A mother has worn the same dress for 100 consecutive days in an attempt to prove wool is self-cleaning.
Brittany Balinski, 34, documented her unusual challenge on TikTok, where she has more than 50,000 followers. From December 17, 2024, to March 26, 2025, she wore the same wool dress daily, showcasing what she calls the material’s “versatility”.
Balinski, a mother of four, also promotes never washing wool bedding.
Her aim, she says, is to challenge perceptions of wool as an “old lady” fabric and highlight its benefits. However, her methods have drawn criticism.
Balinski’s unconventional approach extends beyond wool. A self-described “full-time barefoot shoe advocate”, she keeps her children, Benedykt, eight, Sylvester, six, Otylia, four, and Olympia, two, in barefoot shoes and urges the fashion industry to prioritise “comfort and function”.
She claims to have discovered wool’s “natural water resistance” while raising her children “nappy free”.
“They can wee on it, and if you are quick enough, you can literally pour the wee off,” Brittany said.
“If it does sink in and gets wet, you simply put it on a line, and within an hour, all of that liquid has evaporated.
“That’s the beauty of wool that people completely disregard and disbelieve.”
Brittany first became interested in “natural” parenting nine years ago while pregnant with her eldest child, Benedykt.
After a complicated hospital birth, Brittany and her husband Damian decided on home births for their three younger children, Sylvester, Otylia and Olympia.
“We did everything as naturally as possible,” she said.
“I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a hippie, but that’s the way I’m perceived now, because I just like doing things more naturally than others.”
Brittany discovered the “beauty” of wool while raising her children largely nappy free, relying instead on the “innate” ability of children to communicate “their toileting needs”.
“If you allow your children to be nappy free as much as we did, wool is a really useful tool to have around the house because of its natural water resistance,” she said.
This resilience is why wool was a staple of wardrobes for centuries, she said, adding: “When cared for appropriately, wool does not need to be rigorously washed.”
Although Brittany’s TikTok platform is largely devoted to barefoot shoes, she has recently been focusing on the benefits of wool.
In one video, she showcases her woollen bedding, complete with a “huge sheepskin throw”, a wool duvet and pillowcase, and a wool mattress topper – which she says moderates her temperature in the night and does not need washing.
“You just hang them up, unless they’re soiled,” she said.
Guidance from British Wool, a farmer-owned trade organisation, states that the natural oils and wax found on wool can help the material resist stains and odours.
In December, to prove her point about the longevity and resilience of wool, Brittany undertook a challenge to wear the same wool dress for 100 days.
“I started without any thought, I didn’t plan to do it at all,” she said.
“I ordered the dress, and then I joined their Facebook group and saw that people talk about the 100-day challenge.”
She recorded a TikTok showing off her new plum-purple dress and mentioning the challenge.
“Then I was like, I’ve said that now, I might as well do it,” she said.
“The whole premise of the challenge is to demonstrate the versatility of wool.
“Wool isn’t really part of people’s wardrobe any more – it’s a historical fabric. It’s got connotations of old ladies and warmth.”
Brittany would show her outfit on TikTok each day to demonstrate that she was wearing the dress, mixing things up by accessorising it with belts, tucking it into jeans, and layering it under wool jumpers.
“I probably had one snotty-nosed child in the whole three months, and the dog jumped up and left paw prints, but mud just dries and brushes off,” she said.
“If that happened to a white cotton T-shirt, it would be massively annoying, because you would have to wash it. But not with wool.”
Brittany said that she mostly relied on spot cleaning the dress and airing it out but confirmed that she washed the dress four times throughout the challenge.
Asked if this undermined the point of the challenge, she said: “It wasn’t necessary. I just decided to because I had other wool clothes from the kids.
“It doesn’t need to be washed. It just needs to be hung and aired, and all of the odours and even the marks just disappear.
“People think I’m nuts.”
Brittany’s challenge has been met with intense criticism, which she says she doesn’t “understand how it shocks people because I’m not doing anything obscene and I’m not doing anything weird,” she said.
“I’m just doing things with a very natural perspective.
“It’s about being more sustainable, mindful and minimalist – which is beneficial for your economic status too.”
At the end of her challenge, she said she is not yet sick of the dress.
“Come the autumn, I’m sure I’ll want to wear it again,” she said.
