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A Pillow Post

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Hey, Comfort Lovers!

Who doesn’t love resting their head on the soft loft of a nice puffy pillow? It’s a pleasure known to most in the world today, but did you know that pillows weren’t always soft? Let’s take an in-depth look at the pillowy part of our past and find out how they came to be the cushy, decorative, and squeezable part of our lives that we know so well. Pillows go way back—as far back as 9000 years—but they weren’t soft until about 200 years ago.

That’s right! Pillows weren’t soft to begin with. And they certainly weren’t commonplace. It wasn’t just anybody who had a pillow. It was the kings and pharaohs who had such frills.

But even the upper class had it rough. What exactly were pillows made out of if they weren’t soft? People originally crafted and carved cradles for their heads out of stone or wood. This kept the neck in place and off the ground. But it certainly wasn’t the cushy night of sleep that we’re so well-accustomed to nowadays. The idea behind the pillow was based much more in head protection rather than comfort. Comfort was only an option.   

Things stayed much the same all throughout the Dark Ages. Kings enjoyed hard pillows with little cushion while the majority of the world rested their heads simply on gathered piles of straw, leaves, twigs that was maybe covered with a woven fabric.

But that all changed with the swing of the Industrial Revolution when fabrics became much more affordable for store purchase gave just about everybody the ability to make their own pillow. Most folks filled their fabrics with hay or maybe chicken feathers. Hunters were fortunate if they could fill their pillows with soft goose down.

By the 1960s, polyester filling was invented and led to the new standard of synthetic stuffing for pillows along with the introduction of advanced synthetics. Pillows are still changing with today’s further advancements with Styrofoam pellets and memory foam, but pillows seem to have gone through their major transformation by this point.

That doesn’t mean they can’t still be more creative, and cozier, and crazier! Check out some of our latest pillows from brands like iScream and Top Trenz, available here at Everything Summer Camp. And, as always, thanks for reading!

 

- John


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