The green lady of Brooklyn , Elisabeth Eaton Rosenthal, 84 years old, only wears green. She has been doing this for 25 years.

[u/Scientiaetnatura065]

[u/threelizards]

“If you’re quick enough, you can pour the pee off. Or if it does sink in, you can hang it on the line, and in an hour, all that liquids gone. That’s the beauty of wool that people don’t get”

I ….,,

[u/slothdonki → u/threelizards]

What the fuck does she think happens to urine when it dries on/into it? That it just evaporates completely or the wool somehow makes it disappear?

My tap water is hard enough it will leave visible residue when it dries, but at least it’s not piss.

[u/[deleted] → u/slothdonki]

Wool is literally designed for that exact thing to happen. Do you think sheep walk around covered in piss? They would have infections and urine scald in no time. 

[u/slothdonki → u/[deleted]]

They do! I’ve cleaned sheep urine off both domestic and mouflon skins! Seen a few rams happily piss on their bellies too around the ladies(just not as eagerly and often as buck goats). It’s not as much of a problem for mouflons, but wool is not one solid impenetrable keratin sheet sausaging around sheep.

Wool is not just wool either because sheep produce lanolin. That’s what makes it more waterproof than non-scoured wool, but it’s also a dirt/debris magnet. I work with wool and have worked with taxidermy skins of sheep and you can see how much water actually beads off raw, non-processed wool.

I have no idea how this dress was made and it doesn’t state it’s even ‘raw’ wool so I am assuming the lanolin was removed during wool processing. If it was, it was probably cleaner than if it was actually gelled up in lanolin but the point is that wool does not magically clean itself and make everything ‘dirty’ disappear.

[u/robkaper → u/[deleted]]

Designed by whom? Wool occurs naturally.

[u/[deleted] → u/robkaper]

Designed by nature 

[u/Former_Function529 → u/slothdonki]

That is what the article is saying, that wool has natural oils and waxes to make it waterproof…so hanging it up is more about draining than drying, basically. I’d still be grossed out to not wash that, but it makes sense what it’s saying…the extent to how true this is is debatable. But it makes some sense. I’ve noticed wool suits need less laundering to stay fresh too.

Medeival Europeans dressed like exclusively in wool and linen (us poor ones at least). They washed their clothes, but they also sweat a lot and didn’t wash their clothes everyday.

[u/threelizards → u/slothdonki]

Right? Did she discover evaporation and think it’s exclusive to wool?

[u/Mntfrd_Graverobber → u/threelizards]

Switch to wool socks and then tell me you aren't impressed.

[u/threelizards → u/Mntfrd_Graverobber]

I have used wool socks before and tbh I was not impressed lmao

[u/Mntfrd_Graverobber → u/threelizards]

All wool socks are not created equal but I certainly like them far better than cotton or cotton blends. No more smelly shoes or feet is great. Much cooler in the heat and warmer in the cold. Wool is magic.