Is using mohair fur okay?

I honestly apologise, I didn't mean to make such a blanket statement ^^ I meant that if the fur is farmed cruelly, I *personally* feel it would be wrong to support this industry. My own experiences of rabbit fur come mainly from the sort of cheap flocked toys, which are available here - I'm pretty sure that's battery, so I wouldn't support it by buying that toy, or a doll wig made by a company using farmed fur. It's good to hear it's a by-product where you are!

As for the quality of life of Tibetan sheep and goats, I to have heard it's high - I would say it's good, then, that a caring & sustainable industry exists there which happens to provide doll owners with mohair wigs. It's purely a personal choice that I don't buy, and that's what I've always had trouble explaining.

 

You obviously haven't been looking. There are many. many wefted mohair wigs available for our dolls. Leeke World carries an entire section of them as does Jpop Dolls. Other mainline wig companies like Monique, Kemper & Global also have wefted mohair wigs. And Neale, who occasionally sells on Ebay, makes wonderful, long wefted wigs for BJDs. They're definitely available & I have a number of them myself.

They're actually quite different looking than the Tibetan skin wigs as extentions can be added to make them extremely long & they can easily be styled in updos & fancy braided sections, something that can't be accomplished, or only to a minimal degree, with the skin wigs.

 

How do you feel about using a mohair wig on your doll?
I have had a mohair wig in the past. It was wefted and looked quite pretty. Just not my style. I have a few synthetic fur wiggies which are quite nice too. Out of preferrance I dont use mohair. I know there is a few that can have the hide underneath it as the cap. Tbh that doesn't really bother me either. I worked on a fully working farm as a kid. I know where sheepskin rugs come from...etc.
Does it go against what you believe?
Nope. I eat meat ( I eat lots of meat. Chicken, Beef, Lamb anything really. Venison is quite nice). I wear leather boots but not jackets. I have a leather bag. I know there is inhumane acts out there. I dont support animal cruelty in any way I do love my animals. But I cant go through life wondering if everything was done in an ethical manner. I would spend most my life stuck in the supermarket. I dont support PETA in anyway. For example I bought some clothing from dollmore. Do I know if every single item was made in an ethical manner? No. The leather boots made from ethical leather? No. Because if I went through life that way I'd be stuck forever. Was this water made in a nice way? How about my new socks from Tesco? Or the sandwich im eating.. does it have ethical food in it? Ive been brought up to support foundations that stop the bad ethicals but not touching anything and being completely green makes me feel a bit queasy inside. Already Im not being green shipping clothing items from Hong Kong. Im using power probably ruining the environment. Heck im eating a sandwich! Egads!
To finish I dont like skin wigs. They smell a bit weird. I hope all the items I buy were made ethically but for the ones that dont.. what I dont know cant hurt me.

 

Thanks for the apology, but it is not actually needed, see this si a debate section, it exists not just to share opinions but information. Without this section many of us would be woefully underinformed about many aspects of this hobby, from the true impact of scalping to the long term environmental impact of shipping, tot he ethics of mohair, faceup mimicry, attitudes of entitlement and gross consumerism. not all debates are serious, not all are light, but all have different sides. As long as everyone is respectful then debate is good.

I am enjoying this debate in particular, I have pretty well informed and firm ideas, but there are many posts here that add new information to the whole thing, information I never had before. It has actually provided support for my opinion, my hatred of cruelty, but that deeper understanding that like all debates nothing is black and white. I am glad to see so many responsible opinions out there

I am even more glad to see that this has not turned into a slagging and flaming match, and that people are expressing sch wonderful and valid opinions with open hearts and mids for the most part.

Thanks to you all, I think this debate has given us all something new to consider in this hobby and its greater impact socially, environmentally and economically

 

I'd agree, this debate is really interesting and it's stayed very mature and consdiered. I'm glad it's agreed that it's important to share opinions & information ^^

 

I don't see any problem using mohair from an animal that's being used as food

 

I'm not even a vegetarian and I know it's hard explaining your purchasing/eating politics. I still eat meat to a certain extent, but I've sworn off all seafood. When I hear about how badly depleted the oceans are, it just makes me feel too guilty. If I say that to anyone, they get defensive and explain why they don't care or I'm wrong nado nado . . . at no point have I ever told anyone what they were doing is wrong, it's just something I do O_o;.

I'm considering this issue right now as LUTS is putting out an incredible mohair wig in the near future, and I'm guessing by the price it's not synthetic. I go with my gut reactions (my political is personal?) as much as anything else when it comes to my purchasing choices, but I'm not sure if I'll be comfortable with it or not. I was allergic to mohair as a kid, too, and might still be , so I may have to give up on it now. I have a Volks jacket that MIGHT be trimmed with rabbit fur, although it could just be convincing fake stuff? Maybe? I should really ask next time at a Sumika if they ever use real fur, because I'm not comfortable with that and never will be. This'll sound bad, because I really don't care if that's logical or not - I know it's a more complex issue than it seems - but again, I use my emotional reaction as a guide a fair amount of the time. If I'm not comfortable with it, I'm not comfortable with it, and won't enjoy it anyways.

 

PETA are a bunch of delusional scumbags.
"Probably everything we do is a publicity stunt...We are not here to
gather members, to please, to placate, to make friends. We're here to hold
the radical line."
Ingrid Newkirk - Founder, PETA

"One day we would like an end to pet shops and the breeding of animals.
(Dogs) would pursue their natural lives in the wild...They would have full
lives, not waiting at home for someone to come home in the evening and pet
them and then sit there and watch TV."

Ingrid Newkirk - Founder, PETA



That said, I am very, very pro responsible sourcing of animal products. And frankly, the vast majority of the mohair and angora wigs on the market *aren't* humanely sourced. Chinese agricultural practices- especially for fur-bearers- are pretty uniformly awful. I have one mohair wig coming that I only ordered because I was assured it's synthetic. (If it's not, I'm going to be peeved but not surprised, unfortunately- I wish I hadn't ordered it but I couldn't find anything else in the color I wanted in the specific size I think I need for my incoming doll- I've got some lovely kinky Romney wool coming though and will make my own if this is actually real fur.) It's not too difficult to find humanely sourced small flock angora fiber on Etsy or Ravelry- or local fiber fairs and stores. The prices are competitive and there are so many amazing wigmakers on here that I just don't think there's an excuse for using Chinese fur. And I've got a friend with a corded poodle who has promised to save me enough cords to make a wig when she clips her boy down after he retires- he's this lovely chocolate brown!)

In general, animal fiber is taken from living animals and doesn't harm the animal. In fact, fiber breeds of most species WILL be harmed by NOT shearing them, as their fur has been selected to grow and grow and grow, leading to matting, tangles, and other icky stuff. But humane, ethical farming practices are still important.

MangoTea (wearing her "Support Local Farms!" hat)

 

You know, whenever I hear of all those activists like peta & co, I always wonder - Plants are alive, too. Is it more ok to kill a plant and eat it just because it can't scream and isn't as cute as little Bambi? Just a side-note.

Personally, I don't have a problem with mohair-wigs - haven't come across any that I like, yet, though. I also got no problem with fur-trimmed doll-clothes, provided it's fur that's - well, readily available, like sheep fur or rabbit fur or something like that. As some here already have pointed out, as long as it's from animals who're killed for eating them, no problem with using the fur. I'm into live-roleplaying, too, and there, fur is often used for costumes or other purposes. "Exotic" stuff like mink or something - absolute no-go. Not ever.

 

In harvesting grains especially, little field animals get hurt all the time by getting caught in tractors etc.



How do you feel about using a mohair wig on your doll?
I have one. For some reason, I never equated it with animal hair. Now that I know, I'm not really sure.

Does it go against what you believe?
I have no issue with using animal products that were taken humanely.

 

Arguably, industrial monoculture (large-scale single crop farming, ie, soy farming) kills more animals due to habitat loss than grass-raised pasture beef. (I don't have figures for sheep, sorry- and CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operations like hog farms and feed lots for 'finishing' cattle) are a whole 'nother story.

 

I could rant all day about PETA, but this isn't a PETA-ranting thread, so I'll just say this: Don't let anything that organization says get to you. Some of the things they say are true, but, like Linda Kasabian said about Charles Manson, they "can make the truth sound like a lie". (Incidentally, Charlie claimed to have people killed so he could save the environment. It was said by those who knew him best that he'd rather kill a human than pick a flower or step on a bug. True fact.)

Now to the topic at hand. Mohair is a byproduct from an animal raised and slaughtered for its meat. I don't wear trapped furs and I think trophy hunting should be against the law, but I wear leather boots and jackets and I eat meat and am proud of it. ("Vegetarian" is an old Cherokee word which means "lousy hunter".) The animal's going to be killed and eaten. Why waste its skin and pelt? If you're going to "go green", use as much of the animal as you can. That's what my ancestors did, and none of them belonged to PETA, I promise you.

I don't currently own any mohair wigs, but if I saw one that was perfect for Chae-ri, I'd have no qualms about buying it.

 

Whether it's crop monoculture or large-scale livestock operations, it's really agribusiness that's the problem. Agribusiness is eeeevillll *showing her biases*. However, it doesn't necessarily follow that because crop monoculture is worse that meat/fur is off the hook.

*drags self back on-topic* Upthread it was pointed out that not all fur or mohair is necessarily taken from food animals. It sounds like maybe not all mohair is created equal.

 

i'm a vegetarian, and have been most of my life. i'm very happy with the selection of faux fur and leather available for dolls, and dont see a need to buy the real stuff.

 

Wow, this never even occurred to me before. I just checked my mohair wigs and they all have synthetic backings. I guess it would feel a little creepy to have an animal's skin on my doll. Not a vegetarian or anything of the sort, but still. A little bit of poking around online shows that the hair of one wig is completely synthetic, two are a blend of real and synthetic, and one is, as far as I can tell, completely real. I don't know, for the tiny amount of mohair that goes into a MSD wig, and the small number of them I own, I really can't be bothered to track down the farm where the mohair originated. In this case I'm leaving it up to the company to be responsible.

 

How do you feel about using a mohair wig on your doll?
I have no problem with it. I am a meat eater so I can't condemn anyone for using whatever piece of an animal they want. I do believe in treating animals humanely (no torture, mutilation, etc) and I hope I buy from sources where the animals are slaughtered in the most humane way possible (though it's hard to say "humane slaughter" because some say there is no such thing; death is pain. But that is way off topic.) but it is impossible for me to know right now. I use mohair (only on one doll) because it mimics how my hair looks - curly and frizzy and poofy which are some of the very qualities that some people hate about mohair! I personally can't stand when my synthetic fiber wigs get flyaway-y and I usually get rid of them right after either to the trash or to someone willing to rehabilitate them. My boy doll has to wear fiber, no furwig is short enough but the Fairyland Littlefee wigs for boys are awesome. It all depends on the doll - some dolls really require the natural look of mohair.
Does it go against what you believe?
Nope which is obvious from what was stated above. I don't personally wear fur but I do wear leather when necessary (leather shoes are extremely sturdy), fur seems a bit pointless for me but leather is useful. I try to use whatever part of animals I can - heck, even today, I boiled a pot of bones just to get the meat off of them! Using a bit of fur here and there doesn't mean one is wasteful or disrespectful.

 

Agree 100%!!!

Anyway, about the mohair: Shorn Mohair is 100% humane. If PETA protest shorn hair then they are certifiably insane. It is actually inhumane to leave the hair on sheep/goats and other hairy animals because they can actually die from heat exhaustion if they are not shorn regularly. So even vegetarians who are squeamish about mohair pelts will find that they can still have those silky soft mohair wigs as long as they are shorn and wefted. As for mohair pelts, it has been mentioned many times but deserves repeating: the pelts are a by-product of livestock that are raised for food and nothing is wasted. I don't blame anyone for not wanting to touch dead animal skin. The idea make me a bit uncomfortable too and I eat meat (a LOT of it), but I doubt I would turn down a beautiful mohair skin wig. They are really pretty!

I love mohair. I love wool. I love alpaca. And cashmere. and angora... I spin my own yarn so I have upwards of 15 pounds of various animal fibers stashed around my apartment. If I can live with that much fiber then I can live with one or two lovely mohair pelt wigs.

 

Well, it has also been mentioned in this thread that not all fur/woolly animals are used for food, shorn or not. I don't know what the truth of that is either way. Also, for some people the idea of keeping animals for food (or even reason at all in some philosophies) is not humane, so I'm going to suggest not all vegetarians/vegans are going to be happy with a shorn mohair wig any road.

That said, I'm not vegetarian or vegan, have owned livestock and want to again, so I'm just playing devil's advocate there. As definitions of humane vary, I can't really believe anything is 100% humane. I'm on the fence about getting mohair wigs for my dolls. For pure allergies reasons I'm probably going to have to stick to synthetic, but philosophically I think I'm okay with it if it is done in a reasonably environmentally sustainable way (not always the case with livestock) and a reasonably humane way.

 

I guess I should have stated in my original post that the act of shearing a wooly/hairy animal is humane, not that shorn hair is humane. It is true that dependent upon one's point of view an animal kept for livestock/food would be considered inhumane (not my personal point of view, but I can concede that it is a viable point of view) so just because the animal is shorn does not mean that the keeping of the animal is humane. But the act of shearing is humane because during the removal of the hair the animal is not harmed and it is an act of necessary grooming. As I said earlier, the animal can die from the heat if not shorn regularly, so not shearing them would be inhumane. So, whether a goat will be killed for his meat or will live a long life for his hair, the goat will be shorn regularly for his health (and that is what I meant in my earlier post).

 

I'm going to hide in a very small dark place before I say this but.... I used to be involved with PETA a long time ago. Not on the higher, more radical scale, but as I live in a big farming/hunting/fishing area, and am not much of a meat eater myself (poultry and seafood that's it) I do have a problem with using animal parts. I don't wear leather anything, don't wear anything made from real fur, nothing. Nada. Neither do my dolls. Its simply that the cute furry things haven't done anything warranting death so I see no point in killing them. I think of cows as really big pets.

I don't like mohair/Tibetan lamb/fur at all. Not on the skin. I actually had to inquire about the faux fur I own because the seller didn't specify if their wig was faux or true fur. I don't know that I would buy wefted wigs made of real fur, I haven't found any, and if I did see them, I probably didn't like how they looked. For some people it might be fine and dandy to say they use the whole animal but that isn't the point. You're still raising it to be food. It still has to die. That's where I have issues. But then again I eat chicken because chickens are mean and I don't like them, but I don't eat Thumper because he's cute and I can't eat him (digestive issues).

As an aside I haven't been with the PETA people for years, probably close on 10 or so, I stopped bothering with them in high school because they were doing things badly. I really think they need some reorganization and better goals.