Not at all, wiltipoll wool really is wool!! Some people think it is hair as in some hair sheep such as Damaras and many goat varieties. Wiltipoll wool is a Downs type of wool which means it has no distinct crimp such as with merino wool or even Border Leicester wool. In fact, its a fairly coarse wool, measuring around 35 to 50 microns. Merino wool can measure from 11 to about 24 microns.

Wiltipolls do have some hair fibres but so do all sheep. Even the merino has lots of hair on the head in the topknot, down the side of the face (the jowl)and down the legs, mainly below the knees. There is even some hair among the belly wool on a Merino.

Sheeps hair is a medulated fibre, this means that it is hollow. The trouble with hair or medulated fibres is that wool processors hate the stuff. Unlike wool, hair does not take dye when wool is being dyed. The finished wool will have little white streks in it or at least a paler version of the intended colour - these are the hairs that have not taken up the dye.

The wiltipoll may have more hair than merinos but it is the wool that is shed each spring and summer, not the hair.