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Writer's pictureDavid A Bowles

Buying Your Winter Hat



If your noggin is a bit cold these mornings, you might need a good winter hat. As I said before a cap is not a hat. A felt hat can protect you from the

winter sun. Your hat will protect you from the elements. The right hat can

make you look cool. A hatter can help you select that special felt. In the

south, western style hats are popular. In the north, gentlemen prefer

fedoras and an occasional derby.

Hat stores have a variety of types, sizes, and colors. They have trained

hatters to fit you and shape the hat for your face and size. The hatter has the

equipment and tools to steam and trim the brim. A custom hat band can be

added for that special look.

You can spend several hundred dollars for a good felt hat, that will last you

a lifetime. You can tell the quality of a hat by the inside hat band. It should

be leather and well sewn. A quality beaver felt will sometimes have three or

more X on the label. Quality hats have the manufacturer and hat store logo

embossed on the leather sweat band. A beaver felt made by Stetson and

most American made manufacturers will mark the hats with X’s referring to

the quality. The more X’s the better quality of the beaver’s pelt. The X was

the mark used by the early fur trappers to grade the quality of their pelts.

Learn more about beaver pelt grading in Adam’s Daughters book 3 of the

Westward Sagas series.

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