Fiber family
Wool and Silk
These two are the reason the enzyme question exists at all. The fiber and the soil are made of the same kind of thing.
What this fiber is
University of Georgia Extension groups silk and wool as natural fibers from animal sources. It describes them as absorbent, elastic and wrinkle resistant, attacked by insects, affected by sunlight, and damaged by alkaline soaps and high temperatures. The last item on that list is the one that governs a laundry room. These are the fibers where the product is more likely to be the problem than the dirt is.
What each product class does here
- Enzyme boosters
- A peer-reviewed review of wool finishing describes protease enzymes as able to degrade proteins, and describes their deliberate application to wool to alter the scales of the fiber. It also records a combined treatment that worked but not without substantial fiber damage. That is industrial processing, not a home wash, and it is still the clearest published statement of which direction this relationship runs.
- Oxygen bleach powders and paks
- The oxygen bleach listings on this site describe color safety and describe an alternative to chlorine bleach. Neither of those is a statement about animal fiber. The care label and the product directions have to agree before this pairing happens at all.
- Chlorine bleach
- University of Georgia Extension lists the fabrics chlorine bleach can be used on as washable, colorfast cotton, linen, synthetic and permanent press. Wool and silk are not on that list, and this site does not treat an absence from a list as a permission.
- Detergent sheets
- One detergent sheet listing on this site names three stain-fighting enzymes on the front of the box. A detergent that names enzymes is an enzyme product for the purposes of this page, whatever aisle it is sold in.
- Fabric softener
- Not carried here, and not covered by any published document this site could find for animal fiber specifically. The care label decides, the same as everywhere else.
What damages it permanently
University of Georgia Extension lists animal-source fibers as damaged by alkaline soaps and high temperatures, attacked by insects and affected by sunlight. A published review of wool finishing records protease treatment producing substantial fiber damage in one combined process. Wool that has been felted or thinned does not come back, and silk that has lost its surface does not come back. This is the page on this site where the word permanent is doing the most work.
This site gives no instructions for rescuing an item that has already been damaged. That is a job for the garment maker or a professional cleaner, and guessing at it here would be worse than saying nothing.
Conflicts that land here
- Enzymes and Protein FibersA published review of wool processing states that protease enzymes degrade proteins and have been applied deliberately to wool fiber, in one case with substantial fiber damage. The garment care label decides whether an enzyme product goes near it.
- Oxygen Bleach and Wool or SilkTwo labels have to agree before this goes ahead: the care label on the garment and the directions on the product. Where either is silent, the answer is no.