7 Most Harmful Fabrics for Skin

The next time you’re deciphering the icons on clothing labels, pay attention not only to how to wash something but also to its composition. Some tissues (even natural) can harm your skin: dry it and pour it with a cocktail of chemicals. Read this article to avoid such unpleasant effects.

Selection of Fabrics

Today, manufacturers use a large variety of different fabrics and materials, and the household separation for “synthetics” and “natural fabrics” aren’t relevant anymore.

First, there is a large group of fabrics that cannot be fully attributed either to synthetics or to natural fabrics: viscose (a fabric that is made from cellulose — that is wood), bamboo fiber, etc. These fabrics, in their basis, are made from natural materials, but they’re rather rigidly chemically processed.

Secondly, even natural fabrics – cotton, flax, wool – in the production process (from growing and gathering raw materials to final processing) are often filling with an aggressive chemical (which leads to sad consequences for the skin).

Thirdly, fabric bases are often treated with a variety of impregnations (against moisture, against stains, against creasing, etc.), which further worsens the properties of natural fabrics (for example, flax, treated with impregnation against stains, loses up to 50% of its ability to absorb moisture, and becomes close in properties to semi-synthetic viscose).

Harmful for Skin Tissues

1. Wool

Why this natural material here? Scientists believe that wool may affect the health of your skin. If earlier you didn’t complain about any problems, then you can get rid of slight irritation, but if your skin is already dry, hypersensitive and very irritable, then everything can get worse. So, if it’s prickling, it’s better to change your sweater.

2. Bamboo Fabrics

It is advertised as one of the most natural fabrics in the world. However, scientists don’t agree: bamboo is a hard enough material to make your bedding or T-shirt soft, like cotton, they are mercilessly watered with carbon disulfide, sodium hydroxide, and sulfuric acid.

Those substances are very harmful to our health. They can cause tissue destruction, burns, death, and even pelvic pain if it’s underwear.

3. Viscose

This is the first fabric artificially created by man, is also not as simple as it seems. Yes, it has some antibacterial properties and is well ventilated, but it’s also crammed with chemical elements that make it less brittle when contacted with water. Getting an irritation from a viscose sweatshirt is very easy.

4. Polyester

Natural fibers and petroleum products from which viscose consists. Despite the fact that even things for babies are made of polyester, it’s not a good idea to wear them. In the worst case, it can fill your body with carcinogenic products.

5. Polyamide

Yes, it’s your pantyhose, stockings, and socks. In this case, poor thermoregulation, ventilation, high electrization, and lightning-fast absorption threaten you. It is even difficult to imagine a more favorable environment for bacteria and microbes. And nylon (polyamide’s brother) contributes to the overheating of legs and the multiplication of fungus.

6. Acrylic

A pure synthetic fabric derived from natural gas. Clothing made of acrylic can be confused with wool. It is warm, soft, bright and beautiful, but only when new. After you wash it, the acrylic fabric is drawn out, rolled and loses its appearance.

The main disadvantage of acrylic is that it does not allow air and the body “do not breathe” in it, which leads to heavy perspiration. Sweat, accumulating under clothing, irritates the skin. In addition, acrylic is strongly electrified.

7. Acetate

Acetate is rarely used for the manufacture of clothing but is often used as linings for jackets, hats, coats, and raincoats. Acetate absorbs moisture poorly and causes irritation to the skin much more than polyester.

If you buy something you’re planning to wear on a naked body (for example, a summer jacket that you want to wear on top with shoulder straps), then pay attention to the lining – acetate is extremely uncomfortable for this.