Your clothes, Your Body, Your Health, Your Choice.
We all love a well-stitched cotton dress or warm and fluffy woollen sweater that comes at an inexpensive price or a brand sale. We feel joy wearing it. But have you ever wondered how it affects your body or health? Is it really cost-effective when after only two washes, you need to replace it?
Whatever we do in life adds value and meaning to our living. We tend to do things that make us happy. We carefully spend money on things and experiences that bring us joy. Sometimes though, the joy comes at the cost of our health, well-being, and the environment. Take clothing, for instance. This article presents to you why wool is a good choice for your sustainable clothing.
Wool products are comfortable, sensitive to the skin, and long-lasting. Consumers have favourable perceptions of wool, and also cotton-wool blends. They view them as being of better quality and a more sustainable clothing option. “Wool and to a lesser extent cotton, having superior properties of adsorption, absorption, and release of odour volatiles from fabrics when compared with other fibre types commonly worn nest to the skin.” Concluded Laing and Wilson in their paper.
Wool fibers are known to absorb moisture. It releases heat and can absorb a large volume of water without feeling wet/damp. “Heat of sorption provides an advantage to wearers in that it buffers the negative effect experienced when moving from a warm to a cool/cold environment,” observed Stuart, et.al in their paper titled Perception of the heat of sorption of wool, 1989.
Wool is one of the most versatile fibres available in nature. It can be sourced from arid, semi-arid, grassland, and mountainous regions across the globe. Shearing of wool is beneficial to the health and life of the sheep when done in a non-invasive and chemical-free manner. Greenique, a sustainable fashion brand with over 2.5 million sheep under its care, has developed an innovative shearing process in collaboration with local shepherds in the Himalayan range. They have reported a visible improvement in the lifespan of the sheep, better health, and productivity with the newly developed shearing method.
Note: Wool-polyester blends are inexpensive, hence more popular and fast-moving. However, the costs soar up in terms of the health and the environment. Wool blended with polyester and acrylic may cause itching, discomfort to the skin, poor regulation of body temperature, skin allergies, and so on.
Thus, in conclusion, the natural properties of wool outweigh polyester or any other synthetic man-made fibres in its contribution toward human wellbeing and ecological sustainability.
To take a look at Pure Wool & eco-friendly clothing by Mojopanda.
Citations:
https://agris.fao.org/agris-search/search.do?recordID=US8931300
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652621030481
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877705817328485
