A bit more reading online has turned up the following –

Wool comes from sheep, goats, alpacas, and a few other mammals.
Lanolin comes from sheep’s wool.
Cashmere is not sheep’s wool. Cashmere comes from goats.

Therefore I think goat’s wool (i.e. cashmere) does not have lanolin. But it has been very hard to confirm this. I have seen sites that say cashmere has lanolin, but they aren’t sites by “clothing industry experts”. and I suspect people tend to think all wool is the same, i.e. that it’s all from sheep. After all, that’s what I thought!

also, some of what I’ve read says that much of the lanolin from sheep’s wool is removed in the processing, and it’s extracted then used in cosmetics, etc. Products that are marketed for washing wool contain lanolin in order to put it BACK into the wool.

so… more food for thought.

wonder if you can find more reliable sources to determine for certain if Cashmere has lanolin.

thanks. Happy Holidays

So, I’m trying to replace a lot of clothing in my wardrobe with only natural fibers like cotton, silk, and wool to avoid dyed synthetic clothing.

Question is, if I’m allergic to lanolin, should I avoid wool clothing?

I’ve never had a reaction to lanolin that I’m aware of. I don’t use cosmetics, and lotions/cremes I use don’t have lanolin.

However, I’ve always found wool to be itchy, and typically wear a layer (i.e. a shirt) between the wool and my skin. But some parts touch my skin, such as a sweater’s collar or wool pants waistband. I always had assumed it was because wool is just plain scratchy (and like your post says, I’ve noticed that Merino wool is much less scratchy). Wool clothing has not (yet) given me a rash, or hives, or made me swell up.

So, to sum it up, should I avoid wool because the patch testing showed an allergy to lanolin?

Thanks.