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Wool vs synthetic for?

Walkergirl

New Member
Time of past OR future Camino
April-May 2016
To all you experts and veterans, I am unsure weather or not I should take a thin wool long and short sleeved shirt or a synthetic one...the wool is so comfortable to wear for sweaty endeavours, in hot or cold weather, and it is stink resistant. After reading about the bed bug posts, should they decide to visit me, I couldn't wash the wool items in super hot water and dryer. Does this mean woollens are a no go?? They also take longer to dry...If bugs weren't an option, I would choose wool. This would apply to wool socks! Please advise, thank you!!
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
Take the wool then. The heat in the dryer is to kill the bugs and destroy any eggs. That is the easy way to get rid of them but, remember, the real goal is to get rid of them. Vigorous cold water washing and close inspection should ensure you aren't carrying them anymore.

It's like washing your hands. The hot water isn't killing the germs; it's the scrubbing and rinsing that gets rid of them.

[Below is an edited version of my original post which was not as clear as I thought it was.]

Take the wool then.

The conventional wisdom to kill bedbugs is to wash your stuff in hot water and then machine dry with high heat. The wash is to rinse the bugs out of the clothing/bag/pack/whatever and the hot water and dryer heat is to kill them and their eggs.

Your worry is that this will shrink or felt your wool clothes. It will. However the above advice is for the **easy** way to de-bedbug. You can do it another way. Remember, the real goal is to just get rid of them not to clean and cook them. For the wool clothes cold water washing and air drying should do the trick as long as close inspection is done to ensure it.
 
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And make the wool XXS! Synthetic fabric washes and dries well. You probably will prefer it. For socks, a wool synthetic blend also is good. All-wool will dry very slowly, particularly on wet days.
Oops. I re-read my post. When writing it I thought it was obvious that I meant was cold water wash and inspect and hang dry. It wasn't obvious. You use the heat in the dryer to kill the bugs in things like packs and sleeping bags.
 
Wool vs. synthetics seems to be a heated debate, just like boots vs. trail runners! You either prefer one or the other ;)

Personally, I think wool is a highly underpreciated material. Few days ago I went for a hike here at home, 0 degrees Celsius, snowy rain, windy, awful weather... once again tried fleece+rain jacket, as most people recommend for hiking, what a disaster! Sweating like hell uphill, almost froze to death afterwards. Good that I had taken a wool shirt+cardigan and a thick wool coat in my backpack. Changed and was warm and not sweating anymore afterwards! Did not get wet either, good woolen fabrics are water repellant (treating them with lanolin helps also). My hiking clothes are now almost all wool: skirt/trousers, tights, shirt, jumper, vest, cardigan, gaiters, coat, hat, scarf, gloves, socks...

Should the bed bugs visit you... doesn't have to mean your clothes will "die" in the dryer. I got the bugs, and all my stuff survived the dryer, even the cashmere jumper! If you can increase the heat slowly, that might do the trick - what wool does not like is sudden change of temperature.

Anyway, only my slightly crazy opinion, you'll know what's best for you :)

Buen camino!
 
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I have used wool and synthetic mix base layer tee-shirts recently, as well as pure wool and all synthetic. I don't find them to be substantially different in performance or comfort, but pure wool knits are more fragile, and seem to develop holes more quickly than those made with a stronger yarn. Otherwise, I think most of the perceived advantages are advertising rhetoric rather than real practical difference. If you prefer wool, take that. Otherwise ...
 
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I am surprised at the comment above that wool dries more slowly. This depends on the weight of the wool. My 150 weight pure merino wool base layers dry very quickly. At home, I can wrap them in a towel after hand washing and have them dry in 3 hours. On the camino, after washing in the afternoon or early evening, they are always dry in the morning. Thick wool socks for padding for my feet can easily take two nights hung by my bunk. Try out before you go whatever you are planning to take with you, both for comfort and for drying . You may need more socks if you choose wool.
 
I wear all synthetic tech type clothing. The shirts, shorts, socks, underwear is the same stuff I wear to work-out and run in everyday. I found it to work perfectly for me on the Camino. It's lightweight, breathable and dries very quickly on the clothes line. Also here in the US it can be purchased very inexpensively, so if some of it get's lost, pinched or torn while on the Camino, no big deal. A couple of the shirts and underwear I wore on Caminos I tossed in the trash bin when I got to Santiago. They did their duty well, and I was trying to keep my pack as small as possible so I could just carry it on for the flights home.
Don't sweat the bedbugs. I've done three Caminos and never saw one or was bit by one. That's over 100 nights in all types of accommodations on the Camino.
 
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wool dries slow yes but stink less, more comfortable, warm even if gets wet (rain, sweat, wash) meaning you can wear it still damp and be warm, go with wool :)

zzotte
 
I put my 80%merino-20%synthetic blends through the washer and hot dryer with no problems. If I had 100% wool that needed bedbug treatment, I'd put it DRY into the hot dryer. I can't guarantee that your items will survive perfectly, but I know that the agitation of the washing machine is a big cause of shrinkage. Likely the fibres are also very vulnerable when they are wet.
 
Yes, I agree about puting things dry in the hot air dryer - it's the heat that kills bedbugs and their eggs, not the washing.
 
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It's funny how people often laugh when they see me hiking in my rather old-school wool clothing.

Even got lectured a few times, how it must be too heavy, too warm, and not practical at all! Well, I'm wearing it, probably have my reasons to do so...

Has anyone else here tried tweed or Loden materials for trousers/skirt or jacket/coat when hiking?

Really wonder why it's so unpopular, apart from not being up to date fashion wise, of course... but then again, people wear garbage bags as rain cover on the camino, so that shouldn't be the reason :D
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
I had to hand wash my clothes every day...so for me the real issue is if you hand wash it...will it be dry enough to wear in 8-10 hours regardless of the fabric type...because starting wearing damp clothes on a cold morning is miserable.
 
I had to hand wash my clothes every day...so for me the real issue is if you hand wash it...will it be dry enough to wear in 8-10 hours regardless of the fabric type...because starting wearing damp clothes on a cold morning is miserable.
On the Camino I would make a judgement call. If the weather wasn't conducive to clothes being dry enough to wear by morning if washed and left out to dry, I wouldn't wash them. I only washed and hanged on a line if it was dry and sunny. That's why I brought two shorts, two shirts and four pairs of underwear and socks. Shower, change into a clean set, hang up the set you wore so it will air out, and bag it before you put it in your backpack later and wash it the next day if you can. Dusty, dirty or muddy socks? Easy and small enough to wash and hang up in any weather. I wore the ankle high running type socks. Easy to even hang off your pack to dry or even off the foot of the bed in the albergue.
No way was I going to put on damp clothing the next day and no way was I going to carry around a set of wet clothing in my pack. Besides, none of the stuff I wore on the Camino (besides my socks and shoes) ever got dirty in the sense of having dirt and mud on them. They just got sweaty, and since it was the synthetic tech type fabric, it's made to get sweaty and dry quickly. About once a week if I could and the albergue had a washer and dryer, I'd wash and dry all my stuff.
Walking the CF ain't like living in the field in the military. It seems to me one would have to work really hard to actually get "dirty".
 
I had to hand wash my clothes every day...so for me the real issue is if you hand wash it...will it be dry enough to wear in 8-10 hours regardless of the fabric type...because starting wearing damp clothes on a cold morning is miserable.

Wool does not need to be washed every day.
An Irish woman once told me it is "self cleaning" and after experiencing it, I agree.
You can just air it out and rarely wash it.
As far as drying, my wool shirts dry easily overnight.
It just depends on the weight.
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
Don't sweat the bedbugs. I've done three Caminos and never saw one or was bit by one. That's over 100 nights in all types of accommodations on the Camino.

Phew!!! After reading all these posts about bed bugs I was wondering how common they actually are. Reading this was such a relief!
 
I was wondering how common they actually are
Very common, almost ubiquitous in albergues by August! Hoteles and hostales share the problem to a lesser extent. Some places are good about attacking the problem, so the bugs don't have time to infest the walls and breed. However, a new supply is carried down the route by pilgrims from the places that do not treat continuously. Protect yourself by not becoming a carrier. A bite won't do much damage to you, but bringing them home may create a huge problem.
 
Phew!!! After reading all these posts about bed bugs I was wondering how common they actually are. Reading this was such a relief!
Like I've said those Caminos were done from June through September. By September there have been a lot of pilgrims through those albergues, and again never even saw hide nor hair of the dreaded bedbugs. Not saying they don't exist. Just saying I never encountered them and quite honestly they are not even something I'm concerned with.
One thing I am picky about though is where I stay. Be it municipals or private albergues I want ones that are clean, and don't use ratty old mattresses on the beds. I go to ones where they use disposable bedding and/or the mattresses are encased in a sort of plastic/rubber material. Also I don't like to sleep on beds close to the wall. Bugs climb up walls and get on beds. When I worked overseas I sometimes stayed in questionable digs. You never slept in a bed against the wall. Too many scorpions and spiders (don't worry about those in Spain). You will know immediately if an albergue is somewhere you want to stay. If the place looks like caca, it's worth the extra few Euros to find another one.
I'd be more concerned over the crazy people in albergues who like to sleep with all the windows and doors closed. By 2:00-3:00 am the damn room is like a smelly sauna from hell. :D
cheers
 
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on't sweat the bedbugs. I've done three Caminos and never saw one or was bit by one. That's over 100 nights in all types of accommodations on the Camino.
I will be blunt here! I have only spent about 80 nights on the camino, of which only half were in albergues, but have been bitten on 4 separate occasions. The first time, I caught a bedbug in a 40-Euro place, moved rooms, but several spots appeared the next day. I've never seen signs upon inspection, which I do every place I sleep. Inspection would reveal a bad infestation, but not the occasional bug-in-transit. If you've spent 100 nights with no apparent bites, you are probably not allergic to their bites. (For example, I have walked through Canadian forests for 60-odd years and never noticed poison ivy, so I'm pretty sure I am not allergic to it.)

I have become convinced and resigned to the fact that they are ubiquitous. Not that every place is badly infested (very few places are, and hopefully inspection will reveal those ones!) but if there is one bedbug wandering around in an albergue, it will bite ME rather than @Mark Lee :eek:. Also a lot of google research leads me to believe that permethrin and Deet have little effectiveness (but maybe a bit) as repellents that will effectively stop that one bedbug from walking across the bed to find me. The bug might die a week later from permethrin poisoning, but I will be itching in the meantime!

For these reasons, my main strategy now is to protect all my belongings so (a) I don't carry them onward, and (b) to make it easier to decontaminate if I find myself bitten. That means I pack very minimally, I am well organized and don't spread my things randomly around in an albergue, and I take care to shake things out in a careful way as I pack. I have an outer dry bag for my pack at night, another dry bag to isolate my sleeping bag and PJs during the day, and I put things into a hot dryer whenever I think it advisable. I also use permethrin and Deet to a minor degree. I may still be bitten, but I feel I have some control. I didn't get any bites during my last 3 weeks on the Camino, so maybe it worked. And I remind myself that it is not Ebola virus!

Having said all this, most people don't get bitten. Even for those of us who do get bitten, as long as you don't get extreme reactions (a very few people do), the management is not so hard. I'd still recommend that everyone decontaminate things upon coming home, through a combination of heat treatment, freezer treatment and inspection.

Seriously, though, don't let this inconvenience spoil a great experience!
Buen camino!:D
 
Well, a lifetime of living in the southern US and overseas and having been bitten and stung by countless mosquitoes, ants, sand fleas, chiggers, horse and deer flies, bees and wasps, I know if I have been violated by an insect and I would know if a bedbug visited me and took a nip. It just never happened. Not a matter of an allergic reaction. I'm not allergic to mosquitoes, yet it does itch when they bite and that's caused by the chemicals she injects in you in order to thin your blood and make it easy for her to ingest. Same with a deer fly. I imagine a bedbug has its own chemicals it uses in order to draw blood.
I do agree though. It's not something to ponder too much over on the Camino and I've never taken any special precautions before, during or after.
 
Look for stuff that repells ticks and that will be the best you can do. Bedbugs and ticks seem to have have more in common than bedbugs and other biting insects.
 
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Not a matter of an allergic reaction.
I am not an expert on this, but I understand that there is a difference in types of reactions to different insects. It would explain some of the confusion in terms and in our experience. Bedbugs do cause an allergic reaction in some people and no reaction at all in others.
"A toxic reaction is due to poisons in the venom itself acting on cells and tissues of the body. Whereas, a true allergic response is a result of the immune system making specific allergic antibodies (IgE) to compounds of the insect venom..." Here is a link.
 
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I am not an expert on this, but I understand that there is a difference in types of reactions to different insects. It would explain some of the confusion in terms and in our experience. Bedbugs do cause an allergic reaction in some people and no reaction at all in others.
"A toxic reaction is due to poisons in the venom itself acting on cells and tissues of the body. Whereas, a true allergic response is a result of the immune system making specific allergic antibodies (IgE) to compounds of the insect venom..." Here is a link.
Yeah, read up on them a bit more. I already knew they bite as opposed to stinging (such as a wasp bee or ant), and like a mosquito they inject a pain killer and an anticoagulant, but not venom (link you have is in regards to venom injecting insects, wasp, bee or ant).
Anyway, don't want to put-off prospective pilgrims with concern of bedbugs. Just walk the Camino without the worries and fears of some of mother nature's pesky critters.
I did read that some places now use bedbug sniffing dogs to locate them in order to control them. Maybe some of the albergues could get them. :)
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
Sorry, back to the original topic - wool v synthetic.

Having started my caminos wearing all synthetic gear, I'm a complete convert to wool. For me the clincher is how the fabric feels when wet. Even in summer that is important, because I do sweat (glow excessively!) and wool feels better. I also find that fine merino wool dries very fast - some of mine is almost wring dry. As a child wool made me itchy and I suffered from eczema, but it seems not to be a problem now. I think the wool used these days is a much higher micron, with a finer fibre.

The downside is that it is does require more care than plastic clothing. That's a serious consideration, because wool is expensive.
 
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I disagree that merino wool does not smell! It may not have the wet-dog aroma of some heavier wool, but it smells after becoming sweat soaked. So does cotton and synthetic, though. It will be hard to walk for a month in two sets of clothes, usually hand washed in cold water, without smells. It is part of the Camino. :)
 
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I don't think anyone has to smell bad on Camino. For me it is part of the discipline of being a pilgrim; every afternoon washing what I wore during the morning's walk.
 
I wear all synthetic tech type clothing. The shirts, shorts, socks, underwear is the same stuff I wear to work-out and run in everyday. I found it to work perfectly for me on the Camino. It's lightweight, breathable and dries very quickly on the clothes line. Also here in the US it can be purchased very inexpensively, so if some of it get's lost, pinched or torn while on the Camino, no big deal. A couple of the shirts and underwear I wore on Caminos I tossed in the trash bin when I got to Santiago. They did their duty well, and I was trying to keep my pack as small as possible so I could just carry it on for the flights home.
Don't sweat the bedbugs. I've done three Caminos and never saw one or was bit by one. That's over 100 nights in all types of accommodations on the Camino.
Hi Mark,
I'll be starting my first Camino (Frances) in a little over three weeks. I've managed to do what I thought was a lot of research over the last year or so. But I only started participating in this forum about a month ago! - go figure. Maybe a should have started here a bit sooner.

Anyhow I decided to buy all synthetic clothes because I will be washing every day and expect the synthetic fabrics to have a good chance of drying overnight. That was the main factor. Even socks - synthetic ones seem fine, been wearing them hiking for 6 months and they don't smell. Also, all the clothes I'm taking are very light.

So I'm repeating everything you've said, I guess. The whole bedbug in the dryer thing seems to put synthetics at a disadvantage cause they sure couldn't take the heat.

I guess I'll learn about it all for myself soon enough.
 
Hi Mark,
I'll be starting my first Camino (Frances) in a little over three weeks. I've managed to do what I thought was a lot of research over the last year or so. But I only started participating in this forum about a month ago! - go figure. Maybe a should have started here a bit sooner.

Anyhow I decided to buy all synthetic clothes because I will be washing every day and expect the synthetic fabrics to have a good chance of drying overnight. That was the main factor. Even socks - synthetic ones seem fine, been wearing them hiking for 6 months and they don't smell. Also, all the clothes I'm taking are very light.

So I'm repeating everything you've said, I guess. The whole bedbug in the dryer thing seems to put synthetics at a disadvantage cause they sure couldn't take the heat.

I guess I'll learn about it all for myself soon enough.
Well, like I said in earlier posts, I never had any issues with bedbugs any of the times I walked the Camino and I really don't know where any of them would hide inside of my thin, synthetic running shirts and shorts.
Three weeks is plenty of time to plan a Camino walk. It really doesn't need much planning. I would guess most of the people on here that plan it extensively do so because they enjoy the planning stage. They do it out of choice. Part of the experience to them.
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
The whole bedbug in the dryer thing seems to put synthetics at a disadvantage cause they sure couldn't take the heat.
Not at all. I carry a mix of good quality synthetics and merino/synthetic blend, and have had no trouble with a very hot dryer. Even my rain gear! My clothes do not get pampered on the camino.
 
I use mix of merino wool and powerstretch shirts/t-shirts. Thin merino top (155) was used as a main shirt every day.
Two thinner (sth like 110) were evening wear, additional base layer and/or scarf. All dry quickly and I hand or machine washed walking gear (with minor exceptions) every day.
Close fit powerstretch works great in evenings, cooler mornings (normally used for running, cycling, kayaking etc).
Both fabrics did not develop bad smell and did not have troubles with hot dryer either.
In really cold mornings I started with merino-powerstretch-merino configuration with merino scarf and removed layers during walk if not needed.
 
Look for stuff that repells ticks and that will be the best you can do. Bedbugs and ticks seem to have have more in common than bedbugs and other biting insects.
Kanga - do you have any suggested Australian brands or do you source it in Spain/Europe??
 
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