It happens to the best of us. We might take care to separate our whites, colors, regular wash, and sensitive garments before loading our washing machines, but some things cross into the other piles without us noticing.
We’re only human and have busy lives we need to see to. This unintentional carelessness is when disaster strikes.
Unfortunately, when a wool garment ends up in the regular wash at default settings, the results are usually catastrophic.
You’ll find your favorite hat comes out a tangled, tatty mess and that’s in a best-case scenario. Worst-case scenarios will see wool hats completely shredded to bits due to the high-speed spins and hot washes.
This isn’t the end of the world for your wool hat though. It just needs some TLC if it’s in otherwise good shape.
So is it possible to unshrink a wool hat? Yes, with a corkboard, some hair conditioner, water, and laundry pins, you can soften a wool hat so that it’s able to be stretched out. However, wool hats that have been felted are unable to be unshrunk since the fibers are too rigid.
Unshrinking a wool hat isn’t for the faint-hearted. It will require a bit of elbow grease on your behalf in order to safely detangle and stretch the wool back to fitting comfortably on your head. It will also require even more patience.
Unshrinking a wool cap isn’t a quick job, but taking the time to perform the steps will save your precious headgear from the trash.
How To Unshrink A Wool Hat – A Full Guide
Is Your Hat Felted?
I know you’re keen to unshrink your hat, but there’s an important consideration to make: is the material felted?
This will not only apply to wool caps, but also to hats made of any type of natural yarn including mohair, cashmere, and silk. A felted cap will not unshrink despite anyone’s best efforts and unfortunately, this will be the end of the road.
However, it’s a necessary check to perform.
Wool has been felted when it’s not possible to see each individual strand or fiber in the hat. A felted fiber will have lost this individual texture and is more “molded into itself” by tightly weaving each individual strand of material into something that appears almost as if it’s one universal strand covering the entirety of the hat.
A felted hat will be very tough to the touch: it is rigid, durable, and is completely resistant to physically stretching it out.
Testing for felted wool is as simple as giving it a gentle tug in various opposite directions. When a wool hat isn’t felted, then it will very willingly allow you to stretch it to and fro.
A felted hat will resist your stretch and almost refuse to move under the pressure. Wool that hasn’t been felted and can be stretched is wool that can be saved!
Hopefully, you’re holding a hat that wasn’t felted during its creation.
It’s something you’ll have a great chance at wearing again once it has been worked back into its original shape.
You can now safely go through all of the positive emotions associated with saving it from its laundry accident. The first step in the healing process is gathering the supplies you’ll need to get your hat back into wearable shape.
What You’ll Need
There are a few laundry essentials that will make this task a far more bearable chore.
Supplies to Unshrink a Wool Hat |
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A corkboard the size of your hat |
A clean, dry towel |
A sink or bucket or water |
Laundry pins or t-pins |
Hair conditioner |
You’ll need a corkboard that’s roughly the size of your hat, a bottle of your favorite hair conditioner, a clean and dry towel, laundry pins or t-pins, and have access to a sink or small bucket.
It may also be wise to have mechanical drying aids such as a salad spinner that will help reduce excess moisture and decrease the time required between steps in order to successfully unshrink a wool hat.
The 5 Steps to Unshrinking a Wool Hat
Follow the steps below to salvage your shrunken hat and restore it to the proper size.
1. Soak The Wool Hat For 20 Minutes
You should start the process by filling your bucket or sink with a generous amount of lukewarm water and adding up to five tablespoons of hair conditioner.
The amount of conditioner required is largely dependent on the amount of water used. The idea is that you should build up a small lather and foam, but should still be able to see a good amount of the water.
Less is more when it comes to the amount of conditioner needed for the process.
Don’t try to reshape the hat at this stage. Just simply let it soak in the mixture for at least 20 minutes. Depending on the severity of the tangles, then it may take up to three hours to loosen up and be more manageable during the drying and reshaping processes.
This is certainly something that shouldn’t be rushed.
Take the time and allow the wool to become thoroughly saturated with the mixture, which will make the material more responsive to your efforts later on.
2. Time To Drain
When your hat feels like it is stretchable in the mixture and is actually becoming quite loose as time goes on, then it is time to drain your sink or bucket.
Do not attempt to stretch or otherwise manipulate your hat at this stage. Allow the water to drain and also allow what remains of the hair conditioner in the wool to set.
This is the stage that will take the longest because your hat will require sufficient time to lose its excess moisture and become partially dry.
You may gently pat the hat to help purge larger quantities of water, but this should be done very sparingly. The wool is at its most sensitive at this point and needs to be left alone to prevent further damage.
Let nature takes its course and the hat will naturally lose moisture from the fabric over time.
It’s not necessary to allow the hat to completely dry at this stage, which could take several days. However, letting the hat dry overnight would be a wise move.
You don’t want a hat that’s bone dry, but similarly, you don’t want the added weight of the moisture to rip through the wool and ruin the hat. Take your time. The right opportunity to start will present itself soon enough.
3. Dry Your Hat
When your hat has started to dry, then it is time to get rid of the greater majority of whatever moisture remains. Place your hat on an unfolded towel and gently roll it up.
This will trap the wet hat in the middle of the towel and give you leverage to wring it out safely.
Wool hats should never be wrung out by hand without a barrier of protection. When the fibers are wet, wringing them will either cause creases that become permanently embedded in the hat or completely split it into two,
Both of these situations are avoidable by using the towel method to reduce the amount of pressure being applied directly to the fibers, but also give you enough force to get rid of the water that’s still hanging around.
A mechanical aid may be useful at this stage as well. Salad spinners are useful for small wool hats as they provide a sensitive solution to drying that’s unlikely to damage the wool.
Take care not to spin too vigorously. Instead, use gentle circular motions over longer periods to help dry the hat thoroughly.
Your hat should now be almost completely dry and looking much better than it did before. Don’t take this as a cue to toss it aside and wait for your next opportunity to wear it.
You still need to help your hat regain its original shape before the mishap.
4. Stretch and Pin
The mostly dry hat should be placed on top of your corkboard and gently manipulated as much as physically possible. You should take care to allow wrinkles, creases, and folds to release while you’re doing this.
Stretches can be accompanied by soft patting to help smooth the surfaces being worked on, which will allow you to thoroughly stretch the fibers back to their original shape.
Do not be forceful while stretching your hat. This should be one of the gentlest laundry processes you’ve had to undertake. Excessive force can permanently stretch the hat out of shape and ruin the wool entirely.
Once the hat has regained its desired shape and stretch, then it should be pinned in place using laundry pins and T-pins. This will allow the wool to hold itself in this position and keep that one particular fit and shape going forward.
If you don’t have laundry pins or t-pins, they are affordable to buy. I like these laundry pins and these t-pins on Amazon.
5. Repeat
Even the most thorough of drying processes will mean wool is still slightly damp before pinning. That’s okay, but it will mean that the pinning process needs to be repeated as the hat continues to dry.
Check on your hat every few hours to look for signs of sagging or drooping.
You will have to adjust your T-pins accordingly to ensure the wool is being held in the right shape while it is drying. Allowing a sag to set will send you right back to square one.
Once the hat is fully dry and in shape, then it can be reintroduced to your wardrobe for day-to-day wear.
While this is a timely procedure, it isn’t one that’s all that hard to do when you approach it using this method. Hopefully, it’s not something you’ll have to repeat going forward either.
If the worst does happen though, then you’ll be all the more experienced and be able to unshrink wool hats and just about any natural garment with ease.
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