How to wash a baseball cap
Joe Siegler
Anyone who knows me knows I love to wear baseball caps. Always have. Part of the problem is that I live in Texas, and if I wear one outside in the summer for more than a few times, they tend to get nasty. The immediate response is “get another one”. That’s fine, except..
To me the only cap one should buy are the fitted kind. The “one size fits all” with the plastic snaps in the back are NOT the kind to get. They never fit right; the fitted ones just feel so much better. New Era 59/50 fitted cap all the way. The problem with that is that they’re not cheap. This past season, the price of them was raised to $28 per cap. One can usually find a discount here and there, but they’re still too damn expensive.
Today as a lark I ran across this link online which talks about how you can wash your baseball caps. Check it out, it’s got some interesting insight, as well as some amusing remarks about the oddball looks you’ll get from your wife/girlfriend about theories on how things should be washed. :)
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Whoever wrote that link of yours is trying to get you to totally ruin your cap out of bravado.
Caring for fitted wool blend caps (from New Era’s documentation, since they would know how to care for their product more than anyone)
How to Care For Your New Era Cap
Key things to remember… If you make the cap wet, it will take on shape as it dries! If you don’t provide the shape, it will shrink to its own smaller shape If you want it to fit your head, dry it on your head If you want it to be shaped like a coffee mug, dry it in a mug If you use rubber bands and you make the rubber bands too 2 tight, you will see rubber band marks Cleaning a 59Fifty…never wash the cap! The cap is made of wool and you will ruin its shape. Either: Dry Clean or, if all you need is to clean the headband, take a wet washcloth and put a little detergent and a little Spray and Wash and gently rub down the headband with the wet wash cloth. After you have sufficiently cleaned the headband of sweat stains and soil, rinse the wash cloth out with clear water and once again wash down the headband, cleaning up any left soap. Let dry and your cap will be ready to go again. Some sweat stains stay in but at least the cap will be clean.
Dusty caps? Things like a little cat hair or lint, just take some masking tape (I like the 2 inch size) and wrap some of it around your fingers so the sticky side is exposed and dab the hat with the tape. The tape will pick up all the lint and anything else on the cap.
Too big? Dry cleaning will shrink your cap a bit. Have a reputable dry cleaner put it in a dry cleaning solvent bath for about 2 minutes. Let air dry.
Just a little big?.. Take a spray bottle of water and spray the headband with the water, then let dry in the sun on top of an empty coffee can. Or, just let it dry without being elevated by the can. You can also dry it with a good portable hair dryer.
Drying DO NOT put them in the dryer!
Too tight? What happens is the sweatband does its job and collects any moisture when you are wearing the cap. Without a head to hold its shape and size, it will shrink as it dries. For starters, grab your cap from the rear of the cap, place it over your knee and give a good hard yank. You will hear some popping noises. That’s O.K. Stop pulling after you hear a couple of these noises. If you pull too hard and too long, you could rip a seam. We DON’T want that!! What you are actually doing is breaking the sizing, which is a stiff plastic strap that we sew into the cap for shape and size maintenance.
this has worked for me for a long time…
it’s not washing your hat but it keeps it really really fresh, clean, and sharp. it does NOT clean out some stains like say sauce or something, but i’ve had my 59fifty fitted wool hat for over a year now i think and it’s only got like 2 little stains no wider than a dime.
just tape down your hat in class or at home regularly, like get some packing tape for speed or regular tape works just fine too. i can get my hat real good in like less than 4 minutes and then theres no lint or hairs or other things that show up on my crisp black hat anymore, and it doesn’t look gross like some people’s hats. just be carefull of the sticker. tape around it. i still got both the big sticker and the smaller baseball sticker on my hat :)