Hi Lenore,

Many thanks for your question about horsehair mattresses.

Horsehair and horsetail are some of the finest high-end mattress fibres. Both offering incredibly resilient support to a mattress comfort layer. We have a really detailed article here all about horsehair mattresses that can give you huge amounts of detail.

What's the difference between black/brown and white horsehair?

To answer your question though, the difference between the two is purely cosmetic and cost-based.
White horsehair is seen to be a cleaner looking fibre and is in smaller supply so has an astronomical cost to it.

However, the feel and difference between white, black/brown and grey horsehair is zero.

We don't use white horsehair as it makes our hand made mattresses out of reach of most high end mattress customers. Even those with high-end budgets of £3000 plus can see that figure double for the use of pure white horse hair and tail in a mattress.

The two brown layers in the picture above show how horsehair is used as an additional spring layer in a mattress.
All horsehair is curled which is actually a process known as braiding. The hair is braided and then put through a high-temperature autoclave to sterilise and set the twist in the fibre. This helps give horsehair its trademark bounce and spring. It' enables horsehair to be used with softer fibres to help keep the loft in mattresses.

If you're looking for a firm feel horsehair mattress then look at our Artisan Bespoke model. Featuring black horsehair in high GSM layers. It's 100% natural fibre with a calico encased vanadium pocket spring support unit. Hand made in the UK and two sided so can be turned each month.

Artisan Bespoke Mattress

1: 500GSM BRITISH WOOL

2: 1200GSM BLENDED BRITISH FLEECE WOOL AND COTTON

3: HAIRPROOF CAMBRIC COVER

4: 1200GSM PURE HORSETAIL

5: 1200GSM HORSEHAIR

6: 1000GSM WHITE CASHMERE INSULATOR

7: 1600 CALICO ENCASED POCKET SPRINGS [49MM] [1.28MM]

TOTAL: 5100GSM

DEPTH 27-30CM

CHEMICAL FREE COVER

We hope that helps and gives you further mattress buying guidance. If you have any more mattress related questions please get back in touch on info@localhost or 0161 437 4419.

Sleep well
John & Ryan