What is the different between a natural fiber and a synthetic fiber(man made fibers)?

Natural fibers are produced by by plants and animals with can be spun into thread. Cotton and linen are plant base and wool and silk are sourced from animals.

Man made fibers are created from natural materials (cellulose) or by chemical processes (synthetic).  The synthetic fibers are produced from synthetic polymer that don’t grow again like mineral oil. Whereas cellulose fibers are made of raw material that does not have shortage in the nature, like wood, milk, soybeans.

Attributes of different fibers

Lets start with the plant base Natural fibers

Cotton:

Cotton has a lot of positive attributes and only a couple of negatives. Let’s start with the positives:

Cotton is Comfortable to wear, it is soft and skin friendly. It is good for people with Allergies. It regulates temperature and is breathable. It is easy to care for and imperishable. Cotton is strong absorbent and it’s light in weight.

The negative to cotton is it is slow to dry, I can easy shrink around 3 % if it’s not treated beforehand and it wrinkles easy.

Organic cotton is the up and coming from of cotton.

Linen

Linen has a lot of positive attributes, honestly I only know 2 negatives. So let’s start with the negatives. Linen wrinkles really really easy and you only wear it during the Sommer month (might to be a negative attribute)

Linen has a high consistency, it’s airy and cool in the summer. If you have allergies it is  go to item, it’s tear proof and anti static.

Animal fibers:

 Wool:

Wool is great in the winter time, it is breathable and heat isolating. You don’t have to worry about wrinkles and it’s not prone to muck. It has a great flexibility. The negative is it might be itchy and it can shrink if washed wrong. It has a tendency to felt as well.

Silk:

Silk looks great and expensive but is it actually a good material? Yes it is. Silk regulates temperature, is breathable and it doesn’t stretch out in high heat. Silk is light weight, flexible and an amazing product for Allergy sufferer. It is impervious to odors and dries fast. 

The negative part is you only can wash it as hand wash/dellices and it is ethical questioning. Because of how they harvest the silk from the larvae.

Kashmir:

Kashmir is finer, stronger, lighter, softer and approximately three times more insulating then sheep wool. It is breathable skin friendly and impervious to odors. The negative part it is quit expensive and can easy felt as well.

Now let’s look into the synthetic fibers:

Synthetic fibers::

Polyester:

It is soft and great for the skin, easy to care for, it doesn’t stretch out. It is light but still warm, it barely wrinkles and it hard to tear apart.

The negative part is it is heat sensitive and you can only wash it in the delicess cycle and do not put it in the dryer.

Polyacryl:

It is light weight, warm and soft, light and weather fest. Polyacryl is easy to take care of and it doesn’t stretch out it keeps it form. The bad part of this material is you sweat easy in it and you can put the item in the dryer but it is fast drying.

Polyamid:

Polyamid is elastic, shyer and tear proof. It barely takes moistures in, doesn’t have a tendency to wrinkle and is Leigh weight. The only negative part is it is heat sensitive.

Cellulose fibers

Viskose:

Easy on the skin and soft, antistatic. It has silk like look and it can take moister well without feeling wet. It is easy to color.

Quick Overview of the Fibers