There’s a lot we can tell you about silk. It features an array of health and beauty benefits, not to mention the fact it’s an incredibly luxurious fabric that’s super stylish too. However, sometimes silk ‘facts’ can get blown out of proportion, leaving many people confused about what to believe. We’re here to talk about some of the most common silk myths and misconceptions, so you can be sure you fully understand the beauty of the fabric.
Silk is Slippery
Many people may think of silk as a ‘wet’ fabric, but it really isn’t. Yes, it’s soft to touch and exudes elegance, but this does not mean that it slips off while wearing it. Take some silk pyjamas or a silk dressing gown, for example, you’re not going to roll out of bed because they’re too slippery. And you won’t slide out the bottom of your bed just because you’ve got a silk duvet as your choice of bedding. We know that silk has a lower friction value than that of cotton, but that’s to be expected. However, what people get silk confused with is satin, which is a much more slippery material. To learn more about the differences between silk and satin, we’ve gone into detail about this in one of our other blog posts: https://blog.jasminesilk.com/satin-vs-silk/
Silk Will Stick to Your Skin
Silk is a temperature-regulating fabric, so it’s ideal for keeping you cool in the summer and warm in the winter. It offers an array of benefits to your body, and thanks to its tightly woven and smooth fibres, silk helps to keep your skin’s natural oils and moisture close to the surface. This helps you to look refreshed on a daily basis! Silk is soft and flowy, but it definitely won’t cling to your skin or make you feel uncomfortable.
Silk is a Modern Material
While silk looks and feels modern, it has in fact been cultivated in China for around 5,000 years. Rumour has it that a Chinese empress name Leizu invented the silk loom after discovering silkworms while having a cup of afternoon tea. One story suggests that a cocoon fell into her drink, which then started to unravel because of the heat. Another says that she found silkworms eating mulberry leaves and spinning cocoons. She had collected some cocoons and while she was drinking her tea she simply dropped one into the water. It was then that a fine thread started to separate, to which Leizu found she could unwind it even further. We have no way to prove which version is true, but each one is lovely to think about and goes to show how old silk really is.
Silk Will Shrink
As long as silk is cared for in the right way, it will not shrink when it’s washed. So, if you’ve got silk bed sheets that fit perfectly, they should still fit in exactly the same way once they’ve been washed. To prevent silk from shrinking while being washed, there are a couple things you should be aware of:
- Do not leave silk to pre-soak for longer than 5 minutes as this causes the fibres to tighten
- Do not wash Silk in water that’s too hot
You can read our blog post, ‘How to Wash and Dry Silk Properly’, for more information: https://blog.jasminesilk.com/how-to-wash-and-dry-silk-properly/
