hair fashion
From early times, specific characteristics such as fineness, warmth, suppleness, visual appearance, and mystique captivate the natural fiber world with much more animal hair fashion compared to any other man-made fibers or natural fibers except fine wool fiber from sheep, hence the general lower production rate due to the inherent property that makes it a more protective one, especially at very high altitudes/low temperature.
Due to limited production and unique characteristics, they are used in the hair fashion industry to enhance the aesthetic and prestige look of garments. Being utilized in the luxurious hair fashion industry, they are also known as luxury and exotic fibers. To reduce the cost of the end product and impart novelty, these hair fibers are used often in conjunction with either sheep’s wool or other natural fibers. These blends give special effects on garments, such as additional beauty, texture, color, softness, resilience, durability, and luster.
Luxury hair fashion fibers are extremely fine and highly in demand for the production of fashion garments and accessories, which led to the brink of extinction of luxury hair fiber-producing animals such as antelope in Tibet.
This chapter shall consider the present luxury hair fashion existing in the market of fashion, and their application. Clothing was a product introduced to mankind by them to protect the environment. After civilization developed, mankind introduced different clothing; and the culture of the West developed with fashionable clothing, in particular, as a way of differentiating people who were noble from the general people. Designers believe that rich color, aesthetic designs, and luxurious fibers make ordinary cloth into prestigious hair fashion cloth.
Rich colors are derived from fast natural dyes aesthetic designs are developed by craft people, and luxury hair fibers are obtained from rare animals. In the old days, hair-bearing animals were not domesticated harvesting hair fiber from those animals was seen as a hobby it was only later that technocrats realized that animal hair fiber has hair softness, warmth, hairs shinning, smooth hairs, stylish fashions, fineness. These are attributes fit for making clothing with fashion.
Luxury Hair Fibers
Fine hair fashion acquired from animals aside from sheep, together with goat, camel, and the camelid family, are used in the manufacture of favorite fabric products. Due to their high cost, they are used often in conjunction with fine wool fiber or other textile fibers, silk, viscose rayon, nylon, cotton, to impart novelty effects. The largest groups of these fine hair fibers are referred to as luxury hair fibers and generally are classified based on the source of the hair.
Since they contribute marginally to a niche market, they are also referred to as specialty hair fashion fibers. The following is the classification of luxury hair fibers based on their source In luxury hair fibers, the first three ranks include cashmere, mohair, and alpaca hair. Less availability makes the most expensive of vicuna followed by qiviut, guanaco, cashmere, and pashmina. Products with these luxury hair fibers, with more experienced artistry, become costlier in comparison to other fine wool-based products.
Goat Family
Based on the quality of hair fashion obtained from the goat family, they are classified as mohair/angora, cashmere, pashmina, pygora, cashgora, and common goat hair. Mohair fiber is obtained from the long, lustrous coat of the angora goat cashmere fiber is obtained from the cashmere goat of the family Capra haircuts pashmina hair is obtained from the Indian changthangi/cheque goat Cashgora hair is obtained from a cross-breed of the cashmere and angora goat and was developed in New Zealand and common goat hair is generally obtained from the local goats of each country and used by farmers.
Mohair Hair
South Africa accounts for 60 % of total production, and other producers include the United States, Turkey, Argentina, Australia, and New Zealand. It has additionally been pronounced that genetic breeding applications in Australia are ensuing in a dramatic discount inside the stage of kemp fiber, which reduces the price of mohair fleece.
Mohair hair from the angora goat is white, smooth, and lustrous, and it has excessive tensile strength. A good mohair fleece will feature locks or tufts of mohair hair joined with a curl of the fleece and hold a light sheen of oil and a good long staple. The average fleece yield is about 2.5–3.0 kg/shearing with a staple length ranging between 12 and 15 cm the animal is commonly sheared twice per year.
Mohair’s hair varies from very fine and soft to coarse and scratchy. The finest hair fashion fiber is produced by goat kids, and the first shearing is the finest of all. These fleeces usually have little or no oil, are soft, and are inside the fiber fineness variety of 20–24 µm. Progressively, because the animal ages, the mohair will become coarser, and the common fiber diameter will increase. The value of the fleece is determined by fiber diameter, luster, softness, smoothly hairs, latest hair fashion freedom from kemps.
Mohair hair is similar to wool in chemical composition but more crystalline than wool. Mohair hair is a strong elastic fiber, has considerable luster, and takes dye very well. The cross-section form of mohair is round. The scales are larger than the ones of wool and lie flatter, accordingly making for a smoother fiber surface. The resultant greater reflection of light gives mohair its characteristic luster.
Cashmere Hair
Cashmere hair refers to the fine-bottom hair fashion of the cashmere goat. It is believed to have originated from the Himalayan regions of central and southwest Asia later on cashmere goats spread, most notably to China and Mongolia. The annual production of cashmere hair fashion is between 15,000 and 20,000 tons with a yield of 6500 tons of pure cashmere. The major cashmere-producing countries are China, Mongolia, Iran, Afghanistan, and India. China produces the best-quality cashmere fiber and is used for woven and knitted cloth.
Iranian and Afghan cashmere is of decreased quality, and Indian cashmere hair is 14–19 µm and is used for creating an extensive type of shawls, stoles, scarves, and sweaters. It is one of the finest and softest luxury hair fibers. The luxury status of cashmere as a hair fiber can be attributed to its visual appearance, extreme softness, scarcity, and image or mystique character. Knitted pieces are created on knitting machines from dyed cashmere yarn spun by well-known spinners.
The washing process for knitted fabrics involves soft water, low temperatures, and great care with formulated soap. Pressed, washed scarves are given a final inspection and then tabbed, folded, and bagged. A lot of cashmere hair goes into making accessories, such as shawls, stoles, scarves, throws, wraps. The low-grade hair fashion is used in carpets and under felts and interlining for men’s suits and jackets.
Pashmina Hair
Pashmina’s hair is one of the finest hair fibers harvested from the domesticated goat from the Leh and Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir called Chanthangi Lahul & Spiti of Himachal Pradesh called it Chegu. Pashmina’s hair is likewise taken into consideration as the prince of the forte hair fiber, and the call pashmina derives from the Persian phrase pashm, which means gentle gold.
It is in high demand in European fashion textiles compared to other hair fashion fibers due to its fineness, warmth, lightness, softness, and dyes. Each goat yields 250 g of hair per season, and the dehaired fiber sells at about $35/kg. Pashmina hair is similar to fine wool with a bilateral structure of ortho and para cortex of 50.4 and 49.6 %, respectively. The fact that the pashmina hair does not push out like most of the other fine wool means its surface tends to be much smoother and glossier.
Cashgora Hair
The morphological features are closer to those of mohair than those of cashmere. There are three types of Cashgora hair fashion, which are marketed as Ligne Or, Ligne Emeraude, and Ligne Saphir. New Zealand is the main producer of Cashgora hair. In 1990, it produced 200 tons of greasy hair. In 2000, this declined to about 60 tons. Cashgora hair has the appearance of cashmere hair but with a mean fiber diameter of 19–20 µm and a smoother surface and generally higher luster.
Because it has a precise staple period and tensile strength, exceptional suiting material may be made with the aid of using a worsted spinning process. Shahtoosh Hair Shahtoosh refers to shawls made from the hair of the endangered Tibetan chiru antelope, which yields toosh, which is more delicate than pashmina hair. The Tibetan antelope lives at a height of more than 5000 m above sea level, in the Himalayas and it has down fur, that is both extremely light and warm. Pashmina and Shahtoosh hair-based shawls were introduced during British rule, into the world of fashion, and till now, both are in greater demand.
However, Tibetan antelopes were hunted for their fur alone, and as a result of this practice, their number dropped, and hence today, this is an endangered species. Only master artisans weave the Shawls made from Shahtoosh hair fashion because their fiber fineness is between 7 to 10 µm.
Conclusion
Natural fibers employ 4 % of the world’s population, particularly for the farmers, the growers, and the industry similarly luxury hair fibers employ farmers who live under extreme conditions for whom this income mitigates poverty. In business and style areas humans put on garments fabricated from luxurious hair fashion, which is a standing image of their society artificial fibers no longer provide an equal effect.
Due to their decline in production, the sustainability of luxury hair fiber is the need of the hour because luxury hair fashion fibers are a source of high-class status and fashion clothing. It stands in a capacity to purchase hair fibers, which it would need to hold its status within society. Luxury hair fiber harvesting also can provide for more jobs, and improve economic activity within the country. The extinction of animals that produce hair is the highest threat to the luxury hair fiber sectors sustainability.