Vegan alternative to wool?

Hello
I've not posted on the board but i've been reading here awhile. I'm thinking about dreading my hair (back combing or neglect, undecided yet).
I notice a lot of people wearing wool tams or using wool blankets and such to help knot the hair. Are there any good vegan subs for the wool?
I use to have long hair (mid back) but i got a wild hair and cut it short. I'm thinking for the growing out process i might just go for dreads. Saw an inspiration pic here of curly dreads and that's how i think mine would look and it was loverly!
peace
barefootnikki

***edit***
Ok, i read further into the Dread Newbies FAQ and see that fleece can be used with almost the same results. If anyone has another suggestion lemme know :hug:

 

sorry i'm not answering your question here, but i have another question.
how is fleece vegan?

 

Cos fleece is made out of plastic bottles! I also heard you could get hemp tams, but they don't do so much for the dreading process!

 

aint hillbilly here, but dilli...
fleece is only synthetic or man made if it is the polar fleece,,, all other fleece is from sheep... perhaps getting it straight before posting would be a better idea so as not to confuse people needlessly.

also how would fleece from sheep not be vegan????A sheep does not eat meat, a sheep needs to be sheered in certain climates a sheep is not harmed or killed in process of sheering so just how is fleece not vegan

 

I just don't know a lot of details about fleece and wool I suppose. I thought that fleece was a product of wool, so I didn't understand how one could be vegan and the other not. Feel free to explain if you know.

 

how are either not vegan... animals should be sheered when in captivity,, neither hurts either animal nor kills them as i said,, i see no reason why either are not considered vegan n if someone else has a real reason why they are not vegan then i would appreciate someone explaining why they arent,,, not just some cacaphony BS

 

When i wrote *fleece* i was referring to the cheap-o stuff that is everywhere now. I actually forgot there was another type of fleece (from sheep).
Anything that comes from an animal is not vegan. Even if it didn't harm the animal to get the product, it's still an animal product.
Here's one of many links on reasons why vegans (or animal lovers) should avoid wool.
I wasn't wanting to start a debate and hope i don't get booted from this board for this, just answering a question (that my question brought up... round and round we go!)

 

thanks for your straightforward answer. that's what i wanted to know cause i'm not vegan so i wasn't sure.

 

You're welcome
I dig learning about new ways to view things, or just seeing how others see things so i'm glad i could help!

 

Not seeing why wool isn't vegan means assuming that sheep are meant to be in captivity. It's like saying that there's no reason not to drink milk, because cows make it naturally and need to be milked...right? But people forget that cows are unwillingly impregnated so they produce milk for human consumption. That's the same reasoning why vegans don't use wool.

 

http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/Prefs.asp?video=wool_web wool/fleece is most definitely not vegan. I am not vegan and I am not against eating animals or using animal products (otherwise we wouldn't have good drum heads ) I also feel that an animal should be treated respectfully in life if it is going to be used. As for alternatives... I could be wrong but I think its more of a friction thing and not necessarily the wool. So I suppose any fuzzy material would work.

 

but now people are desiding what the animals like..
thats a bit weird since they can't talk.

maybe the sheep was actually happy to get rid of all that wool.
it's pretty heavy, very hot and gets dirty.

it seems like you guys judge wool like its a bad thing.

don't forget that nature ain't always the nicest way for an animal to live
and when an animal became a pet, you can't treat him like the natural ways.
cuz it ain't a wild animal anymore.

 

there is a difference between cows being milked by a machine daily and wool which is done once a year.. a huge difference however i am not goin into all that here...

my view is it doesnt hurt the sheep ,,,,
i dont really consider a sheep on a 2 million acre sheep ranch in captivity... n personally i would prefer something naturally occurring on my body than something made of recycled plastic.. just my 2 cents...

 

as a former shepherd, i KNOW sheep can get hurt during shearing!
i paid over 4 times the average price to have my shearer come and shear my sheep, because he was gentle. the time they were sheared by a big commercial flock type shearer, they were cut to pieces.
you all might want to check out the practice of mulesing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulesing
usually perfomed without anasthetic or pain relief, to help keep the wool clean and prevent flystrike.
crutching is just as effective, but needs to be repeated, whereas if you partially skin your sheep whilst alive, you only have to do it the once.
so perhaps being sheared doesnt always hurt (but when they get cut it hurts lots) but what else have the sheep had done to them to be able to carry on producing wool for us?
fortunately for me, mulesing is not allowed in the uk. my sheep were treated with respect, neutered/crutched/dagged/tagged/foot trimmed/lambed/caught/tipped by ME. that is the only way i could guarantee they were treated ethically. when the shearer came, i was watching like a hawk so again (apart from the one time with a different shearer) i know they were treated well.
when the time came for those destined for the freezer to go, i or my friend with whom i shared grazing took them. i waited whilst they were done and then i took my skins and left. i never left my sheep in the 'care' of strangers. i was their shepherd and i owed them that.
i will have sheep again, even though i no longer eat meat. but my family and pets do, and it is the only way i can be sure that the meat they eat is ethically produced.
wool is only (and save for the odd few people who have a few sheep and hand spin) and will only ever be a by product of the meat industry. shepherds get paid pennies for the stuff, it aint worth rearing sheep just for wool.

having said all that, yes i do wear british wool, and i love it, but for most sheep in the world it aint all rolling green hills and sunshine.


edited to add, mulesing as far as i know is only practised in australia and new zealand. but that is also where most of our wool comes from. rough shearers can be found everywhere.

 

lol on that note bunjies i too can agree with you totally.. however at the same time i think in terms of how we do things here therefore i tend to forget the whole factory BS as a whole therefore tend to forget that most people do not raise there own animals for food or fiber etc.... just cuz i do it is not how the world is... so i guess i would consider my own critters that i raise n use products that are not meat from,,, as vegan .... because i know the practices used....
although i can say i would much rather wear wool than something made from plastic anyday,,, least i am using as much as i can from my surroundings and trying not to add to the plastic debacles of the world...

 

i agree with you hun, if i were vegan and had hens, if i had more eggs than i could give away i would probably eat them rather than waste them. as a non vegan i will not eat eggs unless i know the chickens they came from. this year has been a loooooog winter without eggs.
proper free rangers tend to go off the lay in winter.
also, if you want wool but feel uneasy about the methods, perhaps buy 2nd hand? no commercial rancher/farmer gets your money, a charity benefits from it, the item is recycled and if you are in the right head space, the animal from whom the wool came from is honored.
better that than some gods awful sweaty rag made in a sweat shop.
roll on when someone invents fluffy hemp yarn!

 

sorta off topic but,,,
lol are dog hair products considered vegan or not????

 

ha i dunno, but i have secretly (untill now at least) been tempted to make a dread out of my old feller collie's hair so i can always have a little peice of him with me.
hmmmmmm blue merle dreadlock?
i may just have to try it!

 

would be sweet i think,,, may have to rob the dogs of one of theirs next fall

 

I weaved some of my friend's hair into one of my locks after he died (he's a dog). I feel like he's always with me now. My sig picture was taken acouple weeks before he died.