How to Prevent and Remove Cashmere Pilling?

With a new cashmere scarf wearing on the body, occasionally you will find some small hairballs on your cashmere scarf, that is cashmere pilling. In this article, we are going to discuss why does cashmere pilling and how to prevent the pilling from the cashmere scarf.

How to prevent the pilling from cashmere scarf?

1. The cashmere fiber itself is soft waxy, it won't be stiff if worn close to the body, but it will allow you to enjoy the skin-like softness. More importantly, wearing closely can avoid friction with other clothes to reduce the chance of pilling.

2. Try to match the clothes with smooth linings, such as down or other jackets with smooth lining, avoid wearing hard clothes such as denim. Special attention should also be paid to the parts with more friction in daily life, especially to reduce friction with other hard objects when wearing externally.

3. Cashmere fibers are easy to fatigue, so you should pay more attention to changing them when wearing them so that the cashmere fibers can be fully rested.

4. When washing a cashmere scarf, soak in warm water with a special velvet detergent below 30°, knead, rinse off with water and then dry it, arrange it to the original flat tile and dry, avoid hanging exposure. Increased washing times will also reduce the life of cashmere scarves, you should also pay attention in washing process to avoid damage to the fiber.

How to remove the pillings from a cashmere scarf?

Many people find that after their cashmere is pilling, the first thing is to forcefully pull the hairball off by hand. In fact, this action is undesirable.

In addition to causing damage to the cashmere fiber, the cashmere is more prone to threading, and nothing else.

If you encounter pilling, you should gently remove the hairball by hand, and remember not to pull it hard. Or use transparent glue to stick the hairball, preferably the kind with wide and good stickiness.

You can also cut the hairball with scissors after cleaning the cashmere sweater (shaving with a razor or fader tool can easily cause secondary damage to the fiber). If you are afraid of improper handling, you can find a merchant to assist in handling.

As a medium-to-high-grade fabric, cashmere's production and processing requirements are also very strict, so its pilling rate is actually not so high.

Under normal circumstances, the hairball will appear at the beginning, but after removing it once, it will not be produced again.

Why does cashmere pilling?

The first reason for cashmere pilling is determined by the morphological structure of the fiber itself. The cashmere fiber is composed of a scale layer and a cortex layer.

The scale layer has a certain height and thickness, and some edges are sawtooth-shaped, like a barb, It is easy to cause the fibers to collide and stick together during the wearing process, resulting in pilling.

Secondly, the fineness, length, and curl of cashmere fibers are unique characteristics for the cashmere.

Compared with Australian wool, cashmere has smaller fineness, shorter length, and fewer curls, so that the fiber has less cohesion in the yarn and easy to cause pilling.

The fiber slips from the fabric with the external force may cause pilling. However, generally authentic cashmere sweaters do not have a large area of ​​pilling. Partial friction pilling is normal.

Thirdly, cashmere fibers have poor electrical resistance and poor electrical conductivity. When the clothes are worn, the fibers rub against each other, causing charges to accumulate in the fibers and generate static electricity. 

For example, when chemical fibers and cashmere are rubbed, fibers with different charges attract each other, which is easy to cause the fabric to fluff and pilling.

This phenomenon is particularly serious when the weather is dry. Many fabrics will inevitably be pilling after rubbing. In addition to affecting the appearance and texture, pilling does not cause any damage to the clothing itself.

The pilling of cashmere sweaters can often be avoided. For example, the wearing of cashmere scarves should avoid friction with hard fabrics, and choose smooth clothes, such as down jackets.

For cashmere that has been pilled, as long as it is handled properly, it can restore the texture and color of the clothes.

In all in, from the cashmere fabric, the cashmere scarf with the appropriate amount of pilling balls in normal is the real cashmere. You must keep their eyes open when buying, do not be superstitious about the misunderstanding of "good cashmere, no ball".