A little while back I wrote about my search for a vegan mattress.  In the comments, shamir wrote:

what about pillows? everything out there (besides buckwheat hulls) seems to be down, fake down (=fossil [fuels]), or wool. are the organic cotton ones even any good?

At that point, I wasn’t planning on buying new pillows anytime soon, but when I saw that it’s suggested you replace pillows every two years (if you can fold your pillow over and it doesn’t bounce back into place, it’s time to replace it), I realized I was about five years overdue.  When I bought my previous pillows, I made sure that the filling wasn’t down, but unfortunately the only choice I had at the time (because I was young and naive) was made by a company that had Down in their name.

So a search began for some nice pillows.  Ones that were eco-friendly, comfortable, and would last a while.  After lots of time <strike>wasted</strike> spent researching, I decided on kapok pillows.  Kapok is a fiber extracted from the seed pod of the kapok tree.  The fiber is non toxic, odorless, resistant to rot, and non-allergic.  A pillow made with kapok filling has “all the qualities of down [without the cruelty, and] is hypoallergenic.”  Kapok pillows can supposedly only be sold as decorative pillows because they are highly flammable.  As you may remember, many states require a doctor’s note in order to buy the vegan mattress I got.   Between our pillows and our mattress, it’s a good thing we don’t smoke in bed, because we’d be screwed!

Kapok pillows can be a tad expensive (~$50 each for queen size pillows), but they reportedly last longer than regular pillows and get more comfortable with use.  I managed to find a woman on eBay that handmakes them and sells them for about $60 a pair (about $72 after shipping).  Last night was my first night sleeping on one.  It was a tad firm, but supportive and quite comfortable.  I look forward to seeing how it changes over time with use.

So, yay for kapok, my new highly flammable friend.