Bamboo fabric has many benefits. It is incredibly soft on sensitive scalps, it's breathable, offers thermoregulation, as well as absorbency and moisture wicking properties and bamboo fibre is also naturally resistant to harmful UV rays. This makes bamboo an excellent material choice for chemo headwear. However, our bamboo headwear can be more expensive than some of our other materials, so we've researched the benefits of bamboo fabric to help you decide if it's worth the additional cost.
1. Bamboo fabric is super soft
Of all of the materials that chemo headwear can be made from, bamboo will likely be the softest - even softer than silk! Bamboo fabric is so luxuriously soft due to the smooth, round structure of the bamboo fibre, which has no sharp or rough elements that could cause irritation. Bamboo fibres are also naturally long, which means there are less ends to deal with, which makes the entire fabric weave incredibly soft. This makes bamboo material the ideal choice for any garment that you wear in close contact with your skin or that will remain there for prolonged periods - such as a chemo hat.
2. Bamboo fabric is lightweight
As well as being super soft, bamboo material is also incredibly lightweight, providing comfort and durability without the burden of weight, an important consideration if your scalp is sore from hair loss.
3. Bamboo fabric is hypoallergenic
Bamboo fabric is also hypoallergenic. Bamboo fibres are incredibly gentle and suitable for even the most sensitive skin, which is important if your scalp is feeling sore and sensitive due to hair loss. The smooth and round structure of the bamboo fibres mean that chemo headwear made out of bamboo is unlikely to irritate your skin.
In addition, bamboo material is not prone to pilling, which is when individual fibres escape the fabric weave and become bunched together. Pilling can be ugly, making the fabric rough and cheap-looking, but more importantly, pilling can irritate the skin. The long fibres of bamboo resist pilling and help the fabric stay soft for much longer. In fact, as bamboo material is washed, it grows even softer and more comfortable.
4. Bamboo fabric is breathable
Bamboo fabric is considered one of the most breathable fabrics on the market today, much more breathable than materials such as cotton, linen, flannel or microfibre. Bamboo fabric offers excellent ventilation thanks to microscopic holes in the fibre. The smooth strands of the bamboo fibres do not snag against each other, which causes blockages in the gaps of the weave, but instead the bamboo fibres fall smoothly into place in the weave, leaving these gaps open for air to flow freely through.
Bamboo material is so breathable that it will not stick to your body even in humid weather. This can help you regulate your temperature more effectively, enabling you to stay much cooler and fresher for longer, particularly in the warmer months.
5. Bamboo fabric is moisture wicking
Bamboo material is highly absorbent and provides exceptional moisture-wicking properties. This means that the fibres of bamboo fabric naturally wick or pull moisture away from the skin, helping to keep your skin comfortable and dry even when the weather is hot an humid. Excessive moisture on the skin can cause irritation.
Bamboo clothes also dry twice as fast as cotton (even though they can absorb more water). It’s wicking properties also cause it to distribute moisture evenly across the fabric so that it can evaporate faster, keeping the material dry as well. Not even Egyptian cotton, known as the king of cottons, can boast this level of efficacy when dealing with moisture. This makes a bamboo chemo hat an excellent choice for the summer months of if you are experiencing hot flushes and excessive sweating from cancer treatments.
6. Bamboo fabric has thermoregulating properties
Bamboo fabric is an excellent choice for the summer months. The thermoregulatory properties of bamboo fabric will help keep you cool when the weather gets hot. Combined with the breathable and moisture wicking nature of bamboo material, a bamboo chemo hat will provide the ultimate comfort on hot days.
These same thermoregulatory properties of bamboo fabric also helps keep you warmer in winter, making bamboo a performance material for any weather. This is due to its cross sectional fibres which helps keep heat in on colder days, ensuring bamboo is warmer than cotton when the temperature drops.
Bamboo fibres allow for a weave that naturally regulates temperature. Because of the breathability of bamboo fabric, the air flow allows the temperature on one side of the fabric to regulate against the temperature on its other side - i.e., the temperature of your body and the temperature of the air around you. This means that bamboo fabric will help keep you cool when it's warm outside but will also help you to keep warm when it’s cold outside. This may not sound logical, but is is - the same principle of thermoregulation applies. The weave regulates the temperature between your body and the air, making you feel warmer when its cold. This level of breathability and thermoregulation is not possible with cotton, hemp, wool or synthetic fabrics.
7. Bamboo fabric is anti-bacterial
Bamboo fabric is supposedly anti-bacterial, meaning that your chemo beanie will stay fresh for longer as the fibres helps fight odours. We can't find any evidence to back up this claim as what we have discovered is that the bamboo plants have anti-bacterial properties and not the fabric. That said, bamboo material does seem to be more odour resistant than synthetic materials.
8. Bamboo fabric offers UV protection
The sun’s rays can penetrate through most of the clothes we usually wear, making our skin more susceptible to the damage UV rays can have on our skin. Bamboo fabric offers natural protection from the sun’s harmful rays, filtering up to 97.5% of UV radiation, making a chemo hat made of bamboo material an ideal choice for wearing in the sun.
9. Bamboo fabric can be stretchy
Most bamboo clothing is actually made using bamboo viscose (also known as bamboo rayon). The bamboo viscose is then typically blended with other fabrics, such as cotton, merino wool or elastane to give it other properties, such as stretch.