# Do Poodles have Fur Hair or Wool



## CharismaticMillie

I have always heard that poodles have hair/fur. 

Some people like to differentiate that poodles have "hair" and not fur, because there is a single layer of coat. That said, I think it's all semantics. Hair, fur, whatever you want to call it.


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## Fluffyspoos

Fur: hair that grows with a tapered point and falls out aka shedding
Hair: continues to grow, dog will need life time grooming

That's how I say the difference.


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## outwest

fluffyspoos definition is the way I have always thought about it. I also think fur coming to a tapered point works, but if we didn't cut poodle hair, would it also come to a point? 

In every site I checked, fur and hair are synonymous. Fur is used to refer to nonhuman animals.

from Wikipedia:
Since poodles do not have the plush double coat of many breeds, their fur is often referred to as "hair", a term usually reserved for humans. 

From a textile site:
"Wool differs from hair and fur in that it has a natural felting ability." 

SOOoooooo...does poodle hair felt? Poodle hair can be corded. 

from a site on felting wool:
"What is Felt? Very simply, felt is matted wool. Wool becomes felt when it is subjected to moisture, heat, and pressure. (In fact, if domestic sheep were not shorn, over time their wool would felt or "cot".) Hot soapy water makes the wool slippery, and causes tiny scales on the fiber to "open up". The scales prevent the fibers from backing up again after they slide across each other; with agitation, the fibers get hopelessly tangled together. When cooled and dried, the scales close and lock the wool into the tough, durable material we call felt. "

How do people cord poodle hair/fur? Do they get it wet and then twist it together while drying with a blowdryer? That would be 'moisture, heat and pressure.' Another case for poodle hair/fur being wool. The only thing I question is wool has little barbs along it's shaft, if I recall, which makes it weave together nicely. Does poodle hair/fur have barbs?

If only wool can be felted, how do you explain Rastafarians with their dreadlocks? Dreadlocks are just matted hair. Hmm..

In an aside, I found this cool discussion about poodle clipping/care written in 1894:
http://www.poodlehistory.org/R1LEE.HTM


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## ladybird

Poodle hair definately DOES felt, a fellow poodle owner near me makes felt badges with the hair she brushes out of her poodles! She told me how she makes it, quite interesting.

So I guess poodles do have wool!


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## littlebluetrike

When it comes to spinning yarn furr will be more of a rope texture and it's more if a smooth rod shape. With it having no way to attatch to other stands, it continues to 'shed.' 
Poodle Hair or wool has more of a scale structure and as the twist is being made the scales attach to each other like a lock. So it's like sheep, alpaca or llama fiber. Llama when wet smells like wet dog. 

I plan to spin my dogs hair. It works better when it is longer than an inch staple.


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## liljaker

Hmmm, but since I have allergies and am allergic to wool and to cats (big time) and dogs (but not poodles, bichon, etc.) how would you then differentiate? Honestly, my immune system can tell the difference.


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## Fluffyspoos

My dogs aren't sheep, even though I LOVE sheep! So I'm going to continue saying hair! Though I normally refer to it as 'coat.'


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## CharismaticMillie

Regarding the allergy issue, it's dog dander not dog hair that is a known allergen. Also, I'm with flufyspoos. Though a dog's coat is wool-like, it's not wool.


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## ArreauStandardPoodle

I think it is wool.


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## Siskojan

My late border collie "Saint" Maggie used to go into the herding low crawl whenever she saw a poodle - they obviously met her definition of sheep. We used to crack up and the poodle owners were not amused and here we are now firmly entrenched in the opposite camp!


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## petitpie

I once asked a local weaver who was an expert in weaving dog hair into jackets for humans, if she would make me a jacket out of my poodle's fur. 

She explained that poodle fur did not hold together well enough to last, even though she also used sheep's wool in her jackets.


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## LEUllman

As a certified (or is it certifiable?) vintage hat nut, I've had to become well versed in felt in all it's forms. Wool felt (from sheep) is only one variety, and not a very desireable one at that. The finest felt hats are and have always been made from "fur felt," which at one time meant beaver, but today mostly means rabbit. The more beaver, the better the felt. Very few hats made today have much if any beaver content; they are mostly rabbit fur, with a few western hats using buffalo. That's one reason why we hat afficionados spurn modern hats in favor of those made before the 1960s; there's no comparison between the felt and construction of, say, a modern Stetson vs a vintage one. 

Beaver fur can be repeatedly soaked in the rain and will not shrink or lose its supple feel, or "hand." It also can be creased or "bashed" dry or with a little steam, and will hold its shape until you want to change it. Rabbit fur is almost as good. Soak a wool hat, however, and it will shrink and lose its shape. Best of all are hats made from beaver belly fur, which in its natural state is a beautiful light color known as "silverbelly." Rabbit fur comes in differing grades, too. All this makes sense given that beavers live in the water, and have fur with little barbs or hooks that latch together when felted like no other fur. 

Sorry for the lecture, but I said I was a hat nut! I'll be wearing my beautiful steel gray vintage Dobbs tonight when I walk Beau. It's maybe 10% beaver, so if it rains, I'm ready!


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## catsaqqara

Poodle hair does grow in with a tapered point, I noticed that when Jaden was a puppy. Human hair grows in with a tapered point until cut, I think its reasonable to say all hair and fur grows in with a tapered point so that it can come out smoothly through the follicle. You just notice it on cats and most dogs because their hair grows in short and doesn't need to be cut.

I consider fur hair on animals that does not need to be cut, hair needs to be cut otherwise its really long, and just based on my own opinion, wool is hair or fur that is used to make yarn and cloth. So I say Poodles have hair, and if you cut it or brush it out to make yarn then its wool.


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