The use of goat hair : an introductory historical review

Goats are not thought of as producing textile fibres, and compared with sheep, few coat types suitable for sophisticated textile use have evolved. Goats have a double coat in which long outer hair obscures short, fine underwool and there is a long history of the use of this "ordinary" goat hair. The textile fibre cashmere is the underwool from a coat of this type, but mohair is quite different since it lacks hair and is like the fleece of a sheep. Cashmere comes from goats of the highlands of central Asia and was discovered by Europeans in the seventeenth century. Mohair comes from a specific goat breed, the Angora, which emerged in Turkey and was first described by Europeans in the sixteenth century.