How to wash wool – caring for hats and scarves

The handmade pieces in our shop are knitted from natural fibres: merino wool, alpaca, mohair, silk and cashmere. They last for years and feel wonderful to wear, but they are washed differently from cotton. Below you will find everything you need to know about how to wash wool so that a hat or a scarf keeps its shape season after season.

How often should wool be washed?

Less often than instinct suggests. Wool is naturally self-cleaning and does not like frequent washing — every wash puts strain on the fibre.

• If a hat is not soiled, airing it is usually enough: a few hours in a well-ventilated spot, away from radiators.
• Washing makes sense only when wear calls for it — after contact with sweat, make-up or face cream.
• Treat a small stain locally instead of washing the whole piece.

A woollen hat washed once a season is perfectly normal, not neglect.

Washing step by step

• Fill a bowl with lukewarm water, no warmer than 30°C. Hot water felts wool irreversibly.
• Dissolve a gentle wool detergent in the water, following the manufacturer's dosage. Wool does not need scrubbing, so less is more here.
• Submerge the hat and leave it for about fifteen minutes. Nothing else is required during that time.
• Do not rub, scrub or wring. Simply press the excess water out with your hands.
• If your detergent requires rinsing, rinse the piece in water at the same temperature as the wash. A sudden change in temperature felts wool just as effectively as a hot bath.
• Roll the piece in a towel and press gently to draw off the remaining moisture.

Drying — the step where things usually go wrong

Wet wool is heavy and stretches under its own weight, so drying decides whether a hat keeps its shape.

• Dry it flat, on a spread-out towel.
• Shape it while it is still damp — the fibre will remember that shape.
• Keep it away from radiators, tumble dryers and direct sunlight.
• Never hang it on a line or with pegs.

What to avoid

• hot water and sudden changes in temperature,
• intensive machine programmes and spinning,
• ordinary washing powders,
• bleach and fabric softeners,
• tumble dryers.

These are exactly the things that cause felting, shrinking and loss of shape — the most common reasons a woollen hat stops fitting.

What to wash with: SOAK

For wool we recommend SOAK, a biodegradable detergent for delicate items that needs no rinsing. Aga washes every hat in it before dispatch, so it reaches you ready to wear.

It is gentle on wool, alpaca and cashmere, remarkably economical — a teaspoon to roughly five litres of water is plenty — and it also works beautifully on underwired bras, which we know first-hand, as Aga has worked in bra fitting for twenty years. If you already have a wool detergent you trust, use it; what matters is that it is mild and free of harsh additives. At a pinch, a gentle hair shampoo will do.

Small bobbles are not a fault

Knitted natural fibres can develop small bobbles on the surface. They appear wherever something rubs against the fabric — a hood, a scarf, a coat collar. They show most at the beginning and the effect fades with time, as the loose fibres on the surface work themselves out.

To freshen the piece up, a fabric shaver is enough: used gently, held flat, without pressing. This happens most often with merino and cashmere and is a natural property of those fibres, not a defect.

Is every fibre washed the same way?

The rules are shared; what differs is how carefully they need to be applied.

• Merino — the springiest of the group, it returns to shape well and copes best with washing.
• Alpaca — light when dry but heavy when wet, so drying flat matters especially here.
• Cashmere — the finest fibre and the most delicate in the wash; by hand only, with no exceptions.
• Mohair and silk — once dry, a gentle shake is enough to lift the halo back into place.

Why all this care

Unhurried care genuinely extends the life of a knitted piece. A hat made by hand on needles will serve for many seasons and hold its shape throughout. If you are looking for more pieces in natural yarns, have a look at our woollen handmade collection.