At Mulberry Park Silks, one of our favorite things to do is educate our clients to all the wonderful beauty, health and wellness benefits of pure silk. Sleeping on silk -- once a well-kept secret of beauty insiders -- has gone mainstream. Pure silk bedding has become a powerful anti-aging product, and with good reason: using a silk pillowcase delivers a beauty boost to hair and skin while regulating body temperature and reducing exposure to allergens.
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Silk has unique properties that make it different from other types of fabric. Along with being hypoallergenic, mulberry silk fibers are coated with fibroin, a protein that makes them naturally antibacterial, antifungal, and resistant to dust mites and mold. Silk also contains 18 helpful amino acids that work condition hair and skin. Of course, silk is the ultimate fabric for luxury and comfort, one that virtually guarantees a good night's sleep.
Switching from a cotton pillowcase to a mulberry silk pillowcase is a smart beauty move. A silk pillow can improve how you look and feel in so many ways:
- Preventing tangles, bed head, and hair breakage, especially on curly or frizzy hair
- Helping skin and hair retain essential moisture
- Reducing friction on the skin and minimizing sleep wrinkles
- Protecting sensitive skin from irritation (silk is naturally hypoallergenic!)
- Regulating body temperature
How Silk Pillowcases Help with Allergies
Silk is well-known for looking and feeling luxurious. It's also ideal for anyone suffering from allergies or sensitive skin. As we noted above, real silk fibers are coated with a protein known as fibroin. Fibroin repels dust mites, which are a major source of allergic irritation. Sericin also makes silk resistant to mold, fungus, and bacteria. This means silk fabric is naturally hypoallergenic. A pure silk pillowcase and real silk sheets is a wonderful bedding choice that is non-irritating for all types of skin.
How Silk Pillowcases Help Your Skin
In addition to being hypoallergenic and non-irritating, silk is great for helping skin retain moisture and resist wrinkles.
To understand why it's helpful, let’s examine the differences between protein-based silk and plant-based cotton. Known for being naturally absorbent, cotton fabric actually removes moisture from skin. Cotton also contributes to facial lines and wrinkles by pulling and tugging on delicate facial skin while we're sleeping; as we age, skin can't rebound as easily and those "sleep wrinkles" stay around for much longer and may even become permanent.
In contrast, pure silk is protein-based and helps skin retain its natural moisture. Silk is also incredibly smooth to the touch, which reduces friction on delicate facial skin; this minimizes the occurrence of sleep wrinkles. At the same time, silk is hypoallergenic and non-irritating. A mulberry silk pillowcase is gentle enough for anyone with sensitive skin; those with underlying conditions like acne, rosacea, eczema, or excessive dryness; and even babies with crib cap.
How Silk Pillowcases Help Your Hair
Whatever your hair type, if you wake with a head full of tangles and bedhead, you can likely blame it on damage from your cotton pillowcase. Cotton fibers have texture and can snag and pull at hair while you sleep. Swapping your cotton pillowcase for silk pillows will allow your hair to gently glide across its smooth surface, no matter how much you toss and turn. With a real silk pillowcase, you'll wake up with a new morning hair look: smoother, silkier, tangle-free, and without hair breakage.
Along with tearing at hair, cotton robs it of essential moisture. A cotton pillowcase can actually act like a reverse conditioner, especially if your hair is coarse, curly, or wiry. Protein-based silk helps hair retain moisture; in fact, many hair conditioners are made with sericin protein from silk. The gentleness and moisture-retaining properties of silk fabric make it an excellent choice for anyone experiencing hair loss or hair breakage; silk nourishes hair cuticles and helps protect fragile regrowth. Pure silk accessories such as head scarves and silk scrunchies are other options for keeping hair and scalp protected and moisturized around the clock. With a pure silk pillowcase, you can say goodbye to frizz, split ends and bedhead! Althoughsilk vs.cotton is a common debate, we side with silk.
How Silk Pillowcases Help You Sleep Better
One of the main reasons people love sleeping on silk is that it feels fabulous and pure mulberry silk is surely nothing less than exceptional. Real silk is not only soft and smooth but maintains the timeless essence of luxury and comfort. But there's more good news: silk has the special property of being breathable and helping to regulate body temperature. This means silk pillowcases and real silk sheets can keep you comfortable in warm and cold weather alike. Unlike cotton, which absorbs moisture, silk wicks away moisture to keep you cool and dry. In colder temperatures, silk's low conductivity means that the silk fiber is able to create a thin layer of insulation that will keep you warm. By helping you regulate body temperature in all conditions, silk fiber makes it possible for you to get a great night of comfortable rest year-round.
How Silk Pillowcases Reduce Your Chemical Exposure
Mulberry Park Silks products reduce your exposure to harmful chemicals. We use environmentally friendly dyes, and all our silk products are Oeko-Tex® certified to be free of chemicals. The Oeko-Tex® Standard 100 was developed by European textile institutes committed to finding a way to reduce our environmental footprint. This global testing and accreditation program sets and maintains standards for the screening of harmful substances in consumer textiles.
Although silk is naturally hypoallergenic and generally non-irritating to even sensitive skin, it is important to be certain that the silk products you bring into your home are free from specific contaminants. A Low-quality silk product may contain pesticides, fertilizer, bleach, groundwater waste, and other harmful toxins and chemicals. At Mulberry Park Silks, the silk fabric used in our silk bedding and silk accessory collections conforms to the highest standards in the textile industry.
As Oeko-Tex® Standard 100 certified, all of our pure silkproducts have been tested and guaranteed to be free from all harmful substances, including toxins and irritants. This ensures that the real silk items that you bring into your home are safe, natural, and healthy. We proudly display our Oeko-Tex certification on our packaging, website, and labels.
Mulberry Park Silks Pillowcases: Easy to Care For
Mulberry Park Silks pillowcases and bedding are machine washable. Wash them in a separate, silk-only, load. Turn silk pillowcases inside out before laundering and place all silk items in fine mesh laundry bags to help keep the silk from tearing. This is particularly important if your machine has an agitator mechanism. Protect silk's natural fibers by using a detergent clearly labeled as having a neutral pH, like those from Heritage Park Laundry Essentials. This will help maintain the integrity of your fabric with every wash. Hang silk to dry, indoor or out, away from direct sunlight. Iron sparingly on the coolest setting. Following these silk pillowcase and silk sheet care instructions will help keep your silk pillowcases beautiful and luxurious for years to come. By ensuring your silk pillowcases remain in great condition, thesilk pillowcases are absolutely worth the investment.