Haircloth is commonly understood as a stiff, unsupple fabric made from coarse fibre from camelids, bovines, horses, goats, rabbits, hares and reindeers. However, a softer variation is valued in the textile and fashion industries for their rarity, aesthetics and comfort. This is because there are two types of hair used in making haircloth; a rougher outer “guard coat”, and a softer undercoat. The outer coats are used in coarse fabrics, often applied to upholstery, carpets, underskirts and hairshirts, or cilices, while "luxury fabrics" use the softer undercoat.
Description Haircloth is woven or knitted with fibres of uncommon animal varieties, including the following:
Mohair from the Angora goat, originating from Turkey. Cashmere comes from the Himalayan cashmere goat of Central and Southwestern Asia. It is mostly produced in China, and is a popular Scottish knitting yarn. Cashmere from the Indian sub-continent is referred to as Pashmina. The fibres of Pashmina come from Changthangi goats of Jammu and Kashmir, in Leh and Ladakh. Cashgora, a mix of Cashmere and Angora fibres, produced mainly in New Zealand. Pygora, a mix of the Pygmy and Angora goat, raised for hand-spinning in Dalla, Canada. Angora silk comes from the Angora rabbit, also known as "silk Rabbits", from Ankara, Turkey. It is farmed in France, England, Germany and China for its hair. Common Goat hair produced mainly in Greece and Argentina. Reindeer hair from Scandinavia, Chiengora, or dog hair is being explored as an alternative fibre for sustainable fashion. However, due to inefficient procurement and production methods, the fibre has yet to be adopted industrially. Vicuña comes from the fur of a South American Camelid, the vicuña. Its fibre is soft and insulating but short and difficult to procure. Its rarity is reflected in the price of its wool and yarn. Other sources of hair for "haircloth" include bovines; namely, Yak, produced in Manchuria, Nepal and India, Bison, Musk Ox— also known by its Inuit name "qiviut". Camelids which are farmed for their hair include Guanaco, Llama and Alpacca and camels. Such hair fibres show a convergence in chemical composition, namely in the presence of α-keratin proteins and amino acids, among which Cashmere, wool and Mohair are most similar. Climatic differences and nutrient availability in the habitats of each source animal defines minute differences in the chemical structure of their hair. These structures define the quality of the resulting fibres’ much desired lustre and downiness.
Uses
Textiles from horse-tail hair are used in upholstery fabric, light hairs being reserved for dyes and black being used as is for their distinctive natural hue. Hair cloth has also been used in the panels of men's suit jackets. The wearing of haircloth was often also associated with the poverty and religious ascetism. There are suggestions that woven tent coverings of black goat hair were used in the 1st century C.E. in Cilicium, Turkey. Human hair has been woven in fabrics of ancestral worship and, as woven mats, suggested as possible solutions to water pollution. However, it has also been used to dehumanise communities in times of war. During the Holocaust of World War II, the hair of Polish Jews in Auschwitz were used by the SS in the manufacture of coarse fabrics.
Suit construction In tailoring applications, haircloth is woven using cotton warp and horsehair weft. In traditional suit construction, haircloth is used to stiffen the front panels in men's suit jackets, and Savile Row tailors still make bespoke suits this way. However, in modern suits, haircloth is often replaced with synthetic fabrics.
Horse hair veils Horse hair veils, known as burqa, were worn by women from the Persian Gulf in the late 19th century. This fashion trend then spread among the women of Afghanistan through wives of the upper-classes. A similar fashion is seen in Istanbul, Turkey, peche and lisam of the 16th century, and the yashmak of the 17th and 18th are also made of horsehair. Literary works and illustrations recorded as early as the 12th century reveal a longer tradition of this haircloth veil culture in Iran.
Hair-skirts Hair-skirts are undergarments worn as support under dresses and skirts by exploiting the stiffness of haircloth. Horsehair underskirts, known as Mamigun, or Maweiqun, were worn by entertainers, military officials, upper class and civil servants in Ming Dynasty China. This is attributed to the influences of a shared cultural sphere between Joseon Korea and Jiangnan established through lesser known trade routes. "Hair cloth" also referred to crinolines, or "crinoline cloth", in mid 19th century Europe as it was woven with linen to add volume and shape to ladies' skirts. A smaller, lesser known version of this known as the tournoure, or a "crinolette", used in the 1880s, was occasionally also made of stiff haircloth.
Horse-hair sieves
In Scandinavia, central Europe and Asia, horsehair sieves were crafted by common folk of Sweden, Slovenia and Japan. In Škofja Loka, this was exported to the rest of Continental Europe, Africa and Asia minor. When the sieve trade saw a gradual decline in the late 19th century, horse fibres began to be used instead in tapestries. In Japan, hydrated horsehair sieves are used to sift paste in traditional cooking. It is labelled loosely today as nori-koshi (“paste filter”), but is most often known as koshiki (漉し器) or uragoshi (裏漉し), with many names depending on the region in question.
Haircloth mats In 19th century Northern England, haircloth was employed in the drying of malt for brewing in place of perforated metals which would scorch the grain. It would be spread over the kiln floor to keep grain from dropping down into the furnace. The rugs of the Darxad people of Northern Mongolia are an exception which use goathair despite difficulties in processing the fibre. This is likely due to influences of the neighbouring Turkic Oirad group. Hair is woven into thick threads which are then braided into blankets due to the insulating properties provided by the coarse knotting resulting from its manufacturing process. Another type of haircloth is the sack-like woven cloth from camel hair, “Ba. örmög”, traditionally used for rice sacks. However, the production method for these cloths have been largely forgotten.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
