Choosing the Right Cowboy Hat for You
Did you read Part 1 of Almost Everything You Want to Know About Cowboy Hats? If you did, you already know a lot about cowboy hats, their parts, their shapes, and the stories behind them. You know where you’re coming from. If you have not read it yet, it’s available in the Blogs section of Wei’s Western Wear website.
Here in Part 2, we’ll guide you on the 5-step path to choose the right hat for you.
- The right hat(s) for your lifestyle
- Felt, Wool or Straw: how materials and quality impact your budget
- The Right Cowboy Hat for Your Face
- Your Cowboy Hat Preferences
- Getting the Right Cowboy Hat Fit Plus, we’ll look at
- Cowboy Hat Brands at Wei’s
- Caring for Your Hat
Plus, we’ll look at:
- Cowboy Hat Brands at Wei’s
- Caring for Your Hat
The Right Western Hat for Your Lifestyle
Wei’s customers live in every climate you can imagine, and that greatly influences their choice in hats. The amount of rain, wind and sun you experience will all impact your hat and should be factors to consider when choosing your hat.
- Live in the Sunbelt? In the Canadian Prairies and the US Midwest, sunny days are the norm. There can also be significant wind, so you might consider adding a chin strap to use your hat efficiently. Straw hats are the norm since they are lightweight and the plant fibres are naturally used to hot sun.
- Felt and wool hats will be very warm in the summer. A dark-coloured hat will attract the sun’s rays and definitely make your head hot. Remember that felt hats have sweatbands but may not have airholes, as we saw in Part 1.
- The 2-hat option is to buy a straw hat, and add a light-coloured felt hat for special occasions.
- Live in a Coastal Climate? Wei’s customers in Vancouver, Canada receive about 169 days of rain each year, leading to its nickname Raincouver. But the mild climate also means it’s possible to do things outside.
- If you want more style than a hooded raincoat, choose Oilskin hats which are best in the rain. An option would be a clear vinyl hat covering, also available at Wei’s.
- The 2-hat option is to buy an Oilskin hat, and add a straw or felt hat for sunny days, as well as a hat protector.
Besides your climate, your lifestyle also includes how you wear and treat the hat when you wear it, and when you don’t. We’ll cover those subjects later in this blog.
Buying a Cowboy Hat for Special Occasions
- Lots of people start by buying a hat for a special occasion, like a Western Wedding. If it’s a Summer wedding, a straw hat is the norm. You’ll most likely want a finer weave straw, such as the Resistol George Strait.
- If it’s a winter wedding in a cold climate, you definitely want a felt or wool hat. A contrasting colour can turn heads such as the bright rusty Resistol Cody Johnson felt. Or you could go with more of an adventurer style from Akubra.
- You’ll probably wear it a few times, whenever there’s a special occasion. Then you’ll either fall in love with what the hat does for your look, your confidence and your demeanor and wear it more often, you sharp dresser you, or you might put it in storage until the next special occasion.
- At the end of this blog we discuss storage. Check out our hat storage recommendations there
Buying a Cowboy Hat for Fishing or Camping
- Outdoorsman? If you love to go fishing, boating, camping, or tramping through the woods, choose a crushable hat. It’s made from wool and will take a beating and still retain its shape when given a minimum of care. Or choose an oilskin hat from our Outback Trading collection, makers of the iconic oilskin coats. Those are also stocked at Wei’s.
- You definitely don’t want to use the felt hat you bought for special occasions on your camping trip. It could get into a tussle with tree twigs or become a campfire smoked felt.
Buying a Cowboy Hat as a Beach Hat
- Suntanner? If your hat is your go-to sun protection at the beach, your default is a straw hat as your default. You want to ensure a high UPF rating like UPF 50+. Remember if the hat is loosely woven it will let in sun, so if you fall asleep with a hat on your face, there might be a spot on your nose that has no protection whatsoever. A loosely woven hat may not be designated with a UPF rating at all.
- If it’s a sun hat, choose a hat with a tighter straw weave in a light natural or white colour which gives you a higher UPF rating. It will also come with a higher price, but it’s obviously worth the investment to avoid serious sunburns.
- Remember if you go in the water with your straw hat, it could become wet and permanently misshapen. If you plan on selfies taken in the water, choose a light-coloured crushable hat, as well as a waterproof camera.
Source: Unsplash
Cowboy Hat Seasonality
In fashion, there’s a rule of thumb that says: wear light colours in Spring and Summer, and save the darker colours for Fall and Winter.
In the language of hats, wear lighter coloured Straw hats in the good weather, and darker coloured Felt hats or Oilskin in the Fall and Winter. Western individualists are not ones to necessarily follow fashion rules but hey, we’re just putting it out there. Do what you like, and what works for you. These days a lot of people put their personal style ahead of any “fashion rules” and hat wearing is your personal choice.
How Cowboy Hat Material and Quality Affect Your Budget Because
Wei’s Western Wear has served so many people since 1956, we’ve served every kind of budget, too. People buy hats that are $500 or $50 dollars and we’re happy to serve each one.
Wei’s stocks about 300 hats, and you are welcome to spend time browsing and ask us all the questions you’d like - just contact us! Some folks want to spend less time looking, and we’re here to help.
Since our hats range from $49.95 to $799.95, it could help to ask what budget range you prefer. While you think about it, let’s learn more about how a hat is made.
Source: https://www.closerweekly.com/tags/john-wayne/
How Are Felt Cowboy Hats Made?
There’s a story about how John Stetson created the first Boss of the Plains hat while on a camping trip with friends. Since his father was a hatmaker, Stetson already knew how to make a hat and had the skills to do all the steps.
Using a beaver fur, Stetson did all the steps himself. He cleaned it and he shaved it to the under-fur felt and gradually worked the interlocked hairs into usable felt, completing all the steps by hand to then into the shape of the famous hat.
As you can imagine, this production style of one person doing everything is not done anymore.
When cowboy hats became wildly popular and production volume was needed, each step became specialized at the hatmaker’s premises. The buyers would grade the felts by quality. It takes years of grading experience, a good eye and a practised touch, to grade fur, felt or skin correctly as well as efficiently.
Nowadays, the end-to-end process may be controlled in-house by a single company, or outsourced. Some companies specialize in buying felts. Some companies blend particular felt recipes. Some companies create common hat bodies and act as wholesalers for the major brands.
Here are the general steps to make your cowboy hat:
- Fur graders with specialized skills work with fur buyers. Sometimes they’re the same role, and they acquire the fur from the source trapper or farmer.
- There are several people who work in different processing steps. These steps and methods are generally known but the details are proprietary. Hatmakers have secrets they’re not sharing. These processes turn the fur into pure felt, or mix it with other animal felts in a blend.
- The pure or blended felts are processed and shaped into a variety of open crown hat bodies known as ‘blanks’. The blanks can be made into any hat style.
- Blanks are stored properly until bought by a hatmaking company who produces hat brands.
- The cowboy hat brand company worker carefully evaluates each blank, because each has variations. They have to decide where the front will be and where the back will be, then make the particulars of the style.
- The hat is blocked, meaning shaped by hand, on a specific head shape made of wood. This is very similar to the boot industry which uses lasts for each type of boot (see our work boot FAQ on Wei’s website).
- By hand, the hatmaker makes the creases and dents, trimming the brim to the desired size, shaping the hat and adding the details like sweatband, hatband and so on.
As you can see, the entire process of how cowboy hats are made is not always the same. As you can imagine, how much work is done in-house by the hatmaking brand can vary.
The bottom line is, there’s a little bit of magic involved in making your cowboy hat, and you can’t expect to learn all the tricks.
What Kind of Furs are Used to Make Felt Hats?
The most common types of furs or felts used to make cowboy hats are beaver and rabbit, as well as hare. They are available as pure felts but most often, they are blended together.
What Do the X's Mean on Cowboy Felt Hats?
Source: pic taken in-store
Fur felts are not often made into hats by themselves in a “pure” form because of the price. A pure beaver felt hat will cost more than $1,000 and they are available from Serratelli, Stetson and Resistol. Pure rabbit hats are available from Akubra. All of these brands are stocked at Wei’s.
Most fur felts are blended, either with other fur felts or with wool. For example, beaver can be blended with other types of felt from hare or rabbit. The highest quality beaver blend might be graded at 100X. Each blend is unique and is graded accordingly, such as Beaver Blend 3X from Master Hatters of Texas.
American companies use a number of Xs as an expression of quality. The more Xs, the better the quality and the higher the price. Felt hats can range from 3X to 100X, and Wei’s Western Wear stocks that full range.
At the lower cost end of the scale, a blend might be from types of wool only and can cost less than $100. Or, a hat may not be graded, in other words have no Xs imprinted on the hat.
How Are Straw Cowboy Hats Made?
- The source material quality makes a big difference.
- There are numerous processing steps to make straw hats, for example, each straw hat goes through a series of pressing (blocking, or hand shaping), shellacking, and drying steps. We can’t cover them all here without making this blog into a book.
- Each step may have variations in labour, materials and time, resulting in variations in quality.
- The ingredients and measurements to make the shellac or lacquer, and number of times a straw hat is dipped into the shellac or sprayed with the shellac, and the amount of pressure (pounds per square inch or PSI) used to press the straw hat are all variables.
- Some methods can be proprietary, and the hatmakers aren’t giving away their secrets.
- Hats are graded for quality, and the grading systems are also proprietary.
- In the end, you should be getting the quality you pay for.
What Kind of Straw is Used to Make Straw Hats?
As you know from reading about the history of hats in Part 1, traditional straw hats have been made from just about any type of plant leaves and just about any type of straw.
Plants can also be made into paper (especially the really big plants called trees). The same is true in hatmaking, where plant fibre is made into paper that is fashioned to imitate straw. Whether it’s straw or leaf or plant fibre, it all comes from plants.
The 3 most common Cowboy straw hats stocked at Wei’s are Shang Tung, Palm, and Bangora
Shangtung Straw Hats
Shantung Straw
Shang Tung straw is made from plant-based paper, rolled into a straw-like form. It is extremely light and durable.
Source: https://stetson.com/pages/straw-hats
Shantung straw, which is fine, strong paper made from plants, is now a leading material for making straw hats. It is rolled to imitate the look of straw, but it’s actually stronger than straw and also more resistant to sun damage.
This fibre was originally from Asia. Apparently, the history is: Korean monks went to China and learned this papermaking technique, then took it to Japan where it was “perfected” around 600 AD by adding other types of fibre, and named Washi. The processing steps have, of course, been shared or taken to other countries where they might be followed correctly, or followed but with shortcuts.
Nowadays Shantung paper is often made with Manila hemp from The Philippines. A true pan-Asian creation! Shantung paper yarn is also made in USA and other countries.
Source: Wei’s Western Wear in-house picture
As with felt, most straw hats have Xs inside to denote the quality. “The tighter the weave and narrower the straw reed used to make the hat, the better X quality is marked in the hat,” says Stetson, on one of its website FAQ pages.
The fine qualities of Shantung are on display on this Resistol George Strait Shantung hat.
Bangora Straw Hats
Source: https://stetson.com/pages/straw-hats
Bangora straw made from a plant-based paper, rolled into a straw-like form. It’s a very popular straw hat weave.
The hats are made by machine, resulting in a perpendicular weave, as well as a lower cost.
Palm Straw Hats
Palm
Source: https://stetson.com/pages/straw-hats
Palm hats provides great sun protection, is still lightweight, and is also water repellent.
The tan-beige colour of a palm Cowboy hat makes the hat seem like a more casual hat, especially compared with a classic white straw Cowboy hat or black straw Cowboy hat
Are Wool Cowboy Hats Popular?
Wool hats are a very popular choice for a Cowboy hat. The hats can look very nice, suitable for any occasion, but the main attraction is the cost.
Sheep’s wool is plentiful around the world, and easy to produce via shearing the animal. Plus, wool collection - shearing - does not harm the animal, preserving it as an grass-chewing economic engine for the farmer. Wool is washed, treated and twisted into yarn which is woven, and eventually becomes wool felt. It has waterproof properties courtesy of the natural lanolin oil coating each strand.
But because the wool is sheared, wool yarn is inherently less structured, more flexible and looser. Over time a wool hat does not keep its shape like fur felt hats. Bottom line, a wool felt hat will not last as long, and that’s why the price is lower.
Going back to our earlier lifestyle questions, you may not wear a hat very often, so the hat could last an acceptably long number of years. A wool hat could be the one you’re looking for. And guess, what? Many of them are graded too, with variables similar to felt and straw processes.
Wool hats can also be available as crushable hats, which are ideal as traveling hats. If you need to put them into a suitcase, they’ll regain their shape. If they get wet, let them dry in the air and they’ll regain their shape.
The Bozeman by Stetson is a crushable hat made from wool. It has a pinch front crown that’s 4” tall, with a 3-¼” brim.
The Right Cowboy Hat for Your Face
How should a cowboy hat fit, and how should it look?
“Think about hats like glasses,” says Al Mah of Wei’s. “They should suit your face. Some faces and heads are round, heart shaped or longer and narrow at the sides. The hat needs to suit the shape of your head.”
Source: https://www.wikihow.com/Choose-Hats-for-Your-Face-Shape
This means for a round head you will need a hat with a round oval to fit. However, it does not mean to buy a completely round hat, since that would emphasize your roundness even more.
If you have a longer oval head and face you may need a long oval hat shape to fit, but probably do not want to over-emphasize your facial shape.
One of the purposes of the crown creases and brim bends is to add variety, as we learned in Part 1 of this blog. So choose a hat that fits, but adds contrast to your face when it’s worn.
Just as all our faces are different, hatmakers make Regular hats to fit rounder heads, Oval hats for narrower heads, and Long Oval hats for heads that need more length.
- Round/Regular Oval - for heads that have almost identical measurements. If you’ve been told you have a wide head, this style might be yours. Steer clear of round crowns, which can emphasize the roundness of your face.
- Measurement: A round face will be the same width and length. A round face has a round chin, full cheeks, and around the hairline.
- Regular Oval - a head that is slightly longer than it is wide. Where a hat does not state its shape, it’s probably oval. “Regular oval is the most common shape,” says Al Mah.
- Measurement: An oval face has a length that is approximately one and a half times greater than your face width. The forehead is a bit larger than the jawline. The angle of the jaw is a bit more round.
- Long oval - If your head is more than slightly longer from front to back, you have a long oval head. Wei’s has several hats in this style.
- Measurement: An oblong face is longer than it is wide. The forehead, cheekbones, and jawline of an oblong face will be pretty similar in size.
If you’re not sure of your face shape and want to measure it, WikiHow has a tutorial.
Are Hats Unisex?
Of course a cowboy hat in Canada or anywhere else can be worn by men or women, as long as it fits. Some styles are definitely more masculine, such as a Cattleman or a Brick, and others are more casual, like a ‘slouch’ hat.
Some hats are intended for women. Women’s cowgirl hats in Canada often feature cleaner lines, richer colours, and classy extras, like a faux silk hatband.
A Twister hat with a classy teardrop pinch crease in classic Navy colour. It’s 100% wool, with a 3 inch brim. Wei’s stocks other colours too.
The reality is, Wei’s has women customers who wear Cattleman hats, and male customers who wear styles that are not traditional cowboy hats. Whatever cowboy hat style that suits your individual style should be the one you put on first.
Are Akubra Hats Considered Cowboy Hats?
As well, Wei’s stocks Akubra hats from Australia, with more than 10 styles to choose from and a variety of colours. We are one of the only Akubra retailers in Canada and are enthusiastic about Akubra’s quality and style.
They are more of an adventurer or casual hat, but since they’re also worn by Australian cowboys, so we consider them a valid cowboy hat in Canada. If you’re looking for an Akubra hat in Canada, come to Wei’s.
The Right Size Hat for Your Head
It’s helpful to know your head size when shopping for hats, and essential if you want to order a Cowboy hat in Canada from Wei’s Western Wear online. We carefully package hats in a large box and ensure enough space and packing material so your hat arrives safely.
How Do You Measure Your Head for a Hat?
- Use a flexible cloth measuring tape and hold it close to your head. Start at your forehead and go all the way around. If you can put a finger between the tape and your head, then it’s too loose.
- Record the measurement on a piece of paper.
- Take the measurement twice to ensure it is accurate.
- Or, use a piece of string. This means you can mark the string with a marker, and use separate pieces of string for each measurement.
- Measure all the way around. Bring it all the way around your head, about ¼”-½” above your ears. Hold the string or tape measure This is where your hat should fit. Mark the piece of string. Take the measurement twice to ensure it is accurate.
Source: in-house PDF
What Cowboy Hat Sizes Does Wei’s Stock?
Wei’s stocks adult cowboy hats from size 6-½” up to size 8. Wei’s also stocks youth sizes.
Wei’s also stocks some brands that arrive in Small, Medium, Large, and XL sizes. These hats are not quite as precise on the size but on the other hand may provide more flexibility.
Top Cowboy Hat Brands
What Are Some Top Brands of Cowboy Hats in Canada?
Wei’s Western Wear usually stocks more than 300 hats to choose from. Brands include classic American cowboy hat brands like Stetson, Resistol and Seratelli, along with Bailey, Master Hatters of Texas, Twister, Wrangler, Ariat, Eddy, and Outback Trading Co., and more.
Wei’s stocks a premium price tier of hats from Resistol, Stetson and Serratelli. These are some of the most famous mainstream brands in the world and prices go up to about $799 for some of the highest quality hats.
Those 100x hats are luxurious to touch and beautiful to look at, but Wei’s recognize that our customers want a choice. Wei’s stocks 30X, 20X, 8X, 6X, 4X and 3X hats, depending on the hat style and material. You can buy a lower X number by a famous brand and it’s still a great hat.
Wei’s also stocks cowboy hat brands that are in a lower price range. The brands are less famous but the quality is still very good. These cowboy hat brands include Bailey, Master Hatters of Texas, and Twister brands.
Famous Western brands like Wrangler and Ariat don’t make hats, but they have licensed their name to companies that do make hats, and Wei’s stocks those as well.
Wei’s also stocks a variety of crushable hats by Outback Trading Co. and other brands.
In addition to all those cowboy hat brands, Wei’s stocks others that we bring in to see if customers like them and if they become popular. That’s what running a retail store is about, having some unique or unusual items, so we have lots of those hats.
So Wei’s has a lot of cowboy hat brands, styles and materials, as well as sizes, that provide our customers with the choice they want. That’s how we get to about 300 hats in stock at Wei’s. If you're looking for a cowboy hat in Canada, check out Wei’s selection.
Here are some of the cowboy hat brands we carry.
Source: http://www.northseatraders.com/About_Serratelli.htm
Seratelli
Seratelli is an American family-owned hatmaker since 1878 and they have a big following.
Serratelli is old school. For example, there’s no Seratelli website, and they like to refer inquiries to their existing dealer network. They have a Facebook page but they do not answer the questions. So, if you have any questions about Seratelli, please contact us at Wei’s.
Source: https://www.riverjunction.com/5201
Stetson
Arguably the oldest and most famous American cowboy hat company, as well as the largest, Stetsons have been made since 1865.
Stetson’s first creation, the Boss of the Plains, was an immediate hit. Variations with different creases made the Montana Peak style, still being worn as the official hat of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Other crease and dent designs in the crown have produced such popular styles as the Open Road style, still stocked at Wei’s.
Cody Johnson wears Resistol hats
Source: https://www.westernlifestyleretailer.com/resistol-launches-cody-johnson-hat-line/
Resistol
The most popular Resistol straw hats at Wei’s Western Wear are probably the George Strait hats. But as new country music stars like Jason Aldean and Cody Johnson sign deals with Resistol, their hat styles are selling more and more.
“Resistol George Strait, that’s our best selling hat,” says Al Mah of Wei’s. “Guys come in, and that’s what they want."
Choosing a Cowboy Hat? Your Preferences Matter.
In the end, the choice is yours. The nice thing about shopping Wei’s Legendary Selection is that you don’t have to follow the crowd unless you want to. You can find something unique that speaks to you, your style and individuality.
What Cowboy Hat Style Do You Like?
“There are 3 things,” says Al Mah. “The style, the fit, and the look. Start with the style that suits your face, and try on some hats.” Do the crown and brim complement your face?
What Cowboy Hat Fits the Best?
Then, says Al, “each particular hat may fit slightly differently to the shape of your head. The hat should be snug, but not tight. If you bend over to pick up a pencil on the floor, your hat should not fall off. If you walk outside and there’s a gust of wind, you don’t want the hat to fly away.”
Does the Cowboy Hat Give You the Look You Want?
“The look is a little different than the style of the hat,” says Al, “The look is about how it works with your height, your body shape. Take a look in the mirror and see if you like the look.”
How to Care for Your Cowboy Hat
Caring for your beautiful cowboy hat does not have to be difficult. Remember, you’re trying to keep the hat shape you love, that was handcrafted with care and skill.
Handling Your Cowboy Hat
- Have a light touch whenever you handle your hat. Always handle your hat by the brim, not the crown. This will prevent the crown from getting misshapen or creased. Touching the hat in the same place all the time can eventually lead to stains or even holes from the oils in our fingers.
- When putting on your hat, grip the edge of the front brim and the edge of the back brim. This reinforces the existing shape of the hat. If you pull down only the front brim, then over time the hat will lose shape.
- Inevitably, your hat will get some dirt on it. Do not have a heavy hand and wipe it off, it will only get worse. Wei’s sells specialty dry sponges for cleaning hats. They’re made from material that can pick up a single speck of dust. We also stock a “magic eraser” for hats.
- Avoid setting your hat on its crown or hanging it by its crown, such as on a coat hook, as this can also lead to misshaping.
- Avoid exposing your hat to the heat from vents and radiators
Your Cowboy Hat Vs. the Elements
- Be careful of rain. Some hats do better than others in the rain, but it’s generally a good thing to avoid. Subjecting the hat to rain showers can warp the hat, stain the hat with watermarks, and damage the hat.
- If your hat gets overly wet, try and shape it into the original shape, then let it dry in the air, but not in hot, hot sun.
Cowboy Hat Storage
- Enclosed trucks and cars in the summer are not the best place to store your hat for a few hours.
- At home, store your hat in a cool, dry place, away from direct sunlight and moisture. If you won’t be wearing it for a while, try to store your hat in the hat box to keep it protected.
Re-Shaping Your Cowboy Hat
- Shaping: Over time, your cowboy hat may lose its shape. To reshape it, you can use steam or warm water. Hold the hat over the steam or use a damp cloth to apply steam to the area you want to reshape. Be careful not to get the hat too wet, as this can cause damage. Once you have the desired shape, let the hat air dry.
- “Use lots of steam, and take your time,” says Wei’s downtown store manager Cynthia. “Shape the hat a little at a time to get it right.”
- After shaping, you can also use a hat stiffener to help maintain hat shape. Wei’s stocks a spray stiffener from Twister for convenience. Just spray the hat, what could be easier?
Cowboy Hat Maintance
- Maintenance: Regular maintenance can help keep your cowboy hat looking its best. If you wear your hat frequently, it's a good idea to brush it with a soft bristle brush every few days to remove dust and dirt.
Cowboy Hat Happy is the Way to Be!
Remember when you’re shopping for a cowboy felt hat in Canada, or shopping for a Cowboy straw hat, Wei’s is here to help. Combined, we have more than 100 years of experience to offer our customers.
If you have any questions let us know. That’s how you get to be “hat happy