Although both cashmere and wool come from sheep, they actually come from different kinds of sheep. Wool comes from sheep and cashmere comes from goats.
As we all know, the best wool in the world comes from Australia, while the best cashmere comes from Inner Mongolia, and almost 70% of the world's cashmere is produced in Inner Mongolia! So if it is a coat or sweater made of cashmere from Inner Mongolia, it should be more expensive!
Wool: It comes from sheep. Even the finer wool is called wool, both professionally and in the industry.
Features of wool products: full feel, good warmth retention, comfortable to wear.
Cashmere :
It is a thin layer of fine wool that grows on the outer epidermis of the goat and covers the root of the goat's coarse hair. In the winter, they grow out to resist the wind and cold after being stimulated by the cold current, and then fall off naturally when the spring turns warmer in the coming year. Belongs to a rare animal fiber.
It is worth mentioning that cashmere only accounts for 0.2% of the world's total animal fiber production! ! Even because of the scarcity of cashmere, each cashmere sweater needs at least 5 cashmere to be made. Therefore, cashmere is priced in grams in transactions, and it is recognized as "soft gold".
In this way, we can see how rare the cashmere is.
Different collection methods
In addition to the different origins, the collection methods of cashmere and wool are also very different-
The collection of wool, like a haircut or undressing, is shaved with scissors, and then taken off entirely, also commonly known as shearing.
And cashmere grows at the root of the goat's rough hair, and it falls off naturally.
Therefore, every spring when the hair is removed, the herdsmen will use a special iron comb to grab it bit by bit like a hair comb, and become the raw wool.
Different yields
Each sheep can produce several kilograms of wool per year, but each goat can only harvest several dozen grams of cashmere per year. Not only in 2017, the global wool production is about 1.1 million tons, while the cashmere is only 20,000 tons. So it is no exaggeration to call cashmere a "luxury".
Different skin affinity
Although cashmere and wool are difficult to distinguish with the naked eye, under the microscope, it is very different!
We can see that there is a large inclination between the scales and the hair shaft of fine sheep wool. There are many jagged bulges including the sides.
In general, even if the surface of wool scales is rough and not smooth, of course, it is not skin-friendly enough.