I have tried high quality egyptian cotton & it was too harsh/rough, it made me itch. Same with percale and cotton and silk mixes. I even tried IKEA bedding to see if cheap stuff was maybe just softer and less fibrous, but no dice.
The problem is that I think pure silk bedding would just be way too high maintenance for me, and at £400 I don't fancy my chances of my cat not ruining it with his little claws.
Perhaps I am texturally sensitive, but I neeeeeeed silky, smooth, soft bedding! What should I look for? I'm sick of shelling out £££ just to feel uncomfortable.
As long as you're buying long-staple fibers, you should look at the weave instead of fabric content. Percale is pretty stiff (fans call it "crisp"). Another reason I don't like it is that it wrinkles in the laundry.
Have you tried
sateen sheets: they're made of cotton in a satin weave; there should be a light sheen to them. The weave is super smooth and if you get one with long staple cotton (pima or egyptian) they will get softer and softer the more they are laundered. The long staple cotton will also prevent the pilling. I find the all-cotton sateen sheets have the perfect hand.
If you are sensitive to chemicals, you should wash your sheets (and towels) at least twice before use. I wash them 3 times to ensure that the chemical coating the fibers (really obvious in new towels) are removed.
ETA: I find linen actually takes a while to become soft. I love super old linen - we have stuff from when I was a child maybe even before I was born - but new linen is a little too crisp for me. I have a set that I still haven't put into regular use as it's still not quite soft enough. And a lot of the "affordable" or "rustic" linen have slubs which would be like little thorns to a self-professed sensitive like you.
BTW, my husband, parents, and family pretty much accuse me of being the princess in the "Princess and the Pea" story. I can feel every little thing - lint caught under the sheets, a little pill of material or a wrinkle under a duvet; I can feel them under layers of bedding! So this is important to me
