The unsaturated hydraulic characterisation of nonwoven geotextiles presented in this paper shows that they only require suctions between 0.8 kPa and 1.2 kPa to induce a rapid drop, of several orders of magnitude, in hydraulic conductivity. This implies that the inclusion of geotextiles in unsaturated earthen systems, for drainage or separation/filtration purposes, can potentially impede the flow of water and lead to a redistribution of the water content profile in the system. This latter aspect is the focus of this study.