Your complaint about your "Barbour wax jacket" is very common indeed. The Barbour company took a Farmer Countryman's and Fisherman's working coat and over time turned in to a fashion item and along the way it has been degraded to the point they are so far from the initial item making them as much use in bad weather as fitting an ash tray on a motor cycle. To start the original jackets where made rom very fine weave Egyptian cotton cloth with double stitched seams two deep hand warmer pockets and two rather large bellows external pockets. Inside lining of wool material also what we call an internal "Poachers pocket" runing the entire length of the bac of the coat at the bottom, this was made of waterproof material to stop any blood from shot game leaking out and dripping down tour trousers finally thick tight internal storm cuffs enabling you to pull your hands internally out of the weather. In the photograph is my wax jacket now some fifty years old and comes out every winter so seen a lot of service. The next photograph is how supple the jacket is after all this time and how small it can be folded including the hood that is detachable..

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

Barbour do not treat the jackets with the traditional wax finish for a very good reason it stays slightly soft and can rub off on your hands, so it made the garment rather clothes in a wardrobe unfriendly. I am not going to go into what type of waxes the fashion coats dress their cloth but what I will do is tell you what the lets say traditional wax finish is that I have always used it is not that expensive to make but possibly to expensive for the fashion market.
50% Bees wax. 30% Paraffin wax. 20% Petroleum Jelly. Melt in a double boiler to avoid a flaming disaster, Now comes the trial and error part you add a small quantity of Liquid Paraffin (Baby OIL) and let it cool this is added to enable the wax to be soft enough to spread over the cloth with the help of a hair dryer. The colder the wearer that you expect the coat to be used in the more Petroleum Jelly you add, tee petroleum jelly and liquid paraffin is used to replace the traditional fish oil used in the mixture no one wanted to smell like a fish sandwich.

I hope this is of help.

Ernie

The only lessons in my life I truly did learn from where the ones I paid for!