Satin, and Why We Use So Much of It
Satin is the fabric we reach for most often, and it is also the one people misunderstand most. So let us start with the thing almost nobody mentions.
Satin is a weave, not a fibre
This is the single most useful thing to know when you are buying anything satin. Silk is a fibre. Cotton is a fibre. Satin is a way of weaving — one where the threads float over several others before dipping under, which is what produces that long, unbroken shine.
You can weave satin from silk, from polyester, from viscose, from cotton. All of it is correctly called satin. Which is why one satin scrunchie can cost three pounds and another thirty, and why the cheap one feels like a crisp packet.
So when you see "satin", the useful question is never is it satin — it is what is the satin made of, and how heavy is it.
What we look for
We buy a weighted satin. It is a duller word than it deserves: what it means is that the cloth has body. Hold a length of it over your hand and it falls in a soft curve rather than sticking out flat. Cheap satin is thin and papery, gathers into hard little points, and goes limp after a few washes.
Weighted satin gathers into full, rounded folds. In a scrunchie that matters more than almost anything, because a scrunchie is essentially a tube of gathered fabric — the gather is the product. Thin satin makes a mean little scrunchie. Heavy satin makes a generous one.
The other thing we look for is the back. A good satin has a matte reverse, and the contrast between the shine on one side and the softness on the other is part of why it looks expensive in the hair. Our Duchesse Satin Ivory is the clearest example — properly weighty, with a reverse like eggshell.
How satin behaves in the hair
This is the practical bit, and the reason satin caught on for hair in the first place.
Satin's floating threads mean there is very little texture on the surface for hair to catch on. A cotton hair tie has thousands of tiny fibre ends standing up from the surface; a satin one is comparatively smooth. Hair slides across it rather than snagging, which is why satin leaves less of a crease and pulls less when you take it out.
We would gently caution against the more dramatic claims made about this. Satin is kinder to hair than a rubber band or a rough cotton tie. It is not a treatment, and it will not repair anything. It is simply a smoother surface, and a smoother surface is a nicer thing to tie your hair with.
Where satin genuinely does shine, so to speak, is sleeping and second-day hair. If you put your hair up before bed in a satin scrunchie, you will find noticeably less of a kink in the morning.
What satin is less good at
Satin does not like being crushed for long periods — leave one at the bottom of a bag for a fortnight and it will need a little persuading. It also shows watermarks if you get a drop on it and let it dry unevenly, particularly the paler colours.
And satin frays enthusiastically when cut. This is entirely our problem rather than yours, but it is why a properly finished satin scrunchie takes longer to make than a cotton one: every raw edge has to be enclosed or it will unravel.
How to wash a satin scrunchie
By hand, in cool water, with a little ordinary shampoo — which is, after all, designed to be gentle. Squeeze rather than wring. Reshape the gather with your fingers while it is damp, then leave it flat to dry away from a radiator.
It will take a warm iron on the reverse if it needs it, but honestly it rarely does.
Never put one in a washing machine with a zip.
The satins we currently have
Our satin scrunchies run from the Duchesse Ivory through to Midnight Dots — a navy with small white spots that has been quietly popular since the day we made it — with blushes, pistachios, baby blues and blacks in between. Most are cut from remnants found a few streets from the studio, so when a colour goes, it usually goes for good.
Every one comes in Regular and XL, with our signature wide elastic. If you prefer a stretchier hold, add a note at checkout and we will make yours with the thin elastic instead.
Next in the Fabric Library: Velvet, and why silk velvet is worth the fuss.