Overview
Quick Navigation
A baseball cap is one of the uniforms worn by players during the game. A baseball cap is a rounded cap with a rigid bill facing forward. The idea of the rigid bill facing forward is to protect players against the sun. As part of the traditional uniform worn by baseball players, this cap has to be taken care of like other uniforms. But how do you take care of your cap? This is when the big question arises. Are you to wash it just like any other cap if there are certain tips used in washing the cap. Also how frequent are you supposed to be washing your baseball cap? All these are important questions you have once or twice ask yourself as a baseball player. Worry no more, as we shall discuss how to wash a baseball cap below.
How to Wash a Baseball Cap
Washing a baseball cap is an easy task that will take you no time. All of us know the normal way of washing cap, well, you can wash your baseball cap that way but I have a secret tip for washing baseball caps. Mind if I share it with you? I know you will love it.
Fill a clean bucket or sink with warm water, put a reasonable amount of soap solution or detergent. It is advisable to use detergent as it is stronger and easily cleans off stubborn stains.
Start with cleaning stained areas on the cap. You can dab a good stain remover on the stained areas, clean these areas thoroughly with a soft toothbrush till all stains are removed. After that dip the cap inside your bucket or sink and use the soft toothbrush or a scrubber to scrub the cap fibre thoroughly. Focus more on the back and the tip of the bill as they accumulate sweat stain more. However, you should be careful not to remove the thread work of your cap. This means, scrub thoroughly but gently.
After you finish scrubbing the stains, let the cap soak in your soap solution for a few hours. Though 30 to 40 minutes soak can be enough it’s better to soak the cap for a couple of hours. As you are soaking the cap, be checking on the stains from time to time. If the stains persist, rewash them with your scrubber adding a small amount of stain remover.
After soaking for a few hours, use your hand to wash the cap lightly, then rinse off with warm water. Make sure you rinse thoroughly to get all the soap off.
Get a clean dry towel and use it to pat down the cap to remove moisture. It is, however, good to allow excess water to drip off first before using a towel to absorb moisture. Be patting the towel around the cap gently to avoid removing the logos and escaping the heat.
You can dry your hat on the line when the sun is down so that it will not fade. However, to retain the shape of the cap you should dry the hat on some sort of a container like a coffee jar, or a mannequin. This will help keep your cap in shape and prevent it from crinkle up. If you are in a hurry and you want the cap to dry fast, you can use a hairdryer or a small fan to accelerate the drying. Just make sure the cap is dried thoroughly before you use it.
Tips for cleaning an old baseball cap
What if you have been using your baseball cap for years? Will you still use the above guide to wash it? No, old caps will be less durable and less qualitative than new caps as such care has to be taken when washing them. Here are few tips to follow when washing an old baseball cap.
Give your cap a colour test. As we all know as baseball caps get older, their ability to retain colour upon washing will reduce. So whenever you want to wash it, you first have to test if it can still retain its colour or not. This is an easy test; just rub a small amount of detergent on a clean rag and use it to clean the underside of the cap bill, if the colour didn’t change you can use a detergent to wash your cap, however, if the colour changes, you have to use only water in washing the cap as putting a detergent or soap will remove all the colour of your cap and leave it faded. After the colour test, you can move on and follow the above procedure to clean your cap
Conclusion
Baseball caps are important to every baseball player, which is why you have to take good care of it by washing it whenever it is dirty. It’s not advisable to be washing the cap after each match, as it will be worn out easily, you can be drying your cap under a fan to remove odour. Wash your cap only when it accumulates dirt and stains.
For more information, check our previous articles on baseball:
When Will baseball season starts‘
What is arbitration in baseball‘
How is softball different from a baseball‘