What are the Benefits of a Satin Pillowcase?

Tired of waking up with frizzy hair? Try sleeping on a satin pillowcase.Satin image by Fenia from Fotolia.com

There are plenty of things we can do to make ourselves look better. Adopt a healthy diet, drink plenty of water, exercise regularly and get a good night's sleep. There are those who say that the only way to sleep is on a satin pillowcase, as it is cool to the touch during the summer and warm during winter. As an added bonus, there is some evidence that satin pillowcases can improve our appearance.

Wake Up Unwrinkled

Who hasn't woken up to find their hair standing on end? It's seems to be a universal condition, from childhood on. At least our hair can be fixed before we leave for work in the morning. Worse yet is realizing several hours into the day that the "pillow creases" on our faces are still visible, like sleep-related scars. Advocates of satin pillowcases believe that both of these problems can be eased simply by switching from cotton to satin. Plus, they claim that we'll get a better night's rest with satin.

Cotton may feel warm and cozy, but it is a highly absorbent material that draws moisture from our skin and hair as we sleep. We actually need the oils that are leached by cotton to keep our hair calm and our skin supple. In addition, the weave of a cotton pillowcase acts like an abrasive material, catching individual stands of hair and causing them to tangle and break. That same weave pressed against our faces at night causes our ever-less-elastic skin to crease. And like any other repeated action, those creases can eventually become permanent. A satin pillowcase, on the other hand, allows our face and head to move easily across its surface, avoiding the friction and damage caused by cotton.

Satin pillowcases have proven worthy enough of consideration that some medical experts recommend them to their patients being treated for cancer and hepatitis C, people who often spend extended periods of time in bed as they recover. This time in bed can cause frictional Alopecia, which is the abnormal loss of the hair root and hair shaft caused by the head rubbing against the abrasive properties of cotton. The website Thinning Hair Secrets says that satin helps avoid hair loss that occurs due to friction or a shearing effect and Natural Cancer Supplements says that hair slides across the pillow rather than rubbing. The same "sliding" effect is why we wake up with less nocturnal creases after sleeping on a satin pillowcase.