The most popular and trendy cowboy hats featured several colors, styles and designs. But as most cowboy hat experts will tell you, if your hat is not custom made, then you don't have a quality cowboy hat.
Expert cowboy hat makers will tell consumers that the custom made cowboy hat should always be the cowboy hat of choice for serious cowboy hat enthusiasts. Joella Torres is a third generation hat maker. Currently, she is the president of Manny Grammages Texas Hatters, which specializes in making custom cowboy hats. Experts such as Torres agree that once you get a custom cowboy hat, making sure it will be well taken care of should be the consumer's first priority. Good news for the consumer is that a good custom made cowboy hat should fend off most of the natural elements.
"If it's a good quality hat, you're not going to have a problem with rain or snow," Torres said. "If it gets absolutely soaked, put it in a clean, dry place away from any source of heat, and it should dry just fine. If it does get droopy, we usually fix it for free."
Mud is another substance that a good custom cowboy hat will be able to withstand.
"Things like mud just dry up," Torres said. "Rubbing it will actually put the mud into the material, and then you'll have to get it cleaned. That costs extra. If you just let the mud or other thick substance dry, you can flake it off with the edge of a ruler or credit card, and usually can't even tell it has been there."
Traditional cowboy hats are made from felt material. If by any chance someone decides to have a custom made cowboy hat out of a different material, then the way they clean and care for that hat will obviously be different. The most notable difference in the care of cowboy hats is with a custom hat made from shag.
"With a shag hat, you need to brush it every once in a while with a baby brush or something like that," said Torres. "The only problem with shag hats is that after about 15-20 years, the hair kind of starts to wear off."
But of all the ways to care for a good custom made cowboy hat, proper storage is probably most important. Packaging your cowboy hat properly could be the difference in it lasting for a long or short time.
"For storage, place it into a plastic bag with a twist tie," Torres said. "It's so much better than moth balls, because you won't end up with that lingering smell. Placing it in a closet or attic is fine as long as long as you keep it in a plastic bag."
"Make sure the bag doesn't have any holes, because insects like dark places," she added. "They'll get in there and start chewing holes."
