Everything you know about wool is wrong

"Skin irritation from any fibre type largely relates to the mean diameter of fibres."

Recent research has found that wearing superfine Merino wool is generally tolerable for eczema sufferers and may actually help in the management of eczema in young children, challenging the belief of lay and medical communities. 

Associate Professor John Su, spoke about his new study at The Australasian College of Dermatologists’ (ACD) Annual Scientific Meeting in Perth earlier this week. 

“Many people, including doctors, believe that wearing wool worsens the effects of eczema. 

"In a recent study of children under three years old, we found that wearing superfine Merino wool, led to an overall greater improvement in eczema, when compared with wearing outfits made of cotton.” 

“Wool can have many fibre diameters and the use of lowmean diameter (superfine) wool in garments has increased significantly over the past 20 years.

"Wool has excellent moisture absorbing and heat transfer properties.  Skin irritation from any fibre type largely relates to the mean diameter of fibres.” 

“Most importantly, our study indicates that wearing superfine Merino wool may actually help in the management of eczema in young children. 

"This finding challenges prevalent beliefs in the lay and medical communities, as well as findings from older, less rigorously performed studies from the mid-1950s, when coarser diameter and heavier wool garments were used.”

“When comparing with cotton, there are inherent differences in fibre properties, wool’s greater ability to transfer moisture vapour and heat than the other major apparel fibres enable it to maintain a more stable microclimate between the skin and the garment.” 

The study ran for 12 weeks and included a sample size of approximately 40 patients up to three years of age, referred to the Dermatology Department at the Royal Children's Hospital for management of mild to moderate eczema. 

Participants were assessed by a blinded trained researcher during this time, at their initial appointment, three weeks, six weeks, nine weeks and 12 weeks.