Stretching a hat..

[Bevman]

I have a large head....it's hard for me to find a nice hat in a size 8....possibly a 7 7/8 would work..how much can a hat be stretched, or is that a no-no.
I did find a Stetson Temple in a size 8 at a men's store in Bristol Va. There are no hat stores near me, so I look alot online.

Thanks,
Steve

 

[carter]

If you are interested

Stetson Pinnacle, Black, size 8

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=34455

 

[Roadrunner]

I've had success in stretching 7 1/4 size hats up to about 7 5/16. I'm right between a 7 1/4 and 7 3/8. I've heard you can go up at least a full size and sometimes two, depending on sweatband condition. Any more and you start to distort the hat's shape. One thing I would recommend is that if you're working on older hats put some Lexol on the sweat before you start stretching. You don't want them to come apart on you just because they're a little dry. Good luck in your search!

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

Woooo - you're up against a challenge there.

Thing is, you're almost certainly going to be choosing modern hats and many of them have lousy sweatbands in my opinion. The point of that is that they may not handle a stretching the same way as more traditional supple leather from days of old.

You are probably a perfect candidate for a custom hat from one of the talented vendors on this site.

Barring that, you'd need a size 7-7/8 or size 8 Hat-Jack (stretcher) and you'd need to steam the hat while carefully tightening the jack in the hat. It can take a few passes and a few overnights of time with the stretcher in place. Typically one size up is the limit.