No, and it's not close. Proper superfine Merino — the fine grade we use for shirts and tees — is one of the softest natural fibres you can put against skin. If you're picturing the itchy jumper your grandad wore in the 70s, you're thinking of a much coarser wool around 23-25 microns, not this.
Here's the actual reason wool got its scratchy reputation: fibre diameter. Coarser wool, the kind used in carpets and old-style knitwear, has thick fibres that bend and prick against skin. Superfine Merino fibre is roughly a third the diameter of a human hair — thin enough that it flexes instead of poking. That's the whole difference, and it's a big one.
The honest caveat: if you've got genuinely sensitive skin, or you're used to nothing but cotton and synthetics against your body, there can be a very brief adjustment period the first couple of wears — most people don't notice it at all, but a few do. It settles fast and it's nothing like the itch of coarse wool. If it doesn't settle for you within a wear or two, that's worth telling me directly rather than assuming it's just how wool is.
It's part of why I put the Cassius against skin all day for two weeks in Europe this July and never once thought about the fabric — which, when you're wearing a shirt, is exactly the point. You shouldn't be thinking about it.
— Jock Merriman, Founder · 5th generation
