Tight hood!

[Nicolas Hahn]

Hello, first post here.
So I recently bought a picasso freediving/spearfishing wetsuit. as the suit was open cell on the inside the staff in the shop saved me the trouble of trying it on and gave me one that should have been similar in size, just different material.
When I got home and tried the suit I bought (with soap) I found that the hood was veeeery tight. I dont know how anybodys head is supposed to fit through there. As I made the mistake of lubricating the suit to put it on, the shop says I cant change it as its not in "like new" state. Any advice? Can the hood be streched by stuffing it?
Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Brochman]

Hi yes you can stretch head gear and its very straight forward. You first measure your head as you don't want to stretch your hood too big then you find a solid object that is the same diameter as your head and with a hood a upside down solid plastic bowl should work. Place a plastic bag over the solid object to help the hood slide over it and in your case to stop damage to the neoprene then you can add layers on top of the bag to stretch the hood further to your head size if you need to, i use beanies (winter hats) and then another plastic bag over those. It will take time and at a guess it might take longer with Neoprene although i maybe wrong so just leave it to stretch for a couple of days try it on if it needs to be stretched further add another layer but just take your time with it as there is no way to shrink the hood if you stretch it too much. I recently stretched a leather Ushanka hat over a cooking pan with this method as if i wore it for even a couple of minutes it gave me a cracking sore head but now it fits perfectly.

 

[Nicolas Hahn]

Hi yes you can stretch head gear and its very straight forward. You first measure your head as you don't want to stretch your hood too big then you find a solid object that is the same diameter as your head and with a hood a upside down solid plastic bowl should work. Place a plastic bag over the solid object to help the hood slide over it and in your case to stop damage to the neoprene then you can add layers on top of the bag to stretch the hood further to your head size if you need to, i use beanies (winter hats) and then another plastic bag over those. It will take time and at a guess it might take longer with Neoprene although i maybe wrong so just leave it to stretch for a couple of days try it on if it needs to be stretched further add another layer but just take your time with it as there is no way to shrink the hood if you stretch it too much. I recently stretched a leather Ushanka hat over a cooking pan with this method as if i wore it for even a couple of minutes it gave me a cracking sore head but now it fits perfectly.

Thank a lot for the advice! Thats great, would have been a shame if I just couldnt wear it.