# Allergic to my fursuit?



## Zrcalo (Nov 8, 2009)

okay, so I usually have NO problem with fur at all. this is my third suit (first fullsuit) I've made and I've only been having problems with this short honey/brown fur I bought for $6 a yard. 

it's really awful. I end up coughing after I wear it, and I can feel fur in the back of my throat. also, when I wake up the next day I cant stop sneezing and I'm VERY dizzy and disoriented, and exhausted. (I'm not dehydrated. I drank ALOT) 

goddamn, has anyone else had this issue? or maybe I got overheated? I stayed up real late, but any other ideas?


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## ScrapeGoat (Nov 8, 2009)

Could be some kind of chemical sensitivity, not all fur is made of the same material, and they use various chemicals to dye and treat it for stuff like fire resistance.  

I'd try an experiment- make a small flat mask out of the material and just wear that on your face for a bit, see if it causes a similar reaction.  If you start breaking out in hives or get short of breath seek medical attention, as this is potentially a serious allergy and could turn into anaphylaxis/shock if you persist. 

Overheating is always of concern but the comments about ticklish throat, coughing and sneezing are indicating a sensitivity of some kind to me


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## Beastcub (Nov 8, 2009)

yes it could be the fur
it was brought up else where that not all furs are made the same and people can have reactions to certian types.

which makes me hella worried a commissioner could be allergic to what i make them D=


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## Zrcalo (Nov 8, 2009)

Beastcub said:


> yes it could be the fur
> it was brought up else where that not all furs are made the same and people can have reactions to certian types.
> 
> which makes me hella worried a commissioner could be allergic to what i make them D=



seems very logical to me.

well, I'll be making another suit out of a fur that I'm very familiar with using. I'll see if that fur bothers me as opposed to the cheap fur I used on my suit.

funny thing is, I dont break out in hives, get rashes, or even itchy.
though I usually wear spandex underneath. but my arms are bare and there's no effect on them. 

I'll test out various things.
I'm wondering if it could have been overheating. the only 2 times this has happened was when it was 80-92 degrees out. 

didnt really have any problem on halloween and the day before.
but then again could be that the allergy needed time to kick in.


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## Trpdwarf (Nov 8, 2009)

Cheap fur tends to shed more when you work with it or wear it. It's why I don't use anything that cost less than 25 to 30 per yard unless it's on sale or something. I always get swatches too if I'm seeking to order something that I've never worked with before. Just to be sure it's good quality.

I have found that some of the cheaper materials releases a whole lot of fur strands in the air. The excess shedding can end up your lungs, causing the coughing/wheezing, and general ill feelings because you've got all these tiny hairs that ended up being breathed in.

Once you go back to using what you normally use, the less cheap stuff you'll probably have less a problem.


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## Zrcalo (Nov 8, 2009)

Trpdwarf said:


> Cheap fur tends to shed more when you work with it or wear it. It's why I don't use anything that cost less than 25 to 30 per yard unless it's on sale or something. I always get swatches too if I'm seeking to order something that I've never worked with before. Just to be sure it's good quality.
> 
> I have found that some of the cheaper materials releases a whole lot of fur strands in the air. The excess shedding can end up your lungs, causing the coughing/wheezing, and general ill feelings because you've got all these tiny hairs that ended up being breathed in.
> 
> Once you go back to using what you normally use, the less cheap stuff you'll probably have less a problem.




it's not MADE cheaply. by far... it's VERY nice and thick and it doesnt come off it's backing. (though I did use /some/ cheap fur on the head but I never had problems with it) 
it's just I paid cheaply for it. (although it DOES shed alot of the strands directly into the air, which might be the problem. it's really thick and short and doesnt like to lay down. it like to poof straight out.)
and I'll bet that's the reason. it's also VERY old so who knows what's on it. they said they had it since the 70's.





full view: http://d.furaffinity.net/art/zrcalo/1257728815.zrcalo_zeesuit.jpg

it's that light brown fur I used on the arms and legs.


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## savath (Nov 9, 2009)

It could very easily be an allergy to something the fur came in contact with at some point or another.  If it's as old as you say it is then my bet would be on that.

However, if you're going to test if your actually allergic to it then try it on another part of your body.  The bottom part of your wrist and forearm, where you would normally get blood drawn or pulse taken, is a good substitute for your face if you're worried about a serious reaction.


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## Trpdwarf (Nov 9, 2009)

Zrcalo said:


> it's not MADE cheaply. by far... it's VERY nice and thick and it doesnt come off it's backing. (though I did use /some/ cheap fur on the head but I never had problems with it)
> it's just I paid cheaply for it. (although it DOES shed alot of the strands directly into the air, which might be the problem. it's really thick and short and doesnt like to lay down. it like to poof straight out.)
> and I'll bet that's the reason. it's also VERY old so who knows what's on it. they said they had it since the 70's.
> 
> ...



You paid six bucks for per yard for material that has been lying around for a while. It would not surprise me if that stuff is chock full of dust you can't see and who knows what else. That said...sometimes nice looking fur sells cheap for a reason. I don't know if that is your case. I just known that in my experience faux fur cheaply made, no matter what the cost or look of it, can do things like aggrevate your sinus's and get into your lungs/throat. The result can be very close to what you describe.

I've experienced this. I had a friend who attemped his own suit, never wanted to do that again, and gave myself and Zeke the left over material. Now out of the three or four faux furs we ended up with, one aggrevated the shit out of my allergies, making me bag it up, curse it's existance, and throw it in the big green trash can where it belongs.

At first glance it looked nice, and felt nice, had a decent backing...but the shedding was atrocious. It get in my sinus's, triggered my allergies, made me sneeze out of control, and stress out my body as it tried to rid itself of thousands of these fine particles or hairs that made it into my lung's/nasal cavity...it was a nightmare.

Never again...but you wouldn't think at first glance faux fur could do that to you. It can. Faux fur can be made of different synthetic materials. If that material is you mentioned is old, it may be made of a different synthetic, and you could be allergic to that particular material, which is another option right there for what could be causing you to get sick. If I were you I'd just bin that material you spend 6 bucks per yard, and go back to working with what you usually do and see if you still experience the same things.

Some of the other people here pointed out some good possibilities too. I will say though, in the future, just be wary of cheap material, meaning material that sells for a low cost. You should always be suspicious if a particular material is selling low but looks nice. When I got some swatches once from a site, one of the nicest looking ones for what I am doing for a customer, happened to be the worst one to use due to the backing alone which was utter crap.

It's different if an entire website and or store goes half off and something that is normally 15 to 30 bucks suddenly gets halved in price due to a store or site wide sale. If an individual roll of a faux fur is marked down to less than 15, be very wary of it. You might want to by the smallest amount possible, play around with it to see how it acts when subjected to being cut, sewn, ect...that way if there comes a problem with the material that wasn't obvious at first, you won't have watsted a lot of money on it.


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## Zrcalo (Nov 9, 2009)

Trpdwarf said:


> You paid six bucks for per yard for material that has been lying around for a while. It would not surprise me if that stuff is chock full of dust you can't see and who knows what else. That said...sometimes nice looking fur sells cheap for a reason. I don't know if that is your case. I just known that in my experience faux fur cheaply made, no matter what the cost or look of it, can do things like aggrevate your sinus's and get into your lungs/throat. The result can be very close to what you describe.
> 
> I've experienced this. I had a friend who attemped his own suit, never wanted to do that again, and gave myself and Zeke the left over material. Now out of the three or four faux furs we ended up with, one aggrevated the shit out of my allergies, making me bag it up, curse it's existance, and throw it in the big green trash can where it belongs.
> 
> ...



ooh. this is /very/ useful. thanks so much!
I am so very used to getting fur $7-12 a yard (there's a store that sells discounted fabrics thay they get donations to) and alot of what they have really is nice fur and it's the same stuff I see everyone online buy for $20 a yard.  yeah I had just discovered a /different/ discount store that sold fabric $1 a yard and that's where I always got my foam (GOOD FOAM!) but I guess their fur is just SHIT. or at least that colour. I also bought some blue and red, but it looked VERY different and the guy said the other colours were fairly new. @_@ I waited 20min for him to dig out the brown from alll the way in the back. I'll see how this other stuff does. I currently have the red blanketing the back seat of my car, and I havent had ANY trouble. it's a cheap fur, but the backing is better and the fur doesnt slough off and get everywhere. I'll probably just use it for accents. the blue I havent messed with at all. 
I think I'll end up ONLY buying from my regular trustworthy store because I've gotten about 12 different types there and I havent had ANY problems. 
what's funny here is, I cant find fur that's NOT discounted. I think it's because it never gets cold and usually it's around 75 degrees in mid december and 115 degrees in the summer, so alot of these fabric stores dont sell alot of fur and just end up donating it.


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