Trouble with black hats

November 5, 2009 8:13 AM

Why can't I find a decent black hat/cap?

It seems that every time I buy a black baseball-style hat, the black always fades to brown or off-color after a couple months. I don't stand in the rain in these hats. I don't do anything to them but wear them. I've tried Hurley hats 'cause I like the style. I thought maybe getting an MLB (etc) licensed hat might boost the quality, but any hats they have in black are all "gangsta" style. While I have nothing against this style, it is not for me. Anyone have any ideas?

posted by Brocktoon to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (7 answers total)

Black clothing is always problematic. Tide detergent has a special flavor just for preserving the black in black clothes.

My understanding is that all clothing colors fade, but it's most noticeable with black, because black actually turns a different color. Green fades to light green, blue fades to light blue, but black fades to an ugly brown or purplish dark blue.

Unless someone knows of a super-black line of hats, you may have to resign yourself to re-buying the hat every few years. You could try dyeing it with Rit dye, but truthfully I personally have never had any luck with that stuff.
posted by ErikaB at 8:26 AM on November 5, 2009

My guess is that UV is breaking down the black pigments. In theory, a UV protectant spray should prevent this. But I haven't tried it myself.
posted by IvyMike at 9:25 AM on November 5, 2009

Try going to a local embroidery shop and checking out the selections there. You should be able to find snap-back, Pro-fit, etc hats in jet black.

Then it's just a matter of picking up 3-5 of them and stashing them away. Try to have a dry head before wearing the hat because water will leech the color out. UV spray will work but it needs to be reapplied regularly
posted by Khazk at 10:13 AM on November 5, 2009

In general, cottons tend to fade faster than synthetics, a factoid also useful when buying black socks.
posted by aimedwander at 10:47 AM on November 5, 2009

Fabric bleaches in the sun...dark fabric even more so. There's not much getting around that.
posted by radioamy at 11:26 AM on November 5, 2009

Store your caps in the dark whenever you're not wearing them, and try different brands in case one brand uses a better dye than another one does.

Visible light, not ultraviolet light, is responsible for most problems with the lightfastness of black dyes, so ultraviolet protectants will not help much. Some dyes are significantly more lightfast than others, but the dye fixatives that are often used to make up for poor quality in dyes can decrease lightfastness.

If you decide to redye a nylon hat, don't use Rit dye, which has poor resistance to light fading; instead, use a Lanaset dye, which produces better results all around.
posted by Ery at 12:07 PM on November 5, 2009

My understanding is that all clothing colors fade, but it's most noticeable with black, because black actually turns a different color.

Yeah, mainly because there's no such dye color as 'black' in the natural (cotton, wood, etc) world. Anything we see as black is actually just very very very dark something, usually brown or blue. Pick up your favorite 'black' object, whether it's cotton or plastic, and look at it under very strong light, and you'll probably be able to catch that blue or brown tint. Occasionally it's purple (indigo) or green (licorice).

That's why black things will always fade to bluish or brownish, rather than a monochrome gray. Sun and washing machines will beat the darkness out of anything over time.

I have a closet full of 'black' clothing, but I sort it by that tint, so I don't accidentally where a black (but actually very dark blue) shirt with black (but actually very dark brown) pants.

Yeah, I'm weird.
posted by rokusan at 2:23 PM on November 5, 2009