours?

 

[SHARPETOYS]

So Sharpetoys, do you use that stuff on that vintage extra-super-duper-fino-fino-fino-fino-fino (etc.) lid of yours?

Haven't had the need ... I wear it to dinner so its my dress hat. I have used it on my 2000 wpsi and it worked just fine for me.

 

[Samsa]

Update

I ordered some NuStraw cleaner and used it on my straw hat. It didn't work at all. However, last night I tried an experiment. I pushed the ribbon up as far as I could with it still sewn in, and ran the stained part of the brim under the faucet of my kitchen sink for a minute or so. (I only paid $60 for it, and since September 15 is just around the corner, thought it was worth the risk.)

Anyway, most of the stains (a muted black color) came out, to my suprise. I'm thinking of repeating this process tonight, to remove what's left of the staining.

 

[Boroparkpyro]

I got my first (non-yarmulka and non-baseballcap) hat three years ago. It was cheap, $30 or so, made out of shantung (if i remember the terminology right... some kind of imitation straw made like paper?) and with a blue toursity tropical-patterned band.

So, i recently got into hats, the only problem is (well, aside from the religious assumptions image problem i talked about in the Dumbest Comment I Ever Heard thread) that i sweat. A LOT. It's hereditary (from my mother's side).

And it sweatstained my hat like a beast. I don't know if it comes through in the picture so well, but the entire front from the bottom of the band around for a thickness of like an inch is tanned or browned.

I've found myself not wearing it when i would have like to, because it's too hot and i would completely destroy it. And lately whenever i look to take it, i decide not to because the sweatstaining is so bad that it just looks nasty.

People who are more experienced in hat fashion than me, is it really that bad? Is this possibly a "beater"? Should i throw it out? Keep it? I'm planning on getting a new casual straw hat in time for next summer (same style, different color band if possible, unless y'all convince me otherwise), it's just the rest of this summer i'm thinking about.

This hat is by now 3 years old, btw. I prefer keeping things around, so i wouldn't punch through it after a year. If you all agree that it's inoperably sweatstained, though...

 

[gekisai29]

I plan to only because i like variety