Camel Hair Blanket

Shearing or combing

Camels (Camelus bactrianus) moult once a year. This is when combers and shearers extract the fine camel hair by using a special tool designed for this task. The person in charge of collecting the fibre watches the animals from the beginning of the spring to the beginning of the summer, when camels moult and their hair gets collected. In the autumn, camels will already have a new layer of hair for the winter.

The colour of camel hair

The natural colour of this fibre is Camel or tan colour, more or less brown, or even reddish sometimes. Colour tones can be different, depending mostly on the age of the animal and the length of the fibre. The longer the fibre and the older the camel is, the darker the tones of the fibre will be. In some cases, they might even be black. Another interesting characteristic is the fact that there are camels and dromedaries with more than one colour. There are even white camels.

The fibre

This fibre is used for manufacturing blankets and textiles of high quality designed for cold climates. They are soft, warm and durable items of clothing, which are expensive and very valued in the Western markets and the main consuming countries are the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom. This fibre is also considered to be the most insulating of all natural fibres.

Interesting information

Camels can go five to seven days without any food or water. This is one of the reasons why mankind put special effort in their domestication, knowing how useful they would be for carrying load in long journeys. In fact, they were named by Bedouins as Ata Allah, which means Gift of God. It is the species of mammals which can remain for the longest time without breaking a sweat. While humans start sweating when the outside temperature goes over 36.5 degrees Celsius, camels will do so 6 degrees over that temperature. It is very difficult for them to get to the point where they would asphyxiate. Their hair is one of the reasons why this is not likely to happen.