Skin comfort of base layer wool garments. Part 2: Fiber diameter effects on fabric and garment prickle

Abstract

Earlier studies on prickle have been largely fabric based and designed to elucidate mechanisms and also the relative importance of different parameters. The current work has importantly extended the study of prickle from fabric to garment giving for the first time extensive knowledge of wearer responses to garments for a particular market segment. Also the range of fabrics and garments has been extended significantly from the heavier 14-gauge knit structures that formed the basis for the majority of the earlier seminal studies to finer, lightweight 24-gauge structures. The observed prickle responses from the garment studies remain consistent with the existing mechanistic understanding of prickle and confirmed that the forearm fabric test can be used as a useful predictor of relative prickle levels. An analysis of the garment prickle data relative to an overall assessment of a like/dislike assessment of the garments identified that wearers are willing to experience a low level of prickle, that is, beneath a critical level without effecting an overall like/dislike decision. Analysis of the like–dislike data was able to generate, for the first time, quantitative information on the likely percentage of ‘satisfied wearers’ as a function of fiber quality.