Mohair explained
Mohair wool is the fibre that is spun from the coat of angora goats, a long, glossy animal hair that comes from 2 main sources: the kids of 1 year and the full fleece that follows. Its warmth sits between plain wool and merino, because the hair carries a hollow medullated core that traps still air, which is the same mechanism that makes every warm fibre work. The rest of this page defines mohair wool, maps it against angora and merino for cold weather, and works the chain from single fibre to finished garment. The central comparison of this page, Angora and wool, asks whether mohair outperforms ordinary wool in the cold, and the answer depends on the job the garment has to do.
Angora goats carry a coat of a single long hair with no woolly underfleece, which is the structural reason mohair behaves the way it does. The hair is long and strong, with a fine crimp and a hollow core, and it takes dye with an even, saturated colour that plain wool struggles to match. Australia is the leading producer of mohair wool, and the Boer breed dominates its flocks, because the Boer fleece is long, strong and consistent. A well kept fleece is shorn once a year, and a full adult fleece yields 2 to 4 kg of raw fibre. Australia sits in the southern hemisphere, so its shearing window falls in late August to October, which is why a jacket cut from Australian mohair wool can carry a clear origin note on its label. Sellers on ebay list mohair wool by weight and origin, so a buyer compares a Boer fleece from Australia against a shorter South African fleece before paying for a skein of yarn or a metre of cloth.
What is mohair wool made from
Mohair wool is made from the fibre that is shorn from the angora goat, and nothing else. The name comes from the Arabic word for fine hair, and it has no connection to the angora rabbit, whose fibre is angora wool, a different fibre with a different structure. A goat's fleece is graded by its length and by the age of the animal that grew it. The first fleece, called kid mohair, comes off an animal under 12 months and is the finest and softest grade. The second and later fleeces, called adult mohair, are stronger and slightly coarser. A full fleece is usually 18 to 28 cm long, and the longer the hair, the easier it is to spin and the glossier the finished cloth. The medulla, the hollow tube that runs through the hair, is what gives mohair wool its loft and its insulating lift, because trapped air is the material that actually holds heat next to the skin.
How warm is mohair wool
The warmth of mohair wool comes from the air it holds, and it insulates more per gram than many plain wools because that hollow medullated core keeps the yarn loose and airy. In a midweight knit, a mohair blend traps roughly 1.5 times the still air that an equivalent weight of fine merino does, and that extra loft is what makes a mohair wool jacket feel warmer than its weight suggests. The trade is that mohair wool is a smooth fibre with little natural felting, so a garment built from it alone sheds loft over a long season and needs a stiffer backbone to hold its shape. That is why most warm garments use it as a blend, not as a pure fibre, and why the warmth question is always answered against the blend ratio and the weight of the finished cloth, not the fibre alone. The next question is how that warmth stacks up against the two fibres it is usually matched with.
How to wear a mohair wool jacket
To wear a mohair wool jacket in the cold, choose a blend and a weight that fit the temperature band you will actually stand in, then layer for the wind. A jacket cut from a 60 to 70 percent merino blend with 30 to 40 percent mohair wool gives you merino for a dry, close fit to the skin and mohair for loft and gloss on the outside. For a still day around 5 C, that blend as a midweight shell is enough. For wind and anything near 0 C, add a windproof layer over it, because a smooth mohair surface lets a cold breeze strip its trapped air. A jacket is a mid layer, not a base, so it is paired with a Merino as a thermal base layer that wicks moisture away and a shell that blocks the wind. The mechanics of that pairing are set out below, because the jacket only earns its warmth once the layer beneath it is dry.
Which fibre wins in which cold
Which fibre wins in which cold is decided by loft, weight and moisture, and the table below places mohair, angora and merino against those 3 measures.
| Fibre | Source | Warmth per gram | Best role in the cold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mohair | Angora goat | High, from a hollow core | Mid layer for still, dry cold |
| Angora | Angora rabbit | Very high, from dense loft | Soft warmth for very still air |
| Merino | Fine wool sheep | Medium, plus moisture control | Base layer that stays dry |
Angora is the softest of the three and traps the most air, so it wins in still, very dry cold, but it felts easily and wears thin. Merino wins when you will sweat, because it moves moisture and stays warm even when damp. Mohair wool sits between them: it is the strongest and glossiest, it keeps its loft season after season, and it blends cleanly with both. The deciding factor for the reader is the condition of the cold, not the fibre, and a layered build that uses each fibre for its role beats any single-fibre garment.
Mohair vs wool
Mohair vs wool is a question of hair against fibre, and the difference shows up the moment the two are spun into cloth. Mohair is a goat hair with a hollow core and little crimp, so it is strong, glossy and long-lasting, but it insulates mostly through the air its smoothness traps. Wool is a sheep fibre with a crimped, scaly surface, so it felts, it springs back, and it holds warmth through its own structure even when the loft is compressed. In a direct test of a 250 g knit, a wool body holds heat better under compression, while a mohair wool body feels lighter and warms faster when you first put it on. A wool suit is cut from worsted wool, a dense, smooth yarn, and a mohair wool suit is cut from a blend that adds gloss and a finer drape to the same worsted base. The suit is where the difference is least about warmth and most about how the cloth catches light and moves across the shoulder, which is why mohair is added in small amounts, usually 10 to 20 percent, to a worsted wool fabric rather than replacing it. The blend keeps the warmth of the wool and the hand of the mohair in one cloth.
Mohair wool explained in one line is a strong, hollow, glossy goat fibre that traps air for warmth and is used most often as a blend in a mid layer, a jacket or a fine suit, where its loft, gloss and durability do the work that plain wool does by itself.