Viscose in Clothing

Have you ever wondered why people say Cotton Kills? Do you understand exactly why? Here’s an in-depth explanation as well as a list of other fabrics that you should avoid when shopping for hiking clothes.

Insulation

Clothing keeps you warm by trapping warm air near your skin. When cotton gets wet, it ceases to insulate you because all of the air pockets in the fabric fill up with water. When you hike, you perspire, and any cotton clothing touching your skin will absorb your sweat like a sponge.

If the air is colder than your body temperature, you’ll feel cold because your cotton clothing is saturated and no longer providing any insulation. This can lead to disorientation, hypothermia, and potentially death if you become too chilled. Remember, hypothermia can occur in temperatures well above freezing and become serious if you get wet and chilled.

Wicking and Layering

In addition, wet cotton does not wick water away from your skin. Wicking fabrics move water from wet areas to dry ones using a process called capilary action. For example, a wicking baselayer shirt made out of Patagonia Capilene will move moisture from the surface of your skin to the outer layers of your shirt leaving the part of the fabric touching your skin dry. This is why layering is such an effective clothing strategy for hiking, because wicking fabrics move water away from your skin and up through your layers one after another, enabling the fabric near your skin to trap insulating air and retain your body’s warmth.

Wool

Wool does not wick as well as synthetic garments and will absorb up to 36% of its weight in water. Unlike cotton, it does insulate when wet and is considered an acceptable fabric for hiking clothes.

Other Forms of Cotton

Avoid wearing garments that are labelled as corduroy, denim, flannel, or duck. These are all made with cotton. In addition, steer clear of cotton-polyester blends, for example 50/50. They’ll still kill you, although it may take a little longer.

Other Fabrics to Avoid

Modal, rayon, viscose, tencel and lyocell are all manufactured fabrics made from cellulose fiber. They absorb water even faster than cotton and lose all of their insulation value when wet. You should also be very careful with clothing made from Bamboo, which is often advertised as being a green product having characteristics comparable to wool. Many bamboo fabrics are actually just a type of rayon and share all of its pitfalls.

Silk is also very absorbent and loses its insulation value when wet.

Additional Resources

REI’s How to Choose a Baselayer is a good source of additional information on the comparative strengths and weakness of different fabric types, and provides a good list of synthetic clothing and wool clothing manufacturers.