In this YouTube monologue, Sol Brah argues that polyester, a synthetic fabric derived from petroleum, is essentially plastic and poses serious health, environmental, and economic problems. He explains the chemical production chain—from petroleum to polymer fibers—highlighting the toxic, carcinogenic substances and fire‑retardant chemicals used, which can leach into the skin during sweat‑inducing activities. Brah claims that wearing polyester leads to endocrine disruption, reduced fertility, hormonal imbalances, skin irritation, and persistent odors because the fabric traps sweat and toxins. He critiques the fashion industry’s reliance on polyester for its low cost, ease of dyeing, and form‑hugging properties, accusing brands of prioritising profit and green‑washing (e.g., marketing ocean‑plastic polyester as sustainable). The speaker also asserts a metaphysical dimension, saying synthetic fibers lower personal vibrational energy. To mitigate these harms, he recommends switching entirely to natural fibers—cotton, linen, wool, cashmere—providing practical tips such as checking garment labels, buying 100 % cotton items (e.g., Seoul shorts from seouldepartment.com), shopping at thrift stores, and using natural‑fiber undershirts or bedding. He concludes with a call to discard polyester clothing and invest in high‑quality natural apparel for better health, comfort, and energetic wellbeing.
Chapters
Hey man, why are you wearing plastic on your balls? Do you enjoy it or something? Would you wrap a plastic bag around yourself and just call that a day? No? That's ridiculous. Well, why would you wear polyester then? Polyester is plastic. Those cool workout clothes you're wearing, those trendy yoga pants your girl wears. Yep, polyester. They are made out of plastic. Polyester is commonly used today in gym clothing of all kinds. This is especially harmful because when we work out, the material of polyester is heating up, going against our skin, rubbing with our sweat pores opening, absorbing those synthetic materials and the chemicals that are mixed with them. But what actually is polyester? Polyester is a synthetic material derived from oil. So let's take a look at the process here. You start off with petroleum, you move it to paraxylene, you mix it with terephthalic acid, ethylene glycol, ethylene. Then once you have a polymer, you move it to spinning, melting it, crimping it, winding, melt spinning, all of these things to get to the polyester sample fibers. These are A laundry list of chemicals. Polyester is the final product in a chain of very reactive and toxic substances. Most are carcinogens. All are poisonous and toxic to the human body. Does this sound like something that you should be cradling your little fellas in? Not to me. Because polyester is highly flammable because it's made of oil, they also get treated with fire retardant chemicals. Which then leach into the body. They're not even needed to disclose these chemicals on the materials tab that you see attached to the clothing. So it's not only that they're made of polyester, but there's all these other chemicals that go into the process that then absorb into your body when you wear that polyester clothing. You will see so many companies using polyester and other synthetic fabrics today, Why? Because they're very cheap, they're accessible, they can be printed and dyed and shaped into any colour imaginable, they can be very form-hugging, which some people like, and they are easier to work with than natural fibres. Basically, companies are choosing convenience over quality and profit over the health of their customers. So what is polyester doing to us? Well, polyester has negative health effects just like plastic does in the body. Endocrine disrupting chemicals inside polyester and the plastic itself can lead to things like infertility, body fat gain, mood swings, strength decreases, lower testosterone, and more. All of these things that we see today in terms of hormonal displacement, plastic is one of the big culprits, and polyester is part of that. If you head into any gym today, you will see the vast majority of people wearing polyester, which is unfortunate, but that's just how the culture has shifted today. Basically, polyester is helping to turn you into a soy boy. Many people's skin conditions could be because they're wrapping themselves in plastic fibers every day, all day, and sweating in them, and their skin is naturally reacting to that. Polyester is actually not very good in terms of allowing your skin to breathe, which means that everything that you remove via sweating and the toxins that are removed through that process get stuck on the skin rather than evaporating or going away. That's why polyester clothing tends to smell a lot worse than natural fibres once you've worked out in them. Natural fibre clothing you can just leave out in the sun to dry and they won't retain that disgusting smell that is so common to polyester clothing and other synthetic fabrics. That really stinky sock smell? Yeah, it's probably because your socks are a very high percentage of synthetic fibres, if not 100%. Not to even mention that these clothes are a complete rip-off financially. Let me tell you, as someone who has researched this because I produce my own clothing brand, these fabrics are produced ridiculously cheaply and sold at a massive rip-off to you, the consumer. The larger workout brands are charging $80 to $100 or more for workout shorts, which likely cost single digits in their production costs, even more for ones that are marketed towards women. Additionally, due to the tight nature of the booty scrunch leggings and bra sets for women, you are constricting your blood vessels and lymphatic systems, degrading your health. For men, wearing tight polyester spandex shorts or underwear can completely kill sperm count, which is obviously not healthy. Additionally, the balls is where we produce our testosterone and other important hormones. When you're constricting that in a plastic bag, things aren't going to work as well. Many companies will even greenwash their products, saying sustainably produced from ocean plastic waste, as if that's a good thing, that they're taking plastic waste, ripping it for no cost, and then selling it to the consumer so you can put on your little plastic jacket or your plastic shorts. That's not a good thing. When you wear clothing with polyester in it that's made of all of these synthetic materials, your body is absorbing these toxic chemicals and microplastic fibers through the skin. Remember, the skin is our largest organ in the body, and for that reason, what we put on it goes into our systems to some degree. For this reason, I threw out all of my synthetic fibers years ago, and it feels so, so much better. Polyester also has a metaphysical effect on you and your life. Everyone I've talked to that has made the switch to natural clothing fibers only has felt a very tangible difference in how they feel, how their skin feels, how their body feels. It's like this feeling like your energy has shifted, you know, like you feel lighter, the vibes are just higher. And it feels that way because that is what's happening. If everything is a form of vibration, which it is, then polyester and other similar synthetic petrochemical, petrochemical fabrics measure very, very low on the vibrational energy scale. Wearing them as clothing forms a barrier of low frequency around you, bringing your energy down. We've been sold a lie that these are cool or trendy clothes, and the end result is that it keeps our soul trapped energetically. And I believe that part of this is by design to get all of the slaves wearing the plastic clothes so that they cannot feel good, they cannot have their health in the highest point, and en masse the population is worse off. And they're making a lot of money feeding the slaves, uh, plastic in their food and drink, but also plastic in the clothing. So what can we wear instead? All of your wardrobe should be 100% natural material clothing. These are cotton, linen, wool, cashmere. These are the best. All of my clothes are some of these materials. To start, you can get some 100% cotton Seoul shorts from seouldepartment.com. These are great for the gym. Great for exercising outside, 100% natural material cotton. These are the best and I wear them every single day. Can even go swimming, hiking in them. They do everything. Otherwise, head to your local thrift store as older clothes tend to be more natural materials and you can get a bargain by shopping at these places. Some stores do have 100% cotton that are new, But you have to make sure that you really check the labels on new clothes because they can be branded as cotton or linen. Big companies will do this. Then you'll check the label and they'll say 10% cotton, 10% linen, and then the rest are these synthetic fibres because they're much, much cheaper to produce. Many big brands are doing this. You also want to check your bedsheets. I've mentioned this before. but a lot of modern bedsheets are now also 100% polyester or some other synthetic material. We obviously don't want to be sleeping in the synthetic petrochemicals all night, so get some 100% cotton or linen bedsheets also. All in all, guys, throw out your polyester. Don't even donate it because you may be poisoning someone else, and spend your money on high-quality natural material clothing. And you will be much better off. Your life will just feel a lot lighter and better, and your skin is going to breathe better, and it may even clear up some other health issues that you weren't sure were being caused by the clothing that you were wear— wearing. If you have a job that requires you to wear a uniform, see if you can wear 100% cotton undershirts or other such things so that your direct skin isn't touching these synthetic materials. It's one of the most important moves to detoxify your life, as what you wear is obviously closest to your body, and it affects how we feel on an everyday basis. This has been why we should not wear polyester and other synthetic fabrics. Thank you for watching, and farewell.
