How to choose cotton products
Cotton is all around us. Before I delved into the details of fabrics, I only had a vague understanding of cotton. I knew it was good, but I didn't know exactly why.
Cotton, as a natural fiber, has core advantages such as strong moisture absorption, good breathability, softness and comfort, excellent warmth retention, resistance to heat and alkali, environmental friendliness and safety, and low allergenicity. It is widely used in clothing, home textiles and other fields. As a natural fiber, its skin-friendliness is undoubtedly superior.
Therefore, when consumers and merchants choose products, they tend to favor cotton products. But with the increasing number of cotton products, how do we choose?
Cotton is divided into short-staple cotton and long-staple cotton. Long-staple cotton is the noble of cotton. It is excellent in terms of quality, warmth retention, smoothness, durability, comfort, softness, etc. Its breathability is five times that of ordinary fabrics. Of course, it is also very expensive. Currently, the main producers of long-staple cotton are China, the United States, Peru and Egypt. Merchants often use the number of yarns as a promotional slogan. Do you know why? Because the higher the number of yarns, the finer the yarn, the softer the fabric, and the higher the price.
Most of our normal clothes are made of short-staple cotton. Its quality is also good, the output is high, and it is a cost-effective cotton. However, short-staple cotton has poor breathability, wrinkle resistance and durability, so it is often mixed with other fibers such as polyester, spandex, linen, and Tencel, etc. Therefore, the price difference can be very large.
When purchasing products, we mainly consider the purpose. If it is in contact with the skin, especially in private parts, it is best to choose cotton products or even 100% cotton to avoid skin irritation. If it is just an outer garment or for one-time wear, it doesn't matter. Of course, we should pay more attention to the ingredient label. It will tell us the basic information of the product.
Then, someone might ask me, does that mean that all products without cotton are bad? No. This involves many types of fabrics and processes, next time we talk about.
Cotton products are all advantages, but do they have any disadvantages? Of course they do. Due to its natural nature, it is prone to wrinkles, shrinkage, average elasticity, slow moisture evaporation, and fading, etc. Therefore, pure cotton products require time and effort to maintain.
To solve these problems, merchants often mix other materials to improve their comfort and convenience in daily life. For example, adding polyester is to solve the problems of easy wrinkling and shrinkage, adding spandex is to increase elasticity, and adding nylon is to improve wear resistance. Therefore, there are so many mixed cotton products in addition to pure cotton.
Therefore, understanding the characteristics of the fabric itself helps us understand the reasons for the existence of other cotton products and also helps us choose the products that suit us.