How to Make Wool Less Itchy?

In cold weather, we want to enjoy a cup of hot chocolate or cocoa and get into a warm wool sweater. With the arrival of cold weather, woolen things are probably the favorite in the closet of all our compatriots. And indeed, a good woolen thing is thin, light, and yet very warm. And if, for example, cashmere, microfiber, knitwear, and trinity are pleasant to the body, then one of the warmest materials: wool—can prick.

No matter whether they are bought in a store, knitted by hand, or sewn from knitted fabric, they have one characteristic feature - prickling. The presence or absence of this property, first of all, depends on the raw material from which the knitted or crocheted fabric or yarn for knitting is made. In addition, hypersensitivity of the skin will instantly detect this feature during fitting, you will feel discomfort and most likely refuse to buy. This is especially true for things made of 100% sheep's wool.

Although the professionals assure that the “biting” thing is useful for health, not everyone is ready to put up with itchy for the sake of therapeutic purposes. In this blog, we are going to tell you how to care for your wool sweaters so that when worn they do not cause discomfort and tingling.

Wool is one of the most popular materials of animal origin. It seems that every second person in countries with temperate climates has at least one woolen item in their closet. It is famous for its ability to keep warm even in extreme cold, as well as breathability, allowing the body to breathe and even drain moisture. These are all undoubted advantages, but like everything in this world, wool has disadvantages. More precisely, one and very significant.

To begin with, it is worth to understand what kind of wool we usually deal with in fashionable products. Wool is the fibers of the removed hair of sheep, goats, camels, rabbits, and other animals. The outer surface of wool fibers is covered with scales. The scaly layer consists of small plates in the form of cone-shaped rings, strung on each other, and represents keratinized cells. The scaly layer is followed by the cortical layer, which is the main layer on which the properties of fibers and fiber products depend. A fiber may also have a third layer, the core layer, which consists of loose, air-filled cells.

Depending on what layers are present in wool, it can be of the following types: down, transitional hair, awn, and dead hair. Down is a fine, highly twisted, silky fiber with no core layer. Transitional hair has an intermittent loose core layer, which makes it uneven in thickness, strength, and less twisted. Awn and dead hair have a large core layer (occupies in dead hair up to 90% of the cross-section), characterized by a large thickness, lack of tortuosity, increased rigidity and fragility, and low strength. Dead hair is poorly colored, easily broken, and falls out of finished products.

Wool can be homogeneous (from fibers mainly of one kind, such as down) and heterogeneous (from fibers of different kinds - down, transitional hair, etc.). The most pleasant for human skin are fabrics or knitwear made of down fibers. Some types of wool are obtained by combing out the undercoat, i.e. down. The most common sheep's wool may contain stiff pin fibers (dead hair is usually not used). It is these stiff fibers that cause itchy feeling.

If you are allergic to lanolin, fixing the problems with folk remedies will not work - you need to replace woolen things with something safer. For everyone else, we will share proven methods that will help to make wool sweaters less itchy:

✅Use low temperatures
One of the easiest ways to get rid of the excessive itch of woolen clothes is freezing. In winter, the product can be left on the balcony or the street for a day. At other times, you can use the freezer. Put the thing in a plastic bag, carefully folded, and put it in the freezer for a day. After such a procedure, the protruding fibers will break off and the product will not prick so much. After defrosting the thing should be rinsed in cool water.

✅Steam the wool
Under the influence of steam, wool acquires softness, so if you like woolen clothes, it is worth getting a steam generator or a steamer. In the steam generator pour water, connect to the network, and treat the product for 2-3 minutes. When using a conventional iron, you should avoid contact between the product and the soleplate of the iron. The product should be ironed through a damp ironing iron. To enhance the effect, the fabric is wetted in a solution of citric acid. Lemon will additionally soften the material and get rid of prickliness.

✅Special detergents for wool
To woolen product does not spoil after washing, it is necessary to choose a suitable means for its cleaning. On the shelves of stores, there is a wide range of household chemicals in the form of powders and gels designed for wool. When choosing a detergent for wool, it is necessary to pay attention to its composition. The content of alkali in it is inadmissible. If among the constituent components, there are no aggressive substances, then the result of the application will not have negative consequences.

Means for washing wool are available in the form of dry powder and gels, and each of them has both pros and cons. Liquid gel is better rinsed out of the fibers of the fabric, convenient in use, leaves a pleasant aroma on the clothes, and can be used for daily washing, and granulated powder is better able to cope with strong contaminants and is ideal for manual cleaning of products. Gels can be used for washing at temperatures above 30-40 degrees Celsius, and wool detergents can be used at 90 degrees Celsius. All household chemicals, designed specifically for cleaning knitted garments, provide gentle and accurate care.

✅Human hair care products
The structure of wool is similar to the structure of human hair, so it is acceptable to use shampoos and hair conditioners to treat wool products. For washing use shampoo, previously dissolved in cool water. In the water immerse the woolen product, soak for a few minutes, then delicately wash out the impurities. Then the thing is rinsed until the water becomes transparent. After the product is slightly squeezed, apply a balm to its surface, leave it for a few minutes, then rinse well and dry on a horizontal surface.

✅Vinegar and table salt
This method has a significant disadvantage - the smell of vinegar. It is difficult to rinse out. But it also has an upside. Vinegar has long been used to fix the color. So at the end of using this method, your thing will become soft, and the color will be unchanged for a long time. How to use it? In warm water (a small basin) add a spoonful of vinegar and a spoonful of salt. Leave the item in the water for 10-30 minutes, and then rinse thoroughly.

✅Lemon juice
When you don't want to use vinegar or are afraid that the vinegar smell will remain on your itchy sweater and be difficult to remove, there is another solution - use lemon juice as a substitute. Lemon juice is very effective in softening the material, making it more elastic and less stiff. To implement this method, you will need a few lemons, a gauze cloth, and a steaming iron or just a steamer:

Spread out and carefully spread the item on a horizontal surface; squeeze the juice of a couple or three lemons and moisten a gauze cloth with the resulting liquid; cover the item with a gauze cloth soaked in lemon juice and leave it for 30 minutes; after half an hour, steam the item with a steam generator.

First of all, it is important to understand the type of wool production. Wool that has been combed out is the softest because it is not mechanically damaged. This is the way cashmere, for example, is produced. A more budget-friendly way of yarn production is shearing. In this case, the hair has a hard cut, due to which a suit made of it usually prickles.

Wool yarn is necessarily treated with special means, shampoos, soaked in solutions to make it softer. On how qualitatively this process was carried out in the production, depends on the softness of the products. The length of the lint, from which the yarn is made, also affects the prickliness. Long fibers will prick less than short ones. In addition, different animals have different hair stiffness and thickness. For example, camel hair is a thick, stiff hair. Sheep or merino wool is light and thin, it practically does not prickle.

However, it is important to take into account that during the production of wool yarn, one way or another, small particles of hairs can get into the fibers. By “sticking out” the tips of these small hairs and causing tingling. Manipulations with color also affect the softness of wool. Initially, the wool is dark gray and brown. To achieve the desired shade, the yarn is usually bleached before dyeing. During this process, the hairs are softened and the wool is less itchy.

Wool is also directly affected by the care of the product. If not properly washed and cared for, wool can become stiffer. Therefore, follow the recommendations on the label of the garment.