Advice please about DD's hat

[balancingfigure]

Bought a hat for DD about 2 months ago (also bought a pony ). It was from a horse and country store recommended by a horsey friends and they seemed to know what they were doing fitting the hat. We were asked to wander around the store for 10 minutes I think with the hat on to see if was comfortable/fitted. DD (6) said it felt tight but the shop girl (and I) persuaded her it would give and become more comfortable. The shop girl also said the next size was clearly too big.

I guess DD has now worn it about 6-8 times but still finds it uncomfortable. Should it be feeling more comfortable by now? DD knows that she must wear the hat but it is spoiling her enjoyment of riding I think. On Saturday I thought it was better, we had been out for maybe 30 minutes and as we got back to the stable DD said 'do you think I'm being very brave about my headache today?'

We can go back to the shop but I'm not sure what they can do about it.

Under the lining there may be some foam which you could take out which would make it more comfortable for her that's what I did when my dds hat was between sizes
The tack shop told us to

Oh dear, poor thing. I can sympathise as I had this exact problem recently. Fortunately, the shop exchanged it as I hadn't worn it outside the house and it was quite obviously a terrible fit (despite having been fitted by the rep). It turns out that I have the wrong shape head for traditional velvet hats, that are more oval, and need a jockey skull. Although my new hat is ugly, I love it because it's so comfortable. I simply couldn't have worn my previous one for any length of time as after 10 mins it felt like my head was being crushed in a vice and it was dreadful and affected my concentration terribly.

Does your DD's hat leave a dent/red mark across her forehead? Where is the pain? I found it worst around the temples, does she has a little gap there? Although it will (eventually) give a little she may be in a serious amount of pain now and that is distracting as well as potentially being unsafe if the hat is actually a poor fit. I was told that my hat was fine by the person who fitted it, but both people who looked when I returned it instantly said that it didn't fit at all!

You've got nothing to lose by popping back into the shop and seeing what they say. It's worth doing as it can be unbearable to be in a badly fitting hat - even if that means buying a new one I hope they can help you out as you bought it on their recommendation. Good luck!

The shop asistant advised you complete rubbish. I would complain and querry their qualifications to fit hats.

Hats do not 'give' after wear, leather products, like boots, change, but not hats. Hats should fit comfortably at the time. If the next size up was no good she should have offered you other brands. Each brand has numerous different shapes of hat to suit different heads. There are heads that are more round and heads that are more oval, not every kind of hat will fit every head. There are also adjustable hats which are a really good idea for kids whose heads may change shape faster.

The shop should take the hat back as they gave you very bad advice and it is not fit for purpose but if they don't I think you should get your DD another hat (from somewhere else!).

Even if they don't take the hat back you should still get dd a new hat

Lucy, yes she had a mark on her forehead on Saturday. I'll ask her later where the pain was although how accurate she will be able to tell me now I don't know.

Its all a lot different to when I last bought a hat 20 odd years ago and as there is a lot of padding inside I thought the 'give with wear' part might be plausible. However thanks to you all I now know better! We'll go back to the shop and see what they say and don't worry Littlebigbum I'll get her new one whether they exchange it or not.

That doesn't sound good . If you look at hat fitting guidelines online, they all mention that it's critical to have some room for expansion around the temples - think how your head gets hot when riding - and without this the hat can easily end up being too tight and incredibly painful. If it's tight (rather than 'snug') to begin with, then there's no way it's going to magically become looser when she's riding. If the fit is rubbish, then even if the padding squashes down with use there's still going to be issues with it and, realistically, it doesn't sound like your DD would be able to tolerate wearing it long enough for the padding to compress at all. It does sound pretty bad if she's having to be 'brave' about it and it's terrible that they sold you it in the first place.

Booboostoo is right, it sounds like that type of hat is unsuitable for your DD. What hat has she got at the moment?

Your poor DD, it should not leave a mark on the forehead.

If you go to a shop with a lot of choice you'll see how some hats will fit as a general shape better than others. I know, for example, that the Charles Owen Ayr8 fits my oval head but the Charles Owen Fiona does not as it's more round.

Poor Dd some hats are more round than oval, we had to try loads. Kids hats sat lower and were cheaper. gd luck

Went back to the shop on Saturday and the first assistant I saw I was pretty sure was one of the fitters. I explained and she looked very concerned. However she got DD to put the hat on and checked it and explained she could get a fingers movement at various points around the head and she said she was very sorry but that was how they were trained to fit and she would do the same again. But she understood it was no good as DD was in pain and by then had a red mark on her forehead. The manager said she couldn't exchange the hat and I decided not to pursue 'miss selling' as it seemed they had done all they could. The manager said I could have a discount if we found a different hat that was better.

The manager also suggested cutting out some padding but the shop assistant and I could not see how this would work as the DD's pain was not where there was much padding to remove!

DD then tried on lots of hats and we settled on one that she said was OK. We ambled around the shop for 15 minutes and DD still said it was OK. I explained to her she must tell me if it hurt and we would look somewhere else so hopefully it is OK! She rode on Sunday and said the hat felt fine.

Interestingly (maybe!) both hats were Champion. The first one was a skull cap and the new one is X-Air.