The invention relates to a thickener capable of improving the hand feeling of a pigment print and a preparation method of the thickener. The thickener consists of crylic acid, acrylic amide, ammonium hydroxide, deionized water, solvent oil, a softener, triallylamine, potassium peroxodisulfate, span 80 and fatty alcohol-polyoxyethylene ether, wherein the softener is self-prepared and is prepared from castor oil, isopropanol and concentrated sulfuric acid or p-toluenesulfonic acid. Compared with the prior art, according to the invention, an esterification method is adopted to synthesize the special softener for being used as an oil phase in inverse emulsion polymerization and the softener and vinyl monomers, such as crylic acid, acrylic amide and the like, are subjected to inverse emulsion polymerization to prepare the thickener capable of improving the hand feeling of the pigment print; the thickener has the characteristics of not influencing fastness of the pigment print, improving the dye field, having hydrophilcity, improving the hand feeling of the pigment print and the like. The thickener is used for a process of high-quality pigment print and dye-imitated paint.