Ever get a crease on your forehead from wearing a hat?

[D00R]

I bought a new hat and I get a crease from wear the sweat band is stitched to the brim...

the hat fits me perfect, but where the stitching is leaves a bit of a sting..

anyone have a problem like this and were able to fix it?

i stretched it a bit but the stitching still leaves a crease and scraps a bit..

 

[Lefty]

If this is true,

the hat fits me perfect

then this is not.

i stretched it a bit but the stitching still leaves a crease and scrapes a bit

The hat does not fit if it hurts.
A little bit of a mark that goes away soon after removing the hat is fine, but "no pain, no gain" shouldn't be a part of wearing a hat.

 

[YETI]

wearing my vintage gatsby leaves a mark on my forehead . . .
it's a 3/8 too [huh]

 

[D00R]

man my vintage stetson feels so soft and fits like a glove...

my new alessandria fits great doesn't get blown off my head but the stitch is just rough...

is there a way to soften that up or some way to make it more comfortable?
I put tissue there to stretch out that area.

only on the right side of my forehead leaves that mark, the left side is fine.

 

[Lefty]

man my vintage stetson feels so soft and fits like a glove...

my new alessandria fits great doesn't get blown off my head but the stitch is just rough...

is there a way to soften that up or some way to make it more comfortable?
I put tissue there to stretch out that area.

only on the right side of my forehead leaves that mark, the left side is fine.

Are you wearing your halt straight or tilted?
If tilted, maybe your tilt is a bit too much.

 

[Stan]

Hi,

The only time I get this is when the hat is too small. That's not unusual, as I'm in between sizes at 7 1/16 (and between regular and long oval to boot) and tend to get size 7 hats and stretch them out.

Some hats have this tendency to shrink back down and so need a re-jack from time to time. If I ignore the slight tightness when I put such a hat on, then I pay for it with a red line on my forehead later! :eusa_doh:

That said, there *was* one hat that was actually a bit too large which I padded, and it would give me a slight burning sensation on my forehead. Even removing the padding did not help. The sensation was a lot like Absorbine, actually. I decided that someone had treated the leather sweatband with something that I didn't particularly get along with.

Maybe they treated it with horse liniment and not leather conditioner by mistake. It surely felt like it! lol

I mention this as something used for a conditioner might also leave a red mark that's actually irritation even though the hat fits physically.....

Later!

Stan

 

[D00R]

man thats awful, didn't think of that sort of thing chemicals on a hat that can cause irritiation.

when i get back to ny, i'm gonna take it to ben craft see if they can stretch it or something, and have my other hat cleaned.

maybe that might do some good..

its just how its stitched i think though, feels plasticy and its a hard stitch. i dunno...

 

[Damon Falzone]

DOOR--I had the same problem with an Akubra Squatter. The sweatband stitching was so sharp that it hurt and left stitch marks on my forehead. Not a nice look. The solution was to take a small piece of fine sandpaper, 400 grade, and lightly sand the stitching. I did that a couple of times and it took the sting out. It worked great. Lots of luck.

 

[D00R]

DOOR--I had the same problem with an Akubra Squatter. The sweatband stitching was so sharp that it hurt and left stitch marks on my forehead. Not a nice look. The solution was to take a small piece of fine sandpaper, 400 grade, and lightly sand the stitching. I did that a couple of times and it took the sting out. It worked great. Lots of luck.

that seems to be the problem I have..but didn't that make the sweatband fall out in that part doing that?

 

[D00R]

alright I was comparing the three hats that i have and I noticed the sweatbands are different...

heres the hat thats creasing my brow bad, its really uncomfortable compared to the other two hats...

Alessandria gray

borsalino brown.

Stetson Brown

Notice how the stetson and the borsalino have the sweatband with another leather tube going around underneath it?
the alessandria doesnt have that.
it seems that that extra leather pulls the stitch down under the brim so you dont get a sharp edge that is hitting my brow.

is that how alessandrias are just made? with out that part on the sweatband?

 

[Mike in Seattle]

Any hat shop worth their salt will have a hat stretcher - just keep your hat on it when you're not wearing it to slightly stretch it into long oval. Here's another that was mentioned on another post on the Lounge in the last week or two.

 

[D00R]

its just that hard stitching really cuts into my far head.

my stetson is the same size and the leather sweatband sits flat and smooth against my far head..

the alessandria's sweatband is sewn straight and the stitching is right there and just cuts in deep on my far head..i dont know why they made the sweat band that way

i'm wearing it side ways on my head right now to give it a bit of a stretch.

 

[Damon Falzone]

DOOR--The sanding you do on the stitching is very light and the sandpaper is very fine, so this light sanding will not break the stitching but will simply remove the sharp edge. Better to go easy and sand 2 or 3 times very gently. Hope this helps.

 

[Stoney]

There should be just a few pinches needed to fix it

The Borsalino sweatband is an unreeded sweatband while the others are reeded sweatbands. The reed maintains tension at the bottom edge of the sweatband which forces it to remain bell shaped. When the bottom of the sweatband bells outward the stitches are moved away and do not contact your head.

In the case of the unreeded sweatband there is nothing forcing the bottom edge of the sweatband to bell outward. Hence the stitches are contacting your forehead. If the hat fits well, like yours does, you can often fix this by making the bottom of the sweatband bell outward like the reeded ones. Try pinching the bottom edge, just at the front where the skin contact is, between your index finger and thumb. Use your thumb on the bottom and roll the stitched edge towards the front of the brim while pulling the middle of the sweatband down towards the stitching. You may have to work at it a bit and may also need to add leather conditioner to the smooth side of the sweatband to soften it up. Work like this all across the front where the marks are. Then wear the hat fir about 15 minutes then repeat the process as much as required to retrain the sweatband edge into a bell shape.

That should take care of it.


BTW D00R I really liked what you did with the video in your link above. In particular when you fade into existence on the Gazebo steps. Bravo :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[D00R]

Stoney,

thats exactly the problem. I started to do that, i flipped the sweat band out to give it a stretch then i tried to fold the stitch like you said.

the hat is new, so the sweatband and the stitching are so stiff. I'll keep at it.

right now i have some tissue between my head and the sweatband to break the hat in more and to give it a better fit shape..

i'm going to try to do what you recommended. I just don't want to stretch out or leave finger dents in the brim, where it meets the ribbon..

on a side note. i was never really sure what hat size I was...

the alessandria is a

and the vintage stetson royal is a 1/8 an fits me perfect..

but i don't know if there both the same size hats?

maybe stretching the borsalino would help the creasing on my brow.

 

[Stoney]

D00R,
I had assumed it was on that you picked up secondhand.

If the hat s new, can you take it back and have them fix it or exchange it?
I certainly would, if I bought it new.

 

[D00R]

I haven't really worn it cause of the creasing on my brow..but i don't think hats are exchangeable...

when I come back to Ny in a few weeks I want to take it to bencraft see if they can do something about it.

I'm just gonna put it away back in my hat box and not mess with it.

it's such a cool hat this is just disappointing...

 

[Colby Jack]

I'm sure Besdor will take care of you.

 

[D00R]

Does the bottom edge of the sweat band, where the stitches are, flare out a bit, maybe 30 degrees from vertical? Or does is go straight down at the same vertical angle as the rest of the sweat band? There are two ways of doing sweat bands. "Flanged" sweat bands will flare out, on the theory that the sweat moisture will not be able to reach the felt as fast. A side effect is that the stitching will not make contact with your forehead. Sweat bands that aren't flanged will be straight and more in contact with the felt. Steve Delk indicates in the thread linked to above that some Borsalinos are not flanged (I have a wool felt Renegade that isn't flanged). If that's the way the hat was designed, there's probably not much you can do about it, but it may be that you need a size larger for that particular model of hat so you can wear it looser, or a resizing of the one you have.

the sweat band goes straight down and the stitching just hits right into my forehead and leaves a crease..

yeah i think it has to be a little bigger. its a hat size 7. it fits really good but it was my second hat so I never had a perfect fitting hat so i thought this was how it should fit.

maybe i can have bencraft give it a little stretch. so it rests on my forehead instead of straight against it..

I'm sure Besdor will take care of you.

who is that?