This process takes much longer to remove the cashmere, but produces a much finer, higher quality fiber.Ĭashmere wool is collected during the spring moulting season when the goats naturally shed their winter coat. De-hairing is made slightly easier by removing the undercoat by hand, rather than shaving the entire coat. After de-hairing, the resulting cashmere is ready to be dyed and converted into textile yarn, fabrics and garments. De-hairing is a mechanical process that separates the coarse hairs from the fine hair. For the fine underdown to be sold and processed further, it must be de-haired.

This undercoat is grown in the winter as a way to keep the goat warm in colder months. Cashmere goats produce a double fleece that consists of a fine, soft undercoat or underdown of hair mingled with a straighter and much coarser outer coating of hair called guard hair. However, they are now more commonly considered part of the domestic goat subspecies Capra aegagrus hircus or the alternate version Hircus Blythi Goat. Historically, fine-haired Cashmere goats have been called Capra hircus laniger, as if they were a subspecies of the domestic goat Capra hircus. Poor land management and overgrazing to increase production of the valuable fiber has resulted in the decimation and transformation of grasslands into deserts in Asia, increasing local temperatures and causing air pollution which has traveled as far as Canada and the United States.

Some yarns and clothing marketed as containing cashmere have been found to contain little to no cashmere fiber, so more stringent testing has been requested to make sure items are fairly represented. Both the soft undercoat and the guard hairs may be used the softer hair is reserved for textiles, while the coarse guard hair is used for brushes and other non-apparel purposes.Ī number of countries produce cashmere and have improved processing techniques over the years but China and Mongolia are two of the leading producers as of 2019. Cashmere is closely associated with the Kashmir shawl, the word 'cashmere' deriving from an anglicization of Kashmir, when the Kashmir shawl reached Europe in the 19th century.

It has been used to make yarn, textiles and clothing for hundreds of years. Cashmere wool, usually simply known as cashmere, is a fiber obtained from cashmere goats, pashmina goats, and some other breeds of goat.

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