Felt Cowboy Hats: Wool or Fur Felt, X Ratings, Crowns and Fit

Felt cowboy hats come in two very different materials sold under the same shapes: wool felt, and fur felt made from rabbit, hare and beaver. The usual working western has a crown about 4⅝ in (11.7 cm) tall and a brim about 4 in (10 cm) wide. Fibre, crown crease, brim width and size are the four choices, and this page takes them in that order, then covers keeping the hat in shape once you own it.

Is a wool felt cowboy hat or a fur felt one better?

Fur felt is lighter, denser and more weatherproof; wool felt is the cheaper, heavier, softer option that suits occasional wear. Both are true felt, made by shrinking loose fibre into a solid sheet with heat, moisture and pressure, the process described in what is felting. The difference comes from the fibre.

	Wool felt	Rabbit or hare fur felt	Beaver blend
Fibre	Sheep's wool	Fine underfur of rabbit or hare	Rabbit or hare with a share of beaver underfur
Feel	Matte, a little fuzzy, thicker for its stiffness	Smooth, close, noticeably lighter	Smoothest and densest; the hand feels almost like suede
Rain	Wets through in a heavy shower	Sheds light to moderate rain	The most water-resistant felt made
Shape over years	Brim softens and droops sooner	Holds a crease well	Holds a crease longest; can be reblocked repeatedly
Who it suits	Weekends, shows, a first hat	Regular wear	Daily work in the weather, long ownership

Start with wool if you are not yet sure a western hat suits your life, and whether the shape you liked in the shop still feels right after a summer. If a label says "fur blend" without naming fibres, assume rabbit. If you are not sure whether a hat is wool or something cheaper, the felt hat burn test settles it on a single fibre pulled from inside the sweatband.

What does the X rating on a cowboy hat mean?

An X rating is a maker's own grade for the fur blend, and it only compares hats within that one brand. Resistol, for example, says its X scale reflects the blend of beaver, hare and rabbit fur, with more beaver giving a higher number. Other makers grade differently, and there is no standard behind the mark, so the same number can mean a quite different hat from a different firm.

Three practical consequences:

• Compare X only inside one brand. A maker's 6X and 20X are steps on the same ladder. Its 20X and another maker's 20X are not.
• On wool hats, the X is a style mark. Some wool felt westerns carry a 2X, 3X or 4X on the liner. Wool contains no fur, so the number can only describe the maker's own range.
• Very high numbers are marketing territory. Labels of 100X and above exist. Judge those hats on what the maker states about the fur content, the weight in the hand and how the felt feels, not on the count.

The trustworthy signals are the ones you can check: a named fibre content, a felt that is smooth and even when held up to light, and a brim that springs back when you flex it gently.

Which crown shape should you choose?

The cattleman is the standard: one long crease down the centre of the crown and a dent along each side. If you have no strong preference, start there. Crown names are shop terms rather than fixed specifications, so the same name can look a little different from one maker to the next.

Crown	What it looks like	Reads as
Cattleman	Centre crease front to back, two side dents, usually about 4½–5 in (11.5–12.5 cm) tall	The working default; suits most faces
Pinch front	Crown pinched into a teardrop or V at the front	A little dressier; common in women's ranges
Brick	Squared, flat-topped crease, almost rectangular seen from the side	Sharp and formal
Gus	Tall crown sloping down toward the front, with a pinch at the front and creases across the top	Old-West, dramatic
Open crown	Rounded, uncreased crown	Sold to be creased by you or a hatter

The crown height that suits you depends on your face more than your height. A taller crown lengthens a round or broad face; a long face looks better under a crown nearer 4½ in. The types of felt hats page traces how all of these, and the lower Open Road, came from the plain round-crowned western of the 1860s.

How wide should the brim be?

A brim of about 4 in (10 cm) is the everyday western width. Most felt westerns are sold between about 3½ and 4½ in (9 and 11.5 cm), and a wide brim felt cowboy hat runs from about 4½ in (11.5 cm) up to 5 in (12.5 cm) or more.

• 3½ in (9 cm). Neat, light, catches less wind. Suits a smaller frame and a narrower face, and is common in women's sizes.
• 4 in (10 cm). The middle of the road. Shades the face without looking like a costume.
• 4½–5 in (11.5–12.5 cm). Real sun and rain cover for outdoor work, and a bolder look. Needs broad shoulders or a tall frame to carry it, and a stiff felt to stop it flopping.

The curl changes the effect as much as the width. A brim rolled up hard at the sides looks narrower from the front than its measurement suggests, so try a hat on rather than choosing by numbers alone. A wide brim also puts more leverage on the felt, which is one more reason to buy a wide brim in fur felt rather than wool.

How do you measure for a cowboy hat?

Measure the circumference of your head in inches, then divide by 3.14 to get the US hat size; a 22⅜ in (57 cm) head takes a 7⅛. Put a soft tape level across the middle of your forehead and round the back, about 1/8 in (3 mm) above the tops of your ears. Keep it snug, not tight, and measure twice.

Head circumference	US hat size	Letter size, roughly
20½ in (52 cm)	6½	XS
20⅞ in (53 cm)	6⅝	XS
21¼ in (54 cm)	6¾	S
21⅝ in (55 cm)	6⅞	S
22 in (56 cm)	7	M
22⅜ in (57 cm)	7⅛	M
22¾ in (58 cm)	7¼	L
23⅛ in (59 cm)	7⅜	L
23½ in (60 cm)	7½	XL
23⅞ in (61 cm)	7⅝	XL
24¼ in (62 cm)	7¾	XXL

Letter sizes vary between makers, so use them as a guide only and check each brand's own chart. Two other things affect fit:

• Head shape. Hats are blocked to an oval. A "long oval" head, longer front to back than average, finds a regular oval hat tight at the forehead and loose at the temples. Some western makers offer long-oval fits, which dress-hat shops rarely stock.
• Between sizes. Take the larger and close the gap with a strip of foam sizing tape under the sweatband. A hat that is too tight gives a headache within the hour; leather sweatbands give slightly with wear, felt does not.

A properly fitted western sits level and stays on in a breeze without pressing a red line into your forehead.

What should women look for in a cowgirl felt hat?

A cowgirl hat is built exactly like a man's; the differences are size, crown choice and how hair sits under the band. Most women measure somewhere around 21 to 22¾ in (53 to 58 cm), sizes 6⅝ to 7¼, and brands that make women's lines often start at 6½.

• Measure with your hair as you will wear it, and see felt hats for women for how buns, braids and loose hair change the fit.
• Pinch-front and cattleman crowns are the two usual choices. The pinch front looks slightly softer; a cattleman with a 3½–4 in brim is the classic arena look.
• Brim width against frame. On a small frame, a 4½ in brim can swamp the face. Try 3½–4 in first.

Fedoras, wide-brimmed ranchers and other shapes for women are covered on that page too; for the men's dress shapes, see felt hats for men.

How do you reshape a felt cowboy hat with steam?

Hold the area you want to shape in steam for 5 to 10 seconds until the felt feels warm and slightly limp, shape it by hand, and hold it until it cools and firms, usually under a minute. A kettle works; a handheld garment steamer is easier to aim at a brim.

1. Work one small section at a time. Steam a hand's width of brim, curl or flatten it, hold it, then move on.
2. For a crown crease, steam the crown, push the crease in from outside with the edge of your hand, and pinch the side dents with fingers and thumb.
3. Keep the steam off the sweatband. Leather that gets hot and wet shrinks and stiffens.
4. Let it set. Leave the hat untouched for an hour, crown down on a clean surface, before wearing it.

Short bursts are the rule. Felt that is steamed for minutes on end loses the stiffener that gives the brim its spring, and a soft brim is hard to bring back without a hatter. The same method lifts dents out of dress hats in how to clean a felt hat.

What should you do when a felt cowboy hat gets wet?

Shake it off, blot it, flip the sweatband out, and let it dry at room temperature, which takes several hours to overnight. Felt shrinks and hardens near heat, so the radiator, the hair dryer and the truck dashboard are all out.

• Reshape while it is damp. Push the crease and brim back to their shape by hand before it dries, because it will dry into whatever shape it is in.
• Dry it on the crown or on a hat rack, never resting on the brim, which will dry flat.
• A soaked wool hat may need a final touch of steam once dry to bring the brim back to the curl it had.

How do you store and clean one?

Store a felt western upside down on its crown or on a hat rack, out of sun, and brush it after each wearing. That covers most of the care it needs.

• Pick it up by the brim, front and back, rather than by the crown pinch. Years of grabbing the pinch wear the felt thin there.
• Brush anticlockwise round the crown with a soft hat brush: a light-coloured brush for light felt, dark for dark, so no bristle colour transfers.
• Lift marks with a dry sponge of the kind sold for soot and suede before trying anything wet. Water spots on light felt can leave a ring.
• Keep it out of a hot vehicle. A closed cab in summer gets hot enough to shrink the sweatband and set a warped brim. A hat carrier keeps it safe on the back seat.
• Watch for moths in a hat stored for the season. Wool and fur felt are both protein and both on the menu; the defences in protecting wool from moths apply.

Band swaps, feather pins and hat boxes are covered in felt hat accessories, and felt hat colours deals with how the classic silverbelly, black and browns behave in sun. A western hat begins as a cone of felt blocked over a wooden form, just like a fedora, which is the process in felt hat blanks.