Mohair

Mohair is shorn from the Angora goat and then scoured; it spans roughly 25 to 45 microns depending on the animal's age, with fine kid mohair (goats under one year) at about 20 to 24 microns and coarse adult fiber reaching 39 or more.

Mohair's reputation for being scratchy is mostly about which mohair and how it is spun, not an allergy. Its fiber scales lie flatter and smoother than sheep wool, so it creates less friction against your skin and less of the prickly sensation people associate with wool. But mohair's long staple and signature brushed halo leave many fiber ends sticking out, and once the fiber diameter climbs past the roughly 30-micron prickle threshold those ends mechanically poke your skin's nerve endings, producing irritant contact dermatitis rather than a true immune reaction. Kid mohair stays finer and silkier and is far less likely to irritate than coarse adult mohair. If a mohair piece feels pokey, that is fiber coarseness and construction, not your body rejecting the protein.

Choose kid mohair around 20 to 24 microns for next-to-skin wear, favor smooth weaves over heavily brushed halos if you are sensitive, and look for OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 certification.

Angora goats are pasture grazers and, like other ruminants, emit methane; overgrazing pressure is the main land concern.