Pillows Without Off-Gassing or Chemical Treatment
If you have spent months trying to find a pillow that does not smell, that does not give you a headache after the first night, or that does not require two weeks of „airing out“ before it is tolerable — this page is for you. We import horsehair pillows from a small Austrian manufacture that processes the filling with hot water and steam only. No flame retardant, no anti-microbial spray, no adhesive, no dye, no scent.
What off-gassing actually is
Off-gassing is the slow release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other chemical residues from a material into the surrounding air. New furniture, new mattresses, and most new pillows do it. For most people, the effect is a mild „new product“ smell that fades over a few weeks. For a smaller group of people, the same chemicals trigger headaches, sinus reactions, nausea, sleep disruption, or — in the case of multiple chemical sensitivity — pronounced systemic symptoms that can persist as long as the source is in the room.
If you are reading this, you probably already know whether you belong to the second group. The rest of the page is written assuming you do.
Why most pillows are a problem
Memory foam and polyurethane
Polyurethane foam is the most common pillow filling sold in the US today. It is petroleum-derived and releases a measurable mix of VOCs — toluene diisocyanate residues, formaldehyde traces, and various amine catalysts — for weeks to months after manufacture. The smell that comes out of a new memory-foam pillow is exactly that release. For chemically sensitive people, the airing-out period is rarely long enough to make the pillow tolerable.
Latex, including natural latex
Natural latex is often marketed as the clean alternative to polyurethane. For people with no sensitivity, it is. For chemically sensitive people, latex has two distinct issues: the natural rubber proteins themselves have a distinct organic smell that intensifies as the material warms with body temperature, and most commercial latex products use processing aids — accelerators, vulcanisers, anti-oxidants — that remain in the finished material. People who tolerate polyurethane sometimes react to latex; people who tolerate latex sometimes react to polyurethane. Both happen.
Pillows labeled „organic“ or „natural“
Some chemically sensitive people react even to pillows labeled organic or natural. The reasons vary — residual processing aids in the fill, adhesives or bonding agents holding layers together, dye residues in the cover fabric, or simply the natural protein content of certain fibres.
What we ship and how it is made
The Moosburger family has been processing horsehair in Vorarlberg, Austria, since five generations. The processing is straightforward enough that we can describe it completely:
- The raw horsetail hair is sorted by hand.
- It is soaked in plenty of water overnight, then washed at 90 °C (194 °F) under constant movement.
- It is spun into thin braids (strands) and treated for several hours with pressurised steam to permanently fix the curls.
- The braids then rest for at least three months to mature, before being untwisted by hand and combed for maximum volume.
That is the entire process. No bleach. No flame retardant. No anti-microbial spray. No fungicide. No dye. No adhesive bonding. Horsehair as a material is naturally inert — it is essentially keratin, the same material that makes up human hair and fingernails — and it does not require chemical preservation to remain stable for decades.
The pillow cover is unbleached organic cotton, sewn in Austria. Nothing is added to it.
What the pillow is like when it arrives
The pillow has essentially no smell at delivery. The horsehair has been thoroughly washed and steam-treated until any residual scent is removed; the cotton cover is unbleached and untreated. There is nothing to off-gas and nothing to air out. You can use the pillow the night it arrives.
Before you order, look into the manufacture independently
Because the audience for this page tends to be cautious — and rightly so, given how many „natural“ claims turn out to be hollow on closer inspection — we encourage you to research the Moosburger manufacture independently before ordering.
The workshop in Vorarlberg has been documented publicly for decades. Several of Europe’s most demanding luxury bed manufacturers — names you will find with a few minutes of searching — source their horsehair filling from exactly this workshop. The processing is identical regardless of whether the finished product is a fifteen-thousand-dollar mattress or one of our pillows. If those independent references give you confidence in the material, you have a basis to order. If they do not, you have a basis not to.
Shipping to the United States
We ship Moosburger pillows directly from our workshop in Cologne, Germany, to your US address. DHL handles the international transit, USPS delivers the final mile. Realistic transit time is two to three weeks door to door, fully tracked. Payment is by PayPal. All US import duties and customs handling fees are prepaid by us in advance — there are no fees at the door and no customs paperwork on your side.
For full details on shipping, duties, and how we handle international parcels, see our main page for US customers or our Canada shipping page.
Get in touch before you order
Write to us at info@moonlight-schlafsysteme.de with:
- What you currently sleep on and how you react to it
- Any specific sensitivities or triggers you have identified
- Your sleeping position and approximate height/shoulder width
- Any questions you have about the material or processing that we have not answered above
You will hear back within two working days. If we think a Moosburger pillow is not the right fit for your situation, we will tell you. We would rather lose a sale than send a pillow to someone who will not tolerate it.
Moonlight Schlafsysteme
Cologne, Germany
