 You can store your hat on a hat structure which will handle it when it's wet or dry. Put a hat structure just inside the hat, not stretching it. Then you can put it down on a little box or something so that the brim does not touch the shelf. The hat will then dry without losing shape. And if the hat structure is just set for the right size, it will prevent any shrinkage over time. Rather than just a little box as I have there, you can put a more elegant one together with four door stops onto a hat structure. If you put a hat down on the table, you turn it upside down so it won't spoil the shape of the brim. If you turn it upside down, your brim is not going to be spoiled. If you've got a hat that's as this one has a turned up brim, you can turn the brim all around and that can sit down that way without any problems. When you pick it up to use it, you have to flip the front down again. When the hats are shipped, they're often packing marks where they move against another hat. They come nested from Australia. And you have packing marks in the front of this hat. These can be taken off either by brushing and then getting out in the rain or by a little steam. The dealer can remove all the packing marks and make sure the hat is just the way it was before it was packed. With your hands inside, you push out if the hat is, it's dented at all there. The hat shows it often in the back. You can take that out. To remove dust from a hat, you brush with a brim brush counterclockwise. You'll counterclockwise because that's the direction in which the felt is pounced or sandpaper. When it's finished, so all the ends of the nap are sticking out in a counterclockwise direction. Counterclockwise from the top and from the bottom. You want to keep the dust off a hat because if you get out in the rain and you get a spotting of rain, it will agglomerate the dust particles and they will, when the hat dries, they will show up with little spots of dust. You can then take them off later when the hat's dry, but it's better to keep the dust off a hat with the brush. The other thing you can use is a towel that's slightly damp. You can wipe the hat with a towel after you've had a shower where it's slightly damp and just wipe it counterclockwise from both sides and that will remove the dust that's on the hat. All of the cobras are treated for water resistance and they check it by putting a little water in the crown, depressing the crown and having a little water in. It'll just sit there when it's been treated. It'll move around and that indicates that it has been treated for water resistance. Eventually, if you're out in the rain all day, the water will start to soak into the felt, but it still won't go through and run through the hat. So you're alright even if it soaks in. When it does soak in, if you want to change the shape at all, it's a good time to change it or adjust the shape. When a hat is wet, you don't want to heat it to make it dry. You let it dry at room temperature or naturally. You don't put a wet hat on the back ledge of a truck where the sun could shine in and heat it because it would then shrink. So when a hat is wet, dry it naturally or on your head and it'll be fine.