Technology has allowed us to make some wonderful advances in many areas of our lives but are man-made fabrics and textiles one of these advances? Luxurious natural pure linen looks and feels fresh, clean and beautiful against our skin, but is it any better for us than non-natural fabrics? Well here are some weird and unusual facts about natural linen that you might not know.

Dental linen

A 2,100 year old Egyptian mummy, riddled with tooth decay, was found to have a cavity plugged with linen! Scientists reported that the man in his 20s or early 30s must have suffered terrible pain prior to his death.

Dental decay was a huge problem in ancient Egypt (due to their coarse grained diet) and clearly the young man had visited an Egyptian dentist. Scientists believe that the linen packing had been soaked in a solution to help reduce his pain.

The unknown mummy can be seen at McGill University in Quebec, Canada. This is certainly a case of an unusual use for linen but also highlights our next fact about linen’s long durability.

The Shroud of Turin

We all know that 3000 years ago Egyptian mummies were wrapped in hundreds of yards of linen but did you know that the Shroud of Turin is also made of linen? The Shroud of Turin is just 14 ft long and has been dated from the 1st century.

Whilst for many people, the Shroud’s exact origins and significance are still under dispute, there is no argument that the complex herringbone 3:1 weave of the Shroud is very old. Estimates of its age range from at least 600 yrs to the time of Jesus. Even with this discrepancy in the Shroud’s age, pure linen is the oldest known and most durable natural fabric in history.

Linen promotes a healthy lifestyle

Img: bed linen

Linen has some other amazing properties that make it the Queen of fabrics! For example it is highly absorbent but it also dries very quickly.  This means that pure linen “breathes” for you so the moisture on your skin (from your perspiration) is swept away making you feel fresh and clean. Research has shown that you perspire up to twice as much when wearing cotton fabrics as you do when wearing linen fabrics.

This one fact makes linen much more hygienic to wear, but did you also know that linen has thermal properties as well? Linen clothes and bed linens are increasing in popularity because of the unique structure of the flax (used to make linen products) allows you to feel dry and cool in summer and lovely and warm in winter.

Pure linen also has unusual antibacterial and antifungal properties as well. Yet even more unusual is that, due to the nature of flax, it can reduce solar gamma radiation and protect you from the sun!

So not only does pure natural linen make you feel clean and fresh, but it removes the smelly bacteria in perspiration and even protects you from deadly solar radiation!

When you chose pure natural linen fabrics you know you are choosing the best in durability, softness and health for your family.

About the Author: By Alisha Webb. Alisha is  British writer, blogger and content developer for Volga Linen – a specialist in luxury bed linen for your family.