Know How Mohair
You could easily fill volumes with facts about Mohair and stories about its quality, but we want to keep it simple!
The legend of the "Golden Sheep", has since been revealed as a myth, as it was a goat whose unbelievably fine hair that shone in the sun like gold.
Even in todays technological world, there is no synthetic substitute for the quality, fineness and shine that Mohair has.
For many years the Turkish had a monopoly on the production of Mohair, and they tried everything they could to stop the sheep being traded, or even "Rustled"! One crafty trader managed to sneak out some goats disguised as sheep, and it was these few goats that were the basis for the herds in South Africa,Australia and Texas.
South Africa leads the world in Mohair production with a total of around 70%. However with such a mass production comes also the problem that as the production rises, the quality often falls. The Angora goats produce the best quality wool in regions with "Dry Periods", and the above areas have the right conditions.
Another influence on the quality has been the inbreeding especially the breeding and trading from South Africa to Texas and Australia.
This unfortunatley has affected the herds all over the world to such an extent that now in Australia there are only 3 farms that still havent been hit by the inbreeding.
The rule of thumb is that Angora goats are shorn twice a year. During the first and second shearings the hair is termed "Kids Mohair", and the age of the goat is up to 1 year. By the 3rd and 4th shearings the term used is "Yearling Mohair" as the goat is then 1-2 years old. If the hair is neither "Kids" nor "Yearling", then it often is an older goat and this hair is called "Adult" Mohair.
The age of the goat often determines the thickness of the hair. So a "Kids" Mohair is a lot thinner than an "Adult". That means that during the hair rooting process on the baby, you can get different effects and styles using different Mohairs.
Mohair vs Human hair:
We often get asked why we dont use or recommend human hair, and here are some of the reasons!
1.Human hair is too thick, because it comes from adults!
2. Human hair isnt very flexible and tends to break. You also get that with cheap Mohairs which are often too long and from older goats.
3. Human hair is harder to brush and style due to its thick nature.
4.The only affordable human hairs are those that have been machine sorted and coloured, but because the hair gets mixed up it loses its growth direction. This hair is also often very brittle. Humain hair that gets freshly cut and coloured by hand is very expensive.
Fact: Even Caucasian human hair that has been cut and washed by hand (normally costing €40 per 20g) isnt as fine as any of our Mohairs.
