I’ve wanted one of these stupid plastic hat cleaners for as long as I can remember, which is actually kind of stupid seeing as though they’re only a dollar at the dollar store. I’ve been “meaning to pick one up” for the past fifteen years now. Recently I made the committment of plunking down one hundred pennies. I finally own one.

Finding a dirty hat in my house isn’t difficult. In fact the first one I grabbed was sweat-stained and grungy, and the fact that it was originally light gray didn’t help its looks. This Nikee’ cap ($10 for 3 at the flea market) seemed to be a prime washing candidate.

After one washing, the final verdict? Eh. Still dirty. Less dirty, I suppose, but nowhere near clean. The plastic did seem to retain the cap’s shape adequately, but it’s still dirty. Maybe after two or three washings it’ll be cleaner, but then again, I think it’ll cost more in soap, water and electricity to wash a cap three times than it would be to buy another $3 hat. Ah well. I suppose if I toss one hat in with each load of laundry, I could get all of them clean within 50-60 loads. We’ll see if that happens.