One of the great perks with wool is that wool garments stay fresh without washing longer than garments made of cotton or synthetics. This means fewer washes throughout the garment’s lifecycle, a considerably lower impact on the environment than other types of fabrics.

If you throw wool into a fire, you’d notice that it doesn’t burn well. The reason is that each wool fibre retains a certain amount of air moisture, even wool that’s several years old, making it fire resistant. This is a quality that can be considered for applications where protection from fire is needed.

In the Sahara Desert, Bedouins wear thin wool clothing to help them keep cool in the scorching heat. Closer home, Rabaris in Kachchh and Rajasthan wear woollen clothing in hot desert conditions as they believe wool keeps them warm in winter and cool in summer.

Dust mites don’t like wool. They prefer hot humid environments that are more common in synthetic or down products. Dust mites are also the major cause of allergy and asthma. Wool’s moisture-wicking characteristic creates an anti-microbial environment that prevents mould and mildew from infiltrating or destroying expensive fabrics/products.

Wool fibres have a natural protective outer layer that helps prevent stains from being absorbed. And because wool tends not to generate static, it attracts less dust and lint.

Moisture-wicking means that moisture is pulled away leading to a sensation of dryness. Wool can soak up to as much as 30% of its weight in moisture without feeling wet.

One wool fibre can be bent back and forth up to 20,000 times before it snaps. For context, cotton fibre can only be bent about 3,000 times before the same will happen. The balance of air moisture retained by wool keeps it from getting brittle over time like other fibres.

Wool provides good protection from the sun, compared with the protection from other fibres. As a natural fibre, evolved over millions of years to protect sheep against the elements, wool absorbs UV radiation providing protection from the sun. This makes it a good choice for a wide range of outdoor activities.

Even though wool represents only 1.2% of the virgin fibre supply, surveys have shown it represents about 5% of clothing donated to charity. Wool is also one of the most sought after recycled textiles for converting into new long-lasting products, such as garments, mattresses and upholstery. (Ref: Woolmark)

Since wool is essentially just the regrown hair of an animal, it is an entirely sustainable resource that does no harm to the animal or plant life. Unlike a lot of other man-made fibres, pastoral wool is produced free-range without the use of any refinement or chemical treatments along the way.

In most tests, a wool product such as a jacket when buried in soil provides the necessary microbes, moisture, temperature and pH value. With the ideal conditions, wool products are almost completely degraded after six months in the ground.

Systems that produce wool absorbs atmospheric carbon. Wool, in a way, sequesters carbon in a resilient, wearable form for the life of the garment. By storing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2), wool prevents the stored gas from contributing to climate change for the time the garment is in use.

Low energy consumption, minimum chemical waste and low carbon footprint make the indigenous wool value chain of production sustainable and earth-friendly. The energy source for handicrafts is human power therefore it uses as little as possible in the way of material and energy.

Wool is one of the most breathable fibres. Wool fibres can absorb large quantities of moisture and then move it away to dissipate into the air.