Wearing a rowing hat is perfect for keeping your face shaded on a sunny day. But most of us know that sweat and dirt will soon leave our protection dirty and filthy. Buy a new one? Don’t know how to clean it? Unfortunately, you cannot put it into the laundry as easy as the rest of your sports gear. Well, here are some possibilities we have tried for you. Depending on the brims. Older hats use mostly card board. Newer ones plastic bills. Soaking an old cardboard bill in water will obviously ruin it. Here is what we suggest.

Method A: Clean your rowing hat: Dishwasher Method

There are many opinions about cleaning your baseball cap in a dishwasher. They tend from perfect method to never again. Honestly, we have tried it several times – It is my preferred cleaning method.

Off course I use modern hats. All of them have plastic-supported brims, and are usually machine-washable.

You need:

• Dishwasher, set on mild (Glassware program)
• 1/2 table spoon of dishwasher detergent or 1/2 tablet
• sieve or bucket to put the adjust the rowing cap
• Using your dishwasher can better maintain the shape of your hat.

Dishwasher cleaning process:

Use a bowl or sieve that fits your hat.

Hats on bowl, top rack

1. Empty your dishwasher, no food residues, no other items.
2. Fix your hat. Get a round bowl, a sieve or a a mixing bowl and adjust your hat wear on it.
3. Put rowing hat with bowl in top dishwasher rack
4. Add dishwasher detergent into dishwasher
5. Turn on the dishwasher and run a normal cycle on light wash, glassware program or low-heat.

Using your dishwasher can better maintain the shape of your hat. Here is our second suggestion:

Method B: Preferred option Hand Wash

Note: An important thing you need to know is the age of your hat. How old is your hat wear? 20 years ago, manufactures used cardboard as brim material. Todays producers tend to use plastic inserts.  Check that out before starting your cleaning process. Spot clean the brim when cardboard is the material.

You Need:

• Bathroom sink:
• Warm, not hot water
• Mild detergent, or dish soap
• toothbrush

Gentle Hand Process

Baseball or Rowing cap: spot cleaning with toothbrush

Gentle blow drying with hair dryer. Fold big towel inside and air dry your hat

1. Fill warm water into the sink. Remember- not hot water just luke warm (30-40 C / 85 F.
2. Use 2-3 drops of mild detergent or diswasher soap into the running water and . I would not use tougher detergents , chlorine containing soap or Oxi Cleaners. They might work on white and light colors. But I would refrain from using it when cleaning my dark hats.  To clean a cardboard brimmed hat, drop your soap into warm water and let it fully dissolve.Take a clean towel and dip it into the solution and lightly buff out any stains on the cap or inner headband. Be careful not to soak the brim! For tougher stains, use a toothbrush to brush the dirt out of the fabric.
3. Spot-clean the hat first, as needed. If there are areas that are especially problematic, spot-wash them with a few drops of cleaning product right on the hat. After first dipping the hat in the water of your bucket or sink, use a toothbrush or other small scrubber to rub the cleaner into the fabric. Hair Shampoo on sweat stains will also help. The bill will be clean of sweat stains. 
4. Some people recommend to let the hat soak in the soapy water-filled bucket or sink you’ve filled for up to a couple hours. I found just 20-30 minutes will get the job done. About halfway through soaking, take a look at the cap and see how the stains are looking. Although the wetted fabric will hide some staining, they’ll still show through if they’re bad. Using your old toothbrush, again spot wash those persistent problem areas, and again, be careful around stitched patterns and logos.
5. Water rinse: Rinse thoroughly with cool water. Give the hat a good rinse before letting it dry. Rinse the towel thoroughly and gently wipe the detergent off the hat until none is remaining. Rowing hat: Fold big towel inside and air dry your hat
6.  Excess water: The hat will obviously be very wet when you remove it from the water; let some of the excess drip off, then pat dry with a towel as much as you can while retaining the shape of the hat, and being gentle with logos. Your goal here is simply to remove the excess so that it can dry on a counter without dripping water all over.
7. Air Dry your hat. Fold a towel, find a bowl, a coffee jar, a canister, or perhaps any mannequin head you have lying around to set it on. This will ensure the hat’s shape stays true and doesn’t crinkle up. Air dry now. Note: No matter how much forming and patting you do, there will always be some drippage. Still, the hat will look good.

Looking as good as new.

Tips and No Gos

• You might want to give your hat to the dry cleaner, if not
• We believe hand washing is the most gentle method.
• Use spot staining method to clean stains
• Do this for heavy stains also when dish washing
• Refrain from using a washing machines or even tumblers
• Do not use bleach detergents on darker colors

One thing to remember. Your rowing hat will not look as perfect as before the wash. Heavy stains might stay until you really wash them out heavily. But in general – if the caps are not to dirty and sweat and lighter stains are the issue – you will be happy with the result. Good luck and enjoy the cleaning.

Hats with our Rowperfect logo are available in our shop. Black, Red, Hi-Vis, White and other colors