Hey Milliners!

After much googling, I have found this website. I've been reading around, and I have a question that perhaps you can help me with. The answer has been eluding me for a long time.

I love hats. I'm just now starting to get into the more formal styles of hat for men, but unfortunately I don't exactly have the necessary clothing to go with a lot of them--I can pull off a boater or a summery, hipster fedora, but not a lot of other kinds. I mainly collect (and wear) baseball caps, and I try very hard to keep them in good condition.

You probably already know that any 'structured' baseball cap has a crown stiffened from inside with two panels of thin buckram (as opposed to the currently in vogue 'dad hats'--unstructured, smaller caps with precurved brims). I have hats from 10 years ago that still seem just as stiff as they were when they were first made, but I've gotten a few hats from the 90s and one from maybe the 80s who's buckram panels are starting to soften. Now, this could be due to the quality of material used, maybe it's gotten a lot better, but I came across a forum discussion here regarding how long buckram lasts. I'd like my hats to retain their stiffness for as long as possible.

Here's my question:

Is there any way to re-stiffen this buckram, or any buckram for that matter? Is there any way to keep it from softening over time? A spray? A process? I'd love to be able to, every few years or so, do something like that for these hats.

What do you think? Any thoughts?

I look forward to your ideas!

-Geoff