(PreQuel):  Update:  After running the costume for some 4 weeks now, the hat is holding up very nicely.  Still looks new.  I am careful to store it flat and with nothing on top, and in its original plastic when not in use.  Aside from going into the $ XXX price level, this hat is well worth my money for the costume use I intended it for.

And now, on to my original review!
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Here are my first major takeaways from the first hours of posssessing my new hat.

STIFFNESS:  This is where I give the hat a 4 vs a 5 star rating.  Read the reviews and realized I was probably not going to get one of the "totally stiff brim" versions of this style of hat, and I was correct. Stiffer, and I would have given this a 5.  I needed this for a Carnival Barker constume I was putting together as the Timekeeper / Announcer for Destination Imagination tournaments.  Stiff would have been excellent, but I decided I could make "not so stiff, but somewhat still" work for the price.  The brim is stiff enough to hold its shape, and easy enough to bend back into shape (it was laying angled in the shipping box, and thus subject to gravity pushing against the brim - bending it slightly but noticabley off of horizontal).  If you remove the hat via grabbing the brim, it will bend in a floppy manner where it connects to the bottom of the crown. That said, if you plan to wear this as a real hat out in public, prepare for the possibility that you may look less like a BarberShop Quartette member, and more like Sylvester McCoy's 7th incarnation of Dr. Who.

OVERCOING THE LACK OF BRIM STIFFNESS:  To overcome this effect and make the hat look and act stiff, I learned to remove it with both hands - on on each side - simultaneously pulling it straight up.  From here I bring it flat to my chest, adjust my one hand so that my palm faces up against the bottom of the brim, my thumb rides directly up the inside of the crown giving vertical support, and my other fingers wrap around the edge of the brim and lay flat across the brim top pointing towards the crown base.  Theatrically speaking, I can now waive it around and it will look like it is a stiff brimmed hat. That said, if you plan to wear this as a real hat out in public, prepare for the possibility that you may look less like a BarberShop Quartette member, and more like Sylvester McCoy's 7th incarnation of Dr. Who.

SIZING:  Short answer - consider going one size up if your head measurments are at the top end of the chart listings.  Rational:  My quality western wear hats put me at a 7 1/8 size.  My head measures in at 22 1/4.  By the size chart, that should have put me into the top end of the Medium size.  However, since size was not a guarenteed element of this item, I opted for one size larger, (size Large) figuring I could always add a liner to make a loose fit tighter.  My call was dead-on. The elastic headband is stitched into the bottom of the hat with the top of the elastic free, and bending inwards toward your head.  That makes it a nice and comfortable fit for me.  Even if the elastic streatches or loosens over time, I could still put in a spacer to make up the difference.

APPEARANCE:  The pictures in the ad are quite accurate.  My color is ever so slightly darker, and could be just the effect of natural differences in straw supply groups.  The colored band looks excellent.  From as close as 1 foot away, I can see nothing about its look that would make me suspect it was not a quality made hat.

BOTTOM LINE:  If I needed to do a low wear & tear costume again, and did not want to go higher in price, this hat would be a no-brainer re-order.  It will do just what I want it to do as a costume piece.  If I was looking for a long-term social wear (as a real hat) and I was tight on cash, I would consider it but realizing that it was not going to look totally dapper, and would need a lot of care and gentle handling.  If I was going to go with such a hat for a more rigerous stage use (lots of on-and-offs, tosses-and-catches, etc.) OR, If I wanted this as a real hat, wanted it to always look like a real skimmer hat, I would bypass this and start evaluating the well reviewed $90-ish or more price range hats offered.