If your hat or cap is too small, you can often stretch it up one size. With this hat expander you can easily do it at home and thus avoid tight caps and hats. The wrong fit for a cap can cause headaches and discomfort. Sometimes it can be beneficial to stretch the cap slightly to its original size, especially if it has shrunk after long periods of laborious use. To stretch your headgear, insert the tool into the sweatband and screw on the metal handle in the center of the tool. The hat enlarger can also be used when you are not using the hat to preserve the size of the hat by preventing shrinkage. Most materials such as wool, linen and cotton slowly shrink slightly when affected by heat, high humidity and movement. Why has the cap or hat changed size? All Wilgart caps come with an edge insert which ensures that the cap is more dimensionally stable than most other caps you will find on the market. However, you should expect some change in the size of the cap over time. This is related to the fact that we work with natural fibers, which always change a little. The fibers change character when exposed to the following 3 factors

• Heat
• Moisture
• Activity

Therefore, you can advantageously counteract changes in the size of the cap by adding the same three elements. Typically in the form of Steam (heat and moisture) and then either stretch the cap (expand) or let dry without stretching (shrink). You can expand the cap by wearing it on your own head while it slowly dries, or use one of our hat stretchers. Typically, the cap always works about 1/2 size down and up, but even this small change in size can be bothersome, and you may have to regularly compensate for changes by stretching or shrinking the cap.