Hair-on Hide Zebra / Cow Rug Cleaner, Conditioner & Repair Kit H8 by Leather Doctor, cleans and conditions both the hair and hide side with rips repairs that preserve the beauty and strength of your zebra and cowhide rugs with tannery-grade science.
- Kit H8 Plus is an up-size version with an extra Hydrator 3.3 in 2oz concentrates that becomes 1.62 quarts and Fatliquor 5.0 in 8oz concentrates that becomes 1.5 quarts.
Over time, hair-on-hide rugs naturally lose their essential oils (fatliquor), leading to dryness, cracking, shedding, and even dry rot. Leather Doctor® Kit H8 is a complete restoration and care system designed to clean, condition, hydrate, and repair these prized natural hides.
This kit H8 not only removes embedded soil and environmental contaminants but also replenishes the hide’s lost fatliquor—the natural oils and fats that keep leather fibers soft and flexible. With regular use, Kit H8 restores the health, suppleness, and longevity of zebra and cow rugs, preventing tears and breakage for many years to come.
A zebra only lives once—but with Leather Doctor®, its hide can live forever.
- Stops Dry Rot & Breakage – Reverses fiber brittleness by replenishing the essential fatliquor lost with age.
- Safe Hair-Side Cleaning – Removes dirt and contaminants without stripping or damaging the hide.
- Hydrates & Softens – Opens up dried fibers for deep penetration of oils and fats, restoring suppleness.
- Repairs & Strengthens – Conditions and stabilizes the hide for stronger repair and long-term resilience.
- Preserves Natural Beauty – Maintains the luster of the hair side while protecting against shedding.
Complete Care System – Cleaner, rinse, conditioner, hydrator, fatliquor, and repair solutions all in one kit.
Why Aged Zebra Hide Becomes Dry-Rot, Tears, and Breaks Off
- A zebra hide, like any hair-on-hide leather, is a biological material that depends on its original fat and oil structure to remain soft, flexible, and resilient.
- Over time, exposure to sunlight, heat, fluctuating humidity, and improper cleaning gradually strips away these natural oils (known in the tannery as fatliquor).
- Once depleted, the hide loses its internal lubrication, turning brittle, stiff, and prone to what’s commonly called dry rot.
- When the leather fibers no longer glide over each other but instead rub harshly, the hide becomes fragile, cracks under stress, and even breaks off in patches.
- This is why aged zebra rugs or cowhides often shed hair, split, or tear when handled.
- Without scientific care, the hide essentially continues to deteriorate.
Why Leather Doctor® Kit H8 is the Answer
Leather Doctor® Kit H8 is designed with tannery-based science to reverse these effects and extend the life of hair-on-hide rugs.
- Cleans & Rinses Safely – The specialized cleaner removes embedded soils and contaminants from the hair side without harsh detergents that can strip away the hide’s structure. A rinse balances the pH, ensuring the leather’s chemistry is stabilized.
- Conditions the Hair Side – Gentle conditioning restores the hair’s luster and prevents dryness or dullness, keeping the rug beautiful and touchable.
- Hydrates & Softens the Hide with Fatliquor – The core step is replenishing the hide’s lost fatliquor, the exact oils and fats that keep fibers flexible. Hydration allows the fibers to open, and fatliquor fills the gaps, re-lubricating the leather structure from within. This halts the cycle of dry rot and restores suppleness.
- Repair & Restoration – Once the hide regains its health, weakened areas can be repaired more effectively. Rehydrated, conditioned fibers bond better, giving long-term strength and resilience.
The Forever Life of Zebra Hide with Leather Doctor®
- A zebra only lives once—but its hide, preserved with the Leather Doctor® system, can live on indefinitely as a cherished piece of natural art. By restoring its internal chemistry and maintaining it with regular care, the rug stays soft, strong, and stunning for generations.
- With Kit H8, owners don’t just clean a rug; they revive its life force, preventing tears, breakage, and dry-rot while honoring the natural beauty of zebra and cowhide.
Kit H8 is a 5-step holistic cleaning, conditioning and repair process that comprises:
- Clean and Rinse Hair side with Hair 5.5, and Rinse 4.0 system.
- Lubricating Hair side with S Plus system.
- Clean and Rinse Suede side with Soft 3.8 and Rinse 3.0 system.
- Hydrating and Fatliquoring Suede side with Hydrator 3.3 and Softener 5.0 system.
- Repair from the Suede side with Glue 3D and Patch 4S system.
Simple tools used are Hide 4, Foam 2, Eraser 5, and Towel 1.
Kit H8 concentrates contents require 4073g (2.9 quarts) distilled water to be mixed and filled before use with these selected leather-safe products:
✅ Hair 5.5
✅ Rinse 4.0
✅ S Plus
✅ Soft 3.8
✅ Rinse 3.0
✅ Hydrator 3.3
✅ Softener 5.0
✅ Glue 3D
✅ Patch 4S
✅ Brush 4
✅ Brush 9
✅ Eraser 5
✅ Foam 2
✅ Towel 1
Hair-on Hide Hair Cleaner 5.5 by Leather Doctor® is a leather-safe, mild disinfectant cleaner for hair-on-hide, wool skin, sheepskin, shearling, and feather.
- With a pH value of 5.5, it gently penetrates and lubricates the hair fibers, suspending soil through a chemical reaction that’s safe for both hair and hide and most fabrics—excluding rayon and silk.
- It also helps reduce common odors that occur during drying.
- Use Hair 5.5 by Leather Doctor® for a gentle, safe, and odor-neutralizing clean that preserves hair-on hide's beauty and integrity—especially when paired with matching rinse and conditioner in a full care routine.
Hair-on-Hide Hair Rinse 4.0 by Leather Doctor® is a pH 4.0 balanced rinse that neutralizes and restores the hair's natural integrity after cleaning.
- Conditioner S Plus is the final step in a complete hair-on-hide care system.
- It is a leather-safe, pH 3.2 leave-in conditioner designed to nourish, soften, deodorize, and protect the hair portion of hair-on-hide, sheepskin, woolskin, shearling, or fur-type leathers.
Hair-on-Hide Hide Soft Cleaner 3.8 by Leather Doctor® is a leather-safe, pH 3.8 mild leather hide cleaner formulated to effectively emulsify and lift general soiling from floor soil without causing common side effects.
- Soft 3.8 is among the mildest of cleaners with a lower cleaning power than Strong 4.3, or Super 4.9.
Soft 3.8 Key Benefits:
- Gently Cleans Without Harsh Effects – Maintains the hide’s natural integrity.
- Prevents Rings & Browning – Ideal for pH-sensitive hides.
- Residue-Free with Rinse 3.0 – Restores the hide’s pH balance for long-term care.
Hair-on-Hide Hide Rinse 3.0 by Leather Doctor® is a pH 3.0 leather-safe rinse formulated to remove suspended soil and restore the pH balance of leather hide, ensuring its structural integrity and long-term durability.
Rinse 3.0 Key Features & Benefits:
- Removes Suspended Soil – Lifts and extracts emulsified soiling for a clean, residue-free finish.
- Neutralizes Alkaline Residue – Restores pH balance to prevent damage from alkaline overexposure.
- Prevents Tackiness & Dye Bleeding – Stabilizes the leather hide structure, reducing unwanted texture changes.
- Enhances Leather’s Ionic Charge – Recharges the leather hide with a positive (+ve) charge, improving its ability to bond with negatively (-ve) charged tanning agents, dyestuff, and fatliquor.
- Preserves Suppleness & Durability – Helps maintain the leather hide’s softness, preventing stiffness and cracking.
Hair-on-Hide Hide Hydrator 3.3 is a leather-safe pH 3.3 aqueous surfactant solution formulated by Leather Doctor® to clean, hydrate, relax, and restore the hide’s internal structure during cleaning, conditioning, and restoration processes - in line with its tannery science-based function.
- It mimics the hydration stage of tannery pre-conditioning to prepare hide for deeper structural rejuvenation.
Hydrator 3.3 Key Benefits:
- Rehydrates dried, stiff, or collapsed fiber structure
- Restores moisture to the hide’s protein fibers, relaxing them so they can regain flexibility.
- Essential before fatliquoring with Softener 5.0 so fats and oils can penetrate deeply and bond properly.
- Displaces and flushes out impuritie
- Helps suspend and wick out residual floor soiling, or alkaline contamination that may have seep from the edge of the hide.
- Balances pH and readies hide for further treatments
- The mild acidic pH of 3.3 re-aligns the ionic charges of the hide structure, making it receptive to fatliquor softener and protecting against pH damage.
- Helps reduce stiffness and restore suppleness
- When used alone or in conjunction with fatliquor, Hydrator 3.3 is critical for achieving uniform softness, without patchiness.
Tannery science basis
- In professional tanning and retanning, hides are hydrated before fatliquoring to ensure that treatments penetrate evenly and bond effectively.
- Hydrator 3.3 replicates this essential tannery hydration step at the restoration stage, particularly for dried-out, stiff, or aged hide.
Hair-on-Hide Hide Softener 5.0 by Leather Doctor® is a pH 5.0 emulsion of fat, oil, and water, a fatliquor softener conditioner to replenish dry leather hides, in line with its tannery science-based function.
Softener 5.0 restores leather hide’s internal lubrication, flexibility, strength, and resilience, replenishing the original fatliquor content of leather hide’s fibrous structure.
- Mimicking the essential fatliquoring stage in professional tanning and retanning processes.
Softener 5.0 Key Benefits:
- Lubricates and nourishes the leather hide structure
- Softener 5.0 deposits fat and oil molecules that bond to the amphoteric protein fibers.
- These lubricate the fibrils, allowing them to slide over each other without stiffness, brittleness, or cracking.
- Reinforces tensile strength and elasticity
- Proper fatliquoring prevents fiber embrittlement and maintains leather hide’s natural strength and softness.
- Restores suppleness and prevents future damage
- Leather hide loses fat and oil over time due to aging, heat, sunlight, alkaline exposure, or cleaning.
- Replenishing it prevents shrinkage, stiffness, and cracks.
- Provides long-term structural protection
- Maintains leather hide’s dimensional stability and ability to flex without damage.
Tannery science basis:
- In the tannery, fatliquoring is one of the final and most critical stages after tanning.
- It ensures that leather hide stays soft, strong, and flexible as it dries.
- The fats and oils form a molecular film around the protein fibers, acting as internal lubricants.
Softener 5.0 brings this same process to hide restoration.
It ensures the hide is not just “looking good on the surface” but structurally rejuvenated from within.
- Unlike other dry solvent-based glue, Glue 3D does not lift leather finishes.
- Glue 3D works with Leather Patch 4S as a sub-patch or suede fibers as fillers.
People Also Ask
1. How to Lay Flat a Cowhide or Hair-on Rug with Hydrator 3.3 + Fatliquor 5.0?
2. Why do Hair-on-Hide Edges begin Curling?
3. Why Hair-on-Hide Rip Easily?
4. Why Hair-on-Hide Dry Rot?
- Hair is brushed with a nylon brush in one direction and vacuumed.
- Hair 5.5 is used for general cleaning followed by Rinse 4.0 in both applications with brushing and folding towel extraction in one direction changing sides until the towel shows clean and dry.
- And when the hair is dry flip it over to clean the hide side.
- Conditioner S Plus is mist sprayed and brushed in one direction and left to dry.
- The hair is again brushed when dry for softness.
- Hide side dry soil removal with steel Brush 4 brushing in one direction at an angle and exfoliating aging suede fiber with Eraser 5 followed by vacuum cleaning.
- Soft 3.0 is sprayed, brushed, erased, and suspended wet soiling is towel extracted until new folding sides show clean.
- Rinse 3.0 is again sprayed, brushed, erased, and suspended wet soiling is towel extracted until new folding sides show clean and let dry to allow further wicking of soiling to the surface to be brushed, erase, and vacuum; ready for hydrating.
- Hydrator 3.3 is sprayed and brushed using steel Brush 4 to distribute and be absorbed into the suede structure.
- When the hide appears evenly with moisture saturation, staking, massaging, and flexing return the hide flat ready for Fatliquor 5.0 reconditioning.
- Fatliquor 5.0 is sprayed and brushed using steel Brush 4 to distribute and be absorbed into the hide.
- Fatliquor 5.0 is repeatedly applied each time the water content evaporates and until the hide takes no more.
- Fatliquor 5.0 are left to slow natural drying and before it is fully dried, staking, massaging, or flexing until fully dry will result in a more soft and flexible hide ready for repair.
- Patch 4S is cut to strip at least an inch width to allow bonding half an inch on both sides of the rip with a center line.
- Glue 3D is applied half an inch on both sides of the rip and entirely on the hide side of the patch and pressed in place accordingly with no air space along the edge and let overnight to cure.
- With the satisfactory inspection of the repair, the hide is turned over to the hair side for a smooth feel and non-stick protection.
- Hydrator 3.3 is applied directly onto the base of the hair with the help of a brush or a comb to part it. The application may be by direct spraying, dripping, or indirect transferring to a foam brush for better control.
- The entire panel is saturated without a dry edge until a little moisture oozes out when pressed with fingers.
- When the hide is still damp to the touch or has a moisture content reading of about 25% from a leather moisture meter, the application of Fatliquor 5.0 begins.
- Fatliquor 5.0 is applied similarly to Hydrator 3.3.
- Saturate until a little moisture oozes out when pressed with fingers.
- Allow natural water evaporation to take place, leaving behind the essential fat and oil.
- Depending on pre-existing dryness, additional applications may be necessary until the last application's water evaporation cycle. The hide will not absorb anymore after this point.
- A leather moisture meter may be used to read its moisture content when dry, and an average of 14% of fat and oil content will contribute to the tensile strength of the hide, preventing it from ripping or tearing.
- Any sticky residue from Fatliquor 5.0 is rinsed off with Hydrator 3.3 to reduce soiling attraction or improve appearance.
- Spray Hydrator 3.3, brush with nylon Brush 2 and wipe off with a cotton towel until the towel shows clean and dry.
- Let the hide dry naturally, and slowly for extra suppleness.
Your Questions are Welcome!
Updated on March 23, 2024 | September 16 2025 by Roger Koh