The complete guide
Choosing a Queen Silk Pillowcase, A Practical Buyer's Guide
The problem with your current pillowcase
Most of us sleep on cotton without ever thinking about it. Cotton is cheap, it washes hot, and it lasts. The trade-off is texture. Woven cotton has a slightly rough surface at the fibre level, and your face and hair spend seven or eight hours pressed against it every night, turning and shifting. That is a lot of contact with a surface that grips.
You notice it in small ways. Hair that looks fine when you go to bed and looks slept-in when you wake. A crease line down one cheek that takes an hour to fade. A pillowcase that feels warm and a bit clingy in summer.
Silk is the usual answer, and it works because the fibre itself is smooth. Hair and skin slide over it instead of catching. That is the honest extent of it, a surface change, not magic. But it is the kind of small change you feel every single night, which is why people who switch tend to stay switched.
What momme actually tells you
If you shop for silk pillowcases for more than ten minutes you will run into the word momme. It is a weight measure, and it does roughly the same job for silk that thread count does for cotton, though it is more useful.
Momme measures how much a set area of the fabric weighs. Higher number, denser silk. The range you see on pillowcases runs from about 16 up to 25 or so. Below 19 the fabric starts to feel thin, and over a dark pillow it can look slightly see-through. Above 22 it gets heavier and can feel a bit stiff out of the packet, softening after a few washes.
This pillowcase is 21 momme. That sits in the middle, which is where most people are happy. It drapes over the pillow from the first night instead of standing away from it, and it has enough substance that it lies flat rather than rucking up. If you are buying your first silk case and you do not want to gamble, a middle momme is the safe pick.
Why both sides matter
Here is a detail worth checking on any silk pillowcase. Some are silk on the face and something else on the back, usually cotton or polyester. It cuts the cost, and from a photograph you cannot tell.
You find out in the middle of the night. You flip the pillow for the cool side, and the surface feels different. Whatever you bought the silk for is suddenly not there.
This case is 100% mulberry silk on both sides. Flip it as often as you like and nothing changes. The maker also lists the silk as grade 6A, which is a trade grading for the raw filament, with 6A sitting at the top of the usual scale. Alongside that the maker lists a 600 thread count. For silk, momme is the number that tells you more, but it is there if you want it.
The zipper question
Silk pillowcases close in one of two ways. Either an envelope flap, where a tongue of fabric folds over the pillow end, or a zipper.
Envelope flaps are fine until they are not. If you shift around at night, a corner of the pillow can work its way out past the flap, and you wake up with bare pillow against your face. There is also a slight ridge where the flap overlaps, which some people feel and some do not.
This one uses a hidden zipper. It runs along one edge, sewn into the seam so it does not show from the outside once the case is on. The pillow stays enclosed. The sleeping surface is unbroken, with no overlap and no ridge. Taking it off for washing is a two-second job, which matters when you are hand washing weekly.
If you are sensitive to anything firm near your face, turn the case so the zipper edge sits at the far side or up towards the headboard. In practice most people forget it is there.
Getting the size right
Pillow sizing trips up more online orders than anything else in bedding. In Canada the three common sizes are standard at 20 x 26 inches, queen at 20 x 30 inches, and king at 20 x 36 inches. They all share the same width, so the only difference is length, and that is exactly why people guess wrong.
This case is cut to the queen measurement, 20 x 30 inches (51 x 76 cm).
Before you order, pull your pillow out and measure it edge to edge, or just read the tag on the pillowcase you are using now, which almost always prints the size. A standard pillow will go inside this case but will float around with slack at one end. A king pillow will not go in at all without squashing.
One more thing worth knowing. Pillow depth affects fit too. A deep latex or memory foam pillow takes up more of the case than a flat down pillow of the same length, so it will sit tighter. That is normal and does no harm, but if you have a very deep pillow expect a snug fit rather than a loose one.
Who this suits
People with long hair tend to be the first to switch, because the friction difference is most obvious there. Anyone who wakes with pillow creases on their face is a close second.
It also suits anyone upgrading a bedroom without redoing the whole bed. A silk pillowcase is a small, visible change. Plain white works with any sheet colour, so you are not committing to a scheme.
Who it suits less well is anyone who wants zero maintenance. This is hand wash only. If the thought of a weekly sink wash sounds like one chore too many, be honest with yourself before you order. Cotton is still a perfectly good pillowcase.
It also makes a reliable gift, for the simple reason that it is the sort of thing people enjoy and would not buy themselves. Pass on the care instructions with it.
Looking after it
Care for silk is simple, it just has to be done properly.
Use cool water, never hot. Hot water is the fastest way to dull the surface. Choose a mild liquid detergent made for delicates, wool or silk. Skip bleach, skip brighteners, skip fabric softener. Softener coats the fibres and takes the slip out, which is the opposite of what you bought it for.
Fill a basin, add a small amount of detergent, and move the case gently through the water for a couple of minutes. Do not scrub it and do not twist it. Rinse in clean cool water until the suds are gone.
To dry, press the water out between your palms, or roll the case in a clean dry towel and press. Then hang it or lay it flat, away from direct sun and away from any heat source. Sunlight is hard on white silk over time.
If you want it crisp, press it on the reverse with the iron on its lowest setting while it is still slightly damp. Most of the time it dries smooth enough that you will not bother.
Once a week is a fair washing rhythm for a case in daily use. More often if you use heavy night creams or hair products. If you own two cases you can rotate, which keeps the bed made and the routine easy.
The short version
This is a queen size pillowcase, 20 x 30 inches (51 x 76 cm), made from 100% mulberry silk on both faces at 21 momme, with a hidden zipper and a plain white finish. The maker lists it as grade 6A silk with a 600 thread count. One case per pack, hand wash only.
Measure your pillow first. If it comes out close to 20 by 30 inches, this is your size. If it is nearer 26 inches long you want a standard, and if it is 36 inches you want a king.
Silk is smooth, and your hair and skin slide across it with less friction than they do across cotton. That is the whole case for it, and for most people it turns out to be enough.