Comprehensive Science Popularization of Cashmere VS Wool Fabric
Our raw materials come from Inner Mongolia's "fine and long white" Hanshan white cashmere,whose fiber has always been recognized as a scarce resource in the industry.
In terms of softness, comfort, warmth, and durability-- cashmere surpasses wool.
Different sources
Cashmere comes from a few specific breeds of goats and is considered "soft gold" due to its rarity and is priced per gram in trade.
Wool comes from sheep, known in the industry as sheep wool, which has a fuller hand feel, good warmth, and is comfortable to wear.
Collection methods differ
Cashmere consists of fine fibers that grow at the roots of a goat's coarse hair. It must be collected by carefully brushing it off and then sorted, carded, then processed.
Wool is the ordinary hair that grow on sheeps and is collected by simply shearing it off with scissors, similar to getting a haircut.
Warmth:
- Cashmere: The warmth of cashmere is eight times that of wool. Cashmere has a higher natural curl, making it finer and warmer.
- Wool: Wool is primarily composed of protein and is a common autumn and winter fabric. It is soft, elastic, and has a pleasant hand feel.
Wrinkle Resistance:
- Cashmere: Cashmere is hollow and elastic, making it less prone to wrinkling. Cashmere sweaters typically do not shrink after washing.
- Wool: Wool is a solid fiber with a medulla, which makes it more prone to wrinkling compared to cashmere,It may shrink after washing.
Why Wear Cashmere?
- Excellent Warmth: Cashmere fibers are about 15 microns in diameter. The fabric is dense but thin and the natural curl of the fibers enhances warmth.
- Good Breathability and Moisture Absorption: Cashmere sweaters have the strongest moisture absorption among textile fibers, with a moisture regain rate greater than 15%, making them more breathable and able to absorb body sweat.
- Strong Skin-Friendliness: Cashmere fibers have small, smooth scales on the surface and an air layer in the middle-resulting in a soft texture, smooth feel, and strong skin-friendliness.
How to Choose Cashmere Products?
- Look at the Origin: The best cashmere in the world comes from Inner Mongolia. It is fine, warm, glossy, and of high quality.
- Check the Color: Cashmere is categorized into white, blue, and purple; with white cashmere being the highest quality and having a color difference index of 150%.
- Examine the Fibers: Natural cashmere fibers have distinct curls, a soft luster, shorter length, and feel fluffy and elastic when touched.
Can You Tell the Difference Between Wool and Cashmere? Did You Know Cashmere Has Grades Too?
What is Cashmere?
Cashmere belongs to natural fibers and is an extremely precious material, constituting only 0.2% of the world's total animal fiber production due to its limited yield. Cashmere is often confused with wool, but they are completely different fibers: wool comes from sheep, while cashmere is a thin layer of fine down that grows on the outer skin layer of goats. The quanlities of this rare specialty animal fiber allows it to form an air layer that defends against the invasion of external cold air, retaining body heat.
Cashmere is much finer than wool, with denser and smoother scales, making it lightweight, soft, and highly resilient. When worn close to the skin, it is light, soft, and smooth-providing exceptional comfort, earning it the name "soft gold." Approximately 70% of the world's cashmere is produced in China, which also boasts superior quality over other countries. Due to its excellent quality and characteristics, cashmere is referred to as the "gem of fibers" or the "queen of fibers."
What is the Difference Between Cashmere and Wool?
Only the down from goats is called cashmere. It grows in the outer skin layer of goats and is covered under the coarse hair roots, growing in winter to protect against the cold and shedding in spring as the weather warms. Cashmere, being a rare specialty animal fiber, adapts naturally to the climate. Wool, on the other hand, comes from sheep, and even the finest wool can only be called fine wool, not cashmere.
Cashmere provides 1.5 to 2 times more warmth than wool. It contains more keratin than wool, making cashmere fibers more resilient and softer. Cashmere also has a better appearance quality than wool. Cashmere fibers have uniform fineness and density, mostly having a regular round cross-section, making products lighter and thinner than woolen items.
Cashmere's moisture absorption is better than wool, making it less likely to fade. However, wool is more resistant to acids and alkalis than cashmere. Typically, wool products are more resistant to pilling than cashmere items but have higher shrinkage due to felting.
Classification of Cashmere
Cashmere is classified by its color into white cashmere, blue cashmere, and purple cashmere.
- White Cashmere: Light greenish-gray in color, should not have mixed colored hair, otherwise treated as blue cashmere. Features: fine and long fibers, strong tensile strength, good elasticity, high net cashmere rate, and the color of rock sugar.
- Blue Cashmere: Light greenish-gray, allows for a small amount of black hair. Features: long but relatively coarse fibers, strong tensile strength, and good luster. Blue cashmere fibers are longer and coarser, with a light reddish tint.
- Purple Cashmere: Purple-brown, regardless of shade, is considered purple cashmere. It may include white, blue, or red cashmere mixed in. Features: true purple color, fine, long, and soft fibers, oily and smooth, with a thick coating, strong tensile strength, good luster, and high cashmere content.
How to Buy Non-Irritating Cashmere Products
The non-irritating quality of cashmere is closely related to its length and fineness.
- Cashmere Quality: The fineness and length of natural fibers cannot be altered, making the intrinsic fiber quality extremely important. Short fibers can stick out when spun, and coarser fibers are relatively harder, causing discomfort when worn. Many merchants mix other wool fibers with cashmere to reduce costs or use raw materials shorter than 28-30mm or thicker than 16 microns. Cashmere products should use raw materials around 15 microns in fineness and 38mm in length.
How to Identify Cashmere from Wool
- Touch Identification: Cashmere is finer than ordinary wool, with an average fineness of 14-16 microns, while wool, except for superfine wool, is generally over 18 microns. Therefore, cashmere feels silky and very comfortable to the touch.
- Grasp Identification: Wool fibers contain medullary substances and are solid, whereas cashmere is hollow and highly elastic. Grasping a handful gives a bouncy feel.
- Weight Identification: Cashmere fibers are finer than wool fibers, making cashmere products lighter than woolen items. Cashmere garments usually feel non-restrictive when worn.
- Burn Identification: Burning cashmere produces a smell of protein and flint, it burns slowly and leaves ash in powder form that crumbles easily. Wool also emits a protein and flint smell when burned but leaves ash in a block form.
Application of Cashmere
Cashmere and fleece from pertinent goats are valuable textile raw materials. A single goat produces 50-80 grams of dehaired cashmere annually, with an average of five goats needed to make one cashmere sweater. Cashmere is fine, light, soft, smooth, and warm, mainly used for pure spinning or blending with fine wool to make cashmere sweaters, scarves, tweeds, and coats.
