• Do not pinch the crown with your fingers. In the long run, it will break the straw. Instead, grab your hat by the brim or gently cup the crown with the palm of your hand.   

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• Your hat will protect you from the sun, not from the rain. Water makes it lose its shape. If it gets wet, dry it in an airy space before storing it.

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• Do not leave your Panama hat in your car, especially if it's parked under the sun. Putting your Montefino hat under the window behind the backseat sure looks cool, we agree! But it's too hot: heat will overdry the straw.

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• If your hat gets dirty, you can clean it gently with a lightly damp cloth or a baby wipe, without rubbing too hard. After doing that, make sure you let the straw dry.

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• If the shape is lost, you can reshape the crown a little bit using steam (on top of boiling water for example) and your fingers. You can also iron the brim at medium heat, as long as you use a piece of cloth on top of the straw.

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• If you take your hat on a plane trip, make sure you put it in a Montefino cardboard box before storing it in the overhead compartment, so that it won't be crushed by suitcases. If it's a short flight, you can also keep it on your knees.

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• If – and only if – it's a fino or a superfino, you can roll your hat and put it in a small Montefino balsa box. Basic grade hats cannot be rolled. If you decide to roll your high grade hat, you should know that the shape might not be as crisp after you take it out of the box. The custom of Panama hat rolling dates back from a time when people didn't care much about the shape. Just look at old pictures, those of President Roosevelt for example: at the time, Panama hats often had a pretty loose "bell like" shape!

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