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When I invested in my favorite alpaca woolen scarf, I wanted to make sure that it maintained (and will maintain) its newness for as long as possible. With the right care and precautions, alpaca woolen garments can last a lifetime! The fiber is incredibly strong and durable, and can look good as new for a very long time! So, here’s the different things I do to keep my alpaca woolen garments (sweaters, socks, scarves and hats) looking as good as new. 1. Air Alpaca Woolen Garments When They Are Smelly To keep alpaca woolen garment smelling fresh - like new - all you need to do is air them. Alpaca wool is odor-resistant and will not absorb smells easily. When smells do get absorbed, airing will suffice to get rid of them. Alpaca wool has a hollow fiber, and to protect its core it has small scales on the outside. These scales seal off the center and prevent smells from entering. Even strong smells like perfume, smoke or cooking smells! Read my article about this in more detail: Does Alpaca Wool Smell? When alpaca woolen garments are exposed to very strong smells, the fiber will be able to move the air around by itself and eliminate the smell. However, this might take some time. Alpaca wool is highly breathable thanks to its hollow core. The fiber traps air, but evaporates it at the same time, moving clean air around continuously. This means that when an alpaca woolen garment gets smelly initially, it will disappear over time. To speed up the process, you can simply air an alpaca woolen garment outside (or in the window) and give the fiber some extra clean air to absorb. After airing an alpaca woolen garment, it will have replaced the bad smells with actual fresh air. And oh, do I love the smell of fresh air! 2. Wash Alpaca Woolen Garments Sparingly Alpaca wool is naturally stain-resistant and odor-free, which means that you need to wash it sparingly. Wash alpaca woolen garments at least once a year (before storing them over summer, for example) and more often if the garment is used for more intense purposes (like hiking socks). When it comes to washing alpaca woolen garments, the best thing to do is not to wash it at all! Hot water, temperature changes and friction are an alpaca woolen garment’s worst enemies and if you can protect alpaca wool from them, it will live happily ever after. Decrease the chances of causing your alpaca woolen garment to filt, to shrink, and to lose its shape, by washing it as little as possible. 3. Hand Wash Alpaca Woolen Garments While washing alpaca woolen garments frequently is not necessary, when you do decide to wash an alpaca woolen garment, it is important that it is done right. Make sure that you only wash alpaca woolen garments by hand. Hand washing alpaca wool is the only appropriate way to wash your garment. Don’t wash alpaca wool on the “hand wash” program in your washing machine. It is too rough on the garment. For the full instructions on how to wash alpaca woolen garment check out my other article: How Do You Wash Alpaca Woolen Garments? While washing alpaca woolen products is fairly easy, there are a few things that you should do (or not do, rather) in order to prevent damaging your garment. Friction, temperature changes and rubbing the garment can cause permanent and irreversible damage! Use a soft detergent, a mild conditioner or even baby shampoo to wash your product. Leave it soak in cold or lukewarm water for 30 minutes and rinse the garment thoroughly. Squeeze the water out of the garment, but make sure to never wring it! Dry an alpaca woolen garment laying flat between two towels. The towels will absorb the water and by laying it flat, it will not risk losing its shape. Watch my Video in which I show you step-by-step how to wash an alpaca woolen item! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0T9cs33Wro 4. Always Air-Dry Alpaca Woolen Garments to Maintain Their Luster The best way to dry an alpaca woolen garment is by air-drying it. Alpaca wool should never be dried in a dryer as it will damage the fiber and cause it to lose its luster and strength. The dryer is one of those places to avoid for alpaca woolen garments. The combination of water, heat and friction can cause the garment to start felting, to lose its shape, to shrink, and to lose its shine. To dry an alpaca woolen garment, make sure that it is air-dried, laying flat. Place the garment in its original shape to prevent it from stretching or deforming. 5. Dry Alpaca Woolen Garments Laying Flat to Maintain Their Shape Alpaca woolen garments need to dry laying flat in order to prevent them from losing their shape. The alpaca fiber is stretchy to a high degree, but it doesn’t have great memory, which means that it is possible for an alpaca woolen garment to lose its shape. When woolen garments are wet, they absorb a high amount of moisture inside the fiber. This causes the fiber the expand and to grow. It also adds weight to the garment. If you were to dry the alpaca woolen garment hanging, the weight will pull the garment down, leaving it completely out of shape. When it dries, the alpaca fiber won’t remember 100% what its original size was and will remain stretched out. Read more about this in an article I wrote: Does Alpaca Wool Stretch? While there are tricks to reshape an alpaca woolen garment to its original shape, it is always better to prevent this from happening to begin with. The easy way to do this, is by simply making sure that alpaca woolen garments are always laid out flat when they are put to dry. This way, gravity won’t get a hold of the garment and it will maintain its shape and size. 6. Avoid Direct Heat to Prevent Damaging the Fiber When drying alpaca woolen garments, direct heat should be prevented to avoid damaging the fiber. A heater, fireplace, or direct sunlight can be too strong and potentially cause the fiber to become brittle and weak. When an alpaca fiber becomes brittle and weak, it will be much more vulnerable to shedding and pilling, plus it won’t have its natural luster. Whether you come home after a rainy day, or you have just washed your alpaca woolen garment, make sure that you always put your alpaca woolen garment to dry naturally. The thick fiber might take some time to dry, but it will be worth it. Depending on how wet the garment is (a few raindrops vs. recently washed), most garments do dry overnight, or at least within 24 hours. Thinner garments will dry in a few hours. 7. Remove Stains on Alpaca Woolen Garments Manually When an alpaca woolen garment is stained, the best way to remove it - and to prevent washing it - is by removing the stain manually. Most stains can be wiped off before the liquid gets absorbed. However, other stains will require being put under running water. Alpaca wool is stain-resistant and luckily will not stain easily. However, it is important that you take immediate action when you do (accidentally) stain an alpaca woolen garment. Read more about this in my full article: Is Alpaca Wool Stain-Resistant? Most stains will disappear easily as alpaca wool repels liquids from its surface. Wicking away the liquid is usually enough. You could also get a paper towel and squeeze the liquid out of the garment. However, when given the time and in large quantities, alpaca wool will absorb some of the liquid and when that happens, the risk that it becomes a permanent stain increases. The best way to remove a stain is by putting the garment under running (cold or lukewarm) water. The fiber will absorb the water and remove the stain gradually. It might take a while, so be careful to prevent the garment from getting heavy and stretching out. If the stain is persistant, you can try soaking the garment in some vinegar. After that, rinse the garment thoroughly and dry it appropriately (squeeze out the water between two towels, air-dry laying flat on a flat surface). For more ways to remove stains from alpaca woolen garments, check out my other article: How Do You Remove Stains From an Alpaca Woolen Garment? } Or watch my video in which I explain three ways to remove three different types of stains! (Ketchup, red wine and coffee!) https://youtu.be/smYve3KMT48 8. Unwrinkle Alpaca Woolen Garments with Steam (from your Shower!) Wrinkles can be easily removed from alpaca woolen garments, as most garments will be wrinkle-free. When a garment does wrinkle, the best way to get rid of the wrinkle is by using steam, simply from a hot shower in your bathroom. Alpaca woolen garments have a silky, smooth fiber that is also quite elastic. This helps garments “jump” into their original position when they are folded or wrinkled. Wrinkles or creases are therefore not very visible on alpaca woolen garments. If they are visible at all, simply hanging the alpaca woolen garments will help remove them. When you find a more visible wrinkle on an alpaca woolen garment, it might help to hang an alpaca woolen garment on a sturdy coat hanger in the bathroom while taking a (hot) shower. (Or just turn on the hot water for a bit, but hey! Mind the environment!) When you close the bathroom door, the steam will stay within the area and this will help your alpaca woolen garment to unwrinkle. The vapor will bring the garment back to its natural shape. (It has something to do with the polymer bonds!) For the full guide an article on unwrinkling alpaca woolen garments, check out the link to go to my article: How Do You Remove Wrinkles From an Alpaca Woolen Garment? Of course, you can use a steam iron or a clothes-steamer, too! The “bathroom-method” is just the easiest way :) 9. Remove Fuzz Balls (Pills) with a Simple Razor Alpaca woolen garments are not very likely to pill thanks to the long and strong fiber texture. However, when a garment is exposed to a lot of friction, it is possible that fuzz balls will appear eventually. Luckily, you can remove fuzz balls easily with a super simple razor! In fact, the simpler the razor, the safer it will be to use it to remove the fuzz balls that make your alpaca woolen garment look old. I wrote a full article with a step-by-step guide on how to remove fuzz balls from alpaca woolen garments. Check it out here: How Do You Remove Fuzz Balls From an Alpaca Woolen Garment? When you use a razor to remove those nasty fuzz balls from your garment, look for the one hair that is connecting the fuzz ball to the garment. Gently pass the razor past it until the fuzz ball comes off. Don’t rub it back and forth, but follow the pattern of the garment. Instead of increasing the pressure, try repeating the movement. Alpaca woolen products are not very prone to piling! Find out why in another article I wrote: Does Alpaca Wool Pill? 10. Wash the Garment to Remove Loose Hairs and Prevent Shedding Woolen garments can shed loose hairs - especially when they’re new. To stop this from happening, wash your alpaca woolen garment before using it. High quality alpaca wool has a long fiber length, which means that it adds to the general strength of a woolen garment. The main reason for this is that the individual hairs of alpaca yarn are very long! Long hairs interlock better and will stay in place better and for a longer period of time. This means you can wear the garment without leaving a trail of shedded hairs behind you. Some alpaca woolen garments, however, will shed, as this will depend on the quality (and blend and usage) of your garment. Baby alpaca will shed a little more, because the fiber length is slightly shorter (although still long!). So, if you have one of those shedding garments, try washing it before using it and it should help save you a lot of vacuum cleaning afterwards! Read more about this in another article I wrote: Does Alpaca Wool Shed? Remember to wash your alpaca woolen clothes following the proper washing instructions! 11. Unshrink Your Sweater with Lots of Conditioner! When an alpaca woolen garment has shrunk, you can wash it with a conditioner to unshrink it. Conditioner will soften the fibers and help loosen up the garment. Stretching the garment into its original form when it is wet, will help. When alpaca woolen garments are washed in a washing machine, or in water that is too hot, or with too much rubbing and wringing, chances are that you will find it shrunk a few sizes. The alpaca woolen fiber does not respond well to heat and to friction and this is worsened when it is wet. Luckily, similar conditions can help unshrink your garment, too! According to Purely Alpaca, you can unshrink alpaca wool fibers by washing them in hot or warm water with conditioner. I tried this in one of my videos, because I actually washed an alpaca woolen sweater that I didn’t think was 100% alpaca wool (but it turned out that it was after washing it!) so I tried to unshrink it and made a video of it. Watch it here: https://youtu.be/7fbeBAnAQRY Alpaca woolen fibers are prone to shrinking, given their sensitivity to friction and temperature changes. Read more about it in the full article I wrote about it: Does Alpaca Wool Shrink? 12. Unfelt Your Sweater with Lots of Conditioner! Similarly to unshrinking a garment, you can use a conditioner to unfelt your garment. When wool fibers felt, it means that they interlock together outside of their original yarn, forming a new matted layer that doesn’t look very pretty (let alone new!). According to Purely Alpaca, you can unfelt alpaca wool fibers by washing them in hot or warm water with conditioner. Using conditioner will help soften the fiber, and hopefully unlock those wrongly interlocked fibers - bringing it back to its original position. Unfortunately, it didn't work for my sweater, but who knows it will work for your felted garment - and if so, let me know! (You can see the results in the video above) Given its small fiber diameter, alpaca woolen garments are prone to felting. As a general rule of thumb, you can expect smaller fibers to felt more easily Given that alpaca wool has a small diameter, you can expect it to felt. Check out the full article I wrote about this here: Does Alpaca Wool Felt? While it is better to prevent alpaca woolen garments from felting to begin with, you can unfelt your sweater, hat or scarf by washing it with a conditioner. This should help make your garment look better again. 13. Steam Clean an Alpaca Woolen Garment to Freshen it Up To freshen up an alpaca woolen garment without washing it, choose to steam clean it instead. Washing alpaca woolen garments increases the risk of felting and shrinking, and steaming will have a similar effect without (as much of) the risk. There are two ways to steam-clean alpaca woolen garments: with a steam-iron and with a clothes-steamer. Both options work perfectly fine as long as you use a cotton cloth between the steam and the garment and follow the instructions carefully. For more information about freshening up an alpaca woolen garment, check out the article I wrote about removing smells: How Do You Remove Smells from An Alpaca Woolen Garment? Steaming has several benefits: It eliminates bad odorsIt eliminates wrinklesIt kills bacteria Any alpaca woolen garment that is steamed, will look, smell, and feel as good as new again. 14. Dry-Clean an Alpaca Woolen Garment Sparingly to Freshen it Up To give alpaca woolen garments a thorough cleanse, dry cleaning is the way to go. If an alpaca woolen garment has persistent stains that cannot be manually removed, bringing your garment to a dry cleaning service might be more fruitful. Dry cleaning literally means washing without water. A special detergent (solvent) is used that doesn’t require water or heat to clean a garment. Dry cleaning exists because alpaca wool is not the only fabric that doesn’t respond well to water, heat and friction. When you bring a garment to a dry cleaning service, make sure you let them know it is a (100%) alpaca woolen garment and they will know how to handle it accordingly. According to Gentleman’s Gazette one of the downsides of dry cleaning is that the solvent that is used is highly chemical and therefore potentially damaging to the environment. The waste will end up in the water, which will end up in our oceans. Only use dry cleaning when it is absolutely necessary! Another downside is that the chemical solvent can damage your garment, so while it might clean out stains and smells, it will shorten the lifespan of your garment. Keep this in mind and remember to only use dry cleaning service when it is absolutely necessary! 15. Wash (and Dry) Alpaca Woolen Garments Before Storing Storing alpaca woolen garments (over summer) requires the garment to be washed, dried and folded before placing it in an airtight container. Make sure the container does not have holes in them, and when you’re using a bag, make sure moths can’t bite through it. If you are going to put away your alpaca woolen garment for a few weeks, or even months, you have to make sure that the garment is clean and dry before you hide it in a sealed container or bag. You should always wash alpaca woolen garments before storing them. To prevent mildew or mold, make sure that the garments are completely dry before storing them, as a wet and humid environment can cause alpaca woolen garments to get moldy. For the full article (plus help tips and tricks!) about storing alpaca woolen garments, follow the link: How to Store an Alpaca Woolen Garment? If you fold an alpaca woolen garment nicely, you prevent it from losing its shape. This means that an alpaca woolen garment should always be stored in its original position, although flat and folded. 16. Add (Natural, Lavender) Moth Repellent When Storing Alpaca Products Prevent alpaca woolen items to be ruined by moths - and their eggs - by using a moth repellent. Ideally, use a natural moth repellent like cedar wood or lavender to add a pleasant smell. Alpaca woolen garments are highly vulnerable to moths. Moths love to lay their eggs on woolen items and alpaca is no exception. Once the eggs hatch and the larvae get hungry they will vigorously fill up their tiny stomachs with large amounts of keratin (= wool). The best way to prevent moths from feeding themselves on your garment, is by adding a moth repellent to the box. Some moth repellents, however, have very strong smells and they don’t alway smell nice! One way to avoid smelling like a moth-repellent (you and your garment!) the rest of the year is by using a natural repellent like cedar wood or lavender (and making sure the box or bag is completely closed). 17. Wear Alpaca With LOVE! Friction is one of the major reasons that alpaca woolen products lose their beauty. It can cause them to pill, to felt or even to stretch. However, this doesn’t mean that you should avoid wearing alpaca wool altogether. In fact, alpaca wool is actually really strong and resilient. Alpaca wool is known to be very resistant to wear and tear, and you should never fear wearing your garment. Alpaca woolen items are perfect for outdoor and moderate-intensity activities, like hiking and camping. For more inspiration on what you can do wearing alpaca wool, check out this list I made: 13 Activities Alpaca Wool Is Perfect for! But, needless to say, you might want to avoid excessive friction or be prepared to see an alpaca woolen garment turn frizzy at places where it is exposed to friction. Wearing your alpaca woolen garment mindfully (and lovingly) will help protect it! Another reason why you want to wear alpaca woolen garments is because it actually helps them remain new: wrinkles and smells automatically disappear when you’re wearing the garment, and gravity and oxygen interact with the fibers naturally. Using an alpaca woolen garment also prevents it from getting eaten by moths or mildew. And you can even use it in summer to keep you cool! Read more about that in another article I wrote: Can You Wear Alpaca Wool in Summer?