Beans72 Organic Buckwheat Pillow - Japanese Size (14 x 20)

sale Price is not justified.

I slept on a buckwheat pillow when I visited a friend in Japan. It had a fresh smell and even though it was firm, I found it to be supportive, but not uncomfortable. The Beans72 Buckwheat Pillow does not have a fresh fragrance or any fragrance and it is too firm. I tried sleeping on it each night for a week and decided it wasn't for me. I gave it three stars as it has the firmness for support, but little give.

Good

My stiff neck is now a thing of the past. It needs fluffing every day and is heavy. Beans need to be adjusted for individual use.

This little pillow has been surprisingly helpful in relieving the shoulder and arm pain that I used to wake up with every morning. I always thought a pillow was supposed to be something soft and cushy that you sunk into at the end of a long day. This pillow is more like snuggling with a rock in a pillowcase. I took out about half of the hulls and it still feels hard. There's no soft-sinking feeling. Instead, there's a feeling of waking up in the morning with happy shoulders, arms, and hands. I had no idea a pillow could make such a difference, but it really does. I've only experienced two problems and they're both minor. First, the pillow is hard enough to result in an occasional sore ear when side-sleeping. Second, it's just kinda weird.The pillow is a well-made zippered case that has buckwheat hulls inside. There's no other interior liner or bag holding the hulls in the case. You'll need to use a pillowcase because the last thing anyone would want to do is take out all of those little hulls just to launder the zippered case. I just use one of my standard pillowcases, which is way too big, but it works in a pinch. The size of this little pillow, by the way, is absolutely perfect. I've assembled an army of every size/shape pillows and this is the one that truly fits.There's no odor. It is easy to take hulls out (save them in a big bag so you can add them back later when the pillow loses volume) and make the pillow as thin as you like. You can shape the pillow so it forms to your head/neck and it holds that shape through the night. The pillow comes with a nice storage case. The seller, Beans72, was great about making contact after the sale to see how things were going. All in all, this is a wonderful, hard, comfortable, strange, and adaptable little pillow that I'm so glad I bought.Edit: going on almost 4 years now with no problems. I've seen some other reviews where people found bugs after using the pillows for a while. I've had this pillow and purchased enough refill hulls from Beans72 that I've lost count, and none of them have had any bugs. Ever. I've checked very closely. They didn't have any bugs in the bag. They never developed any bugs during use. I don't want to make anyone feel bad because bugs in pillows are pretty horrifying, but I think there's a possibility that those bugs may have come along later. I don't presume to know about other people's pillows, or other people's homes, or other people's bug conditions. I just know that for many solid years, I have never had this issue with hulls received from this seller.

I initially would have rated this item with 5 stars, but my delight turned to horror one night. I had been using this pillow nightly for over a year, but one night as I was getting ready for bed, I noticed there were things moving on my bed. It turns out there were little bugs (not bed bugs.....small whitish, slow-moving little bugs) ALL OVER THE PILLOW and the surrounding areas. I immediately bagged everything, and I mean EVERYTHING on the bed, and hauled it out to the trash. I'm disgusted to think of how long I had been sleeping on this thing before these pests were visible!

To be blunt, the first week of using this pillow was miserable. This was because I was adjusting to the firmness inherent in buckwheat hull pillows which I had never tried before, and also because I had not removed enough of the extra hulls they generously provide so that my pillow could shape itself to my face. I have since fallen completely for this pillow, and I don' think I'll go back. The supposed reduction in allergens due to this pillows' contents naturally reducing how many dust mites inhabit it seems to be true. I usually wake up with a completely clogged nose, but now it's only a little bit.So, if you're looking at this pillow you probably already know all about buckwheat hulls, but I'm going to summarize it for you. This product comes with instructions on how to take care of the pillow, like putting the pillow in the sunlight for an hour once a month to dry it out OR removing all of the hulls and washing the pillow case. It's very easy to do. If you have a regular pillow, you can do this too to improve your pillow hygene, but just throw it in the dryer or follow the instructions on the tag of the pillow. Also, after about 6 months the hulls with be what they call "polished" and take up slightly less space. This is where you can add the extra hulls they give you back into the pillow and you'll be set until you feel like getting a new pillow.

I was sent a pillow that indicated it was 14x20". But it is more like a child's size. It seemed significantly smaller and lighter than the two other 14x20 Buckwheat Pillows, I have owned for more than 15 years. I measured it after flattening as much as I dare from the center it measured 12x18" and the corners are just over 12" and about 19". Maybe if all the Buckwheat was removed, the pillow might get close to the advertised size...Maybe. Additionally was suppose to be between 4 and 5 pounds it did weight 4 pounds, in the specs on weight barely (hence the 2 stars). I just looks ridiculous how small it is and for the $$$ not acceptable.

I was a little wary of getting a "Japanese" size pillow because I thought it would look weird on my bed, but it really is the right size for a pillow this heavy. I tried a buckwheat pillow because I kept waking up with headaches that I could sense stemmed from sleeping in a funny neck position. With the buckwheat pillow, I kind of make a little crater in my pillow that allows my neck to rest in a more neutral position. I definitely get fewer headaches, and I definitely get headaches more frequently when I switch back to my normal pillows for the night (I have to admit that I do miss the squish). It does take some getting used to, and sometimes you have to make an extra little crater for your ear because your ear will sometimes hurt if you just press it into the buckwheat. Luckily, the buckwheat is moldable enough to accommodate that.I got Beans72 specifically because I worried about smell and chemicals. I can't say if there are chemicals in these pillows or not, but there was definitely no smell or bugs. I also got a generous portion of buckwheat and scooped out 3/4 of a gallon to get my pillow to the right amount of fullness. I know this because the spare buckwheat is still sitting in a gallon Ziploc bag.