Custom hat makers?

[OlongJohnson]

I've been thinking about this for awhile, but DB's leather briefcase thread pushed me to post.

I have no urge to end up with a snowflake hat, but I need something that will look good and function here in TX. Something for outdoor wear, that will keep the sun off and withstand a bit of sweat (since I can break a sweat just walking out to the car in the morning with the humidity around here). Reasonably durable, but it's OK if it requires reasonable handling and care. It's not hard to find hats for sale in Houston, but there are two problems in my search so far:

First, every time I've gone into a store specializing in western wear or hats in the area, I look around and ask myself why I'm there. I'm a rural west coaster at heart, and although I learned to drive when I was a kid on a 1948 John Deere and five minutes later was working the field, country music is about the only genre that doesn't make it into my CD collection or Pandora station list. I don't want to look like I'm trying to look like a drugstore cowboy or Texas Ranger. The style I'm thinking is a lower crown with a flatter top and narrower, flatter brim. Along the lines of what Clint wore in a lot of the movies, but not close enough anybody would get the impression I was trying to wear a copy of them. I can find stuff like that online, but not in stock in a place where I can inspect it for quality or try it on for fit.

Second, and actually harder to solve, I have a strangely shaped head, apparently. I have a prominent forehead, and my skull is proportionally longer front to back. The effect is that whenever I put on a hat, the band section is stretched front to back. Certain cuts of baseball-style hats work OK with that, but none are excellent. And any hat with a brim ends up getting pulled out of shape. The effect is made much worse if there's any front-to-rear curvature of the brim, as in the process of stretching it over my head, the brim and hatband get flattened out (shortest distance), and the taper section, the front of the crown, gets compressed vertically, with a big bend or wrinkle. And stretching the flat brim into a different shape causes all sorts of warpage and distortion. Together, those effects ruin any possibility of it looking like a quality piece that fits. If I try a hat that's long enough front to rear, the sides of the band are floating in space. Even hats that are soft enough to kinda work don't really work.

So I'm wondering if anyone can recommend a hat maker who will make a hat fit to the shape of my head (as in requiring a visit for them to measure my head), and has a suitable range of styles. And ideally, somewhere not too far from east Texas.

[BehindBlueI's]

Stetson or Bailey's lite felt. Conforms to Klingon shaped heads, multiple styles, meets all your requirements. I'm wearing a Stetson Cruiser today in the FL weather.

[M2CattleCo]

You need a long or extra long oval.

I'd go with a Boonie hat or a palm leaf straw. I wear a palm leaf straw all year. They're cheap enough, and a lot tougher than the regular nice straw hats. I don't wear a cowboy hat when I attempt to dress up, it just makes me look worse.

Catalena Hatters in Bryan can make anything you want.

[Duces Tecum]

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/forums/hats.3/

[Jim Watson]

I, too, have a long head.
By a stroke of good luck, I found a Resistol straw that was a good fit.
I won a certificate for a good felt hat at a CAS event. I was determined for it to fit, so I sent in my Resistol to be matched for style and fit. They didn't.

I had a good copy of a Stetson Cruiser that was soft enough to work, I now have a cheap crushable cruiser that gets me by in the winter.

My lone excursion into quality hats indicates that if you want a hat made to fit, you will have to send in your head.

[Casual Friday]

What size hat do you wear? I have a basically brand new Outback Trading Company hat, it's a medium brown fedora style, that was given to me by a friends dad, and it's too snug for me. It's probably a 7 1/4 or 7 3/8. I wore it around the house for a while when I first got it and it was snug enough to give me a headache so it's just been hanging on a hook for several years. If you think it'll fit, you can have it for the cost of shipping. My fat head isn't getting any smaller so it's of no use to me. If not, I'll probably post it in the karma section later on.

[Malamute]

I was in a custom hat makers place in Mt years ago. They had a device that made an exact impression of the shape of your head and they made the hat to fit your exact head. Once you were on file, you could order anything they made at a later date.

A good maker should be able to make about anything you want. Take pictures of your ideas.


ETA: This http://www.randhats.com/

[texasaggie2005]

Catalena Hatters in Bryan can make anything you want.

Came here to recommend them. Only place I'll trust to make me a hat.

And I love me some low crown, wide brim palm leaf hats.

[Drang]

Just posting to note that the ad at the top of the page is for Stormy Kromer. Which are awesome hats, and made by Yoopers to boot, but pretty sure not what the OP is looking for.

[jlw]

I was in Colorado this summer and stumbled upon the Colorado Mountain Hat Company. The shop has a machine from the 1800s to take precise head measurements. It punches the shape of your head onto a card that is then used to match the hat exactly to the shape of your head, which in my case is an oddly shaped 7 & 5/8 long oval. The resulting hat is in my profile pic. I love the way it fits and have since ordered a duplicate in black.

I have heard good things about this company as well and will probably do something from them at some point.