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How to make towels fluffy again


How to Make Towels Soft Again

One of the best things about flying home to the Northeast for the holidays is the promise of soft, fluffy towels when I arrive. Compared to the rough, frequently damp variety I have in my Los Angeles apartment, my mom’s towels feel like I'm being wrapped in clouds. When I ask her how she keeps her towels so fluffy, she replies, only half-joking, “I buy expensive towels.”

Since the cost of the clouds isn’t in my budget just yet, I set out, instead, to find the best tricks to revive my thoroughly used, average quality towels to the level of plushness they had the day that I purchased them.

First, I read that the leading cause of stiff towels is often leftover detergent residue. However, while cutting back on detergent will prevent towels from growing scratchy, it may not revive the softness. Choosing a hot water cycle and washing loads of only towels are also recommended for maintaining fluff, but again may not be enough to bring it back from the dead.

Undeterred, I continued to scrounge around the internet, and eventually came across a few interesting tricks—using items that I already have lying around at home—that I decided to try. Not at all of them worked out, but here is what I discovered.

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What the internet says

Mix half a cup of baking soda along with a normal detergent dose for fluffier and cleaner towels. Baking soda also naturally eliminates musty and mildew smells that come from towels remaining damp for too long.

How it worked

The towel felt thicker and bouncier, but the threads were sharper and spikier—kind of like a buzz cut texture. Not entirely ideal.

What the internet says

If you have a few clean, unused tennis balls lying around like I do, try throwing them in the dryer along with your towels. As the balls bounce around, they help remove lumps and increase softness.

How it worked

It didn’t. I noticed no difference in fluffiness from drying towels with tennis balls. My towels remained their same old scruffy selves.

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What the internet says

Use a hairbrush to brush your towel once it’s clean and dry, which will help break down any dried detergent residue and separate the threads from each other, making the towel softer to the touch.

How it worked

Although I felt totally ridiculous brushing my towel out like a pet, there was a noticeable fluff increase when I did. The section of the towel that I brushed was softer and thicker than the untreated section, which felt flatter and more matted down in comparison. I used a paddle brush with plastic bristles, but I imagine most types of brushes would be effective. Realistically, I don’t think I’ll spend the time brushing every towel in the future, but I’m glad to know I can.

What the internet says

Fabric softeners actually have oils and other ingredients that make towels less absorbent. Instead, pour a cup of distilled white vinegar into the fabric softener compartment, which softens the towels and kills bacteria. Don’t use detergent for this load.

How it worked

The towel felt noticeably softer and significantly newer, like it had been washed fewer times than the other towels. It had a smooth, suede-like texture. The threads felt closer together. This was definitely the winning hack.

Some people suggest doubling up on hacks and using white vinegar and baking soda in the same load. I would warn against it, as it may cause the machine to overflow. If you are looking for extra, extra fluffiness and buoyancy, try washing with baking soda and detergent first, followed by washing with white vinegar.

Have a trick for returning towels to their former fluffy selves? Tell us in the comments below!

How to Make Towels Soft Again (and Keep Them Soft)

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Never reach for a stinky, scratchy towel again. That'll be a thing of the past when you use these simple solutions for superb softness.

You wrap up your shower, turn off the water and open the curtain. Nothing can bring you down! Except, maybe, a rough, lifeless, mildew-y towel. There’s hope, friends. It’s easy to keep your towels in tiptop shape. All you have to do is stop washing them like any other laundry and you’re on your way to feeling fresh, clean and comfy.

How to Make Towels Soft Again

Wash Towels with Vinegar

It’s easy to freshen up your towels. Start with a hot water cycle (for whites) or warm cycle (colors) and add about half the detergent you’d use for clothes. To clean musty towels or strip old fabric softener away, add 1/2 to 1 cup of white vinegar to your rinse cycle. Don’t worry—they won’t come out smelling like vinegar.

Using vinegar every other wash or so can also help prevent the musty smell, but you can treat extra-stinky towels by using baking soda too. Super-scratchy towels might benefit from this occasional treatment: one hot cycle with only vinegar (no detergent) followed by one hot cycle with only baking soda.

Wash Towels Separately

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Since bath towels generally stay pretty clean (you’re clean when you use them, right?), they don’t require as much soap as clothes do. Plus, excess soap can build up on your towels and dull their softness. Liquid fabric softener is a definite no-no, as it coats towels’ fibers and can prevent them from absorbing moisture.

A clean machine goes a long way for clean towels, too. Follow this guide to clean your washer.

Stop Using Dryer Sheets

Dryer sheets can impart the same absorption-blocking buildup that liquid fabric softener can. You can use them every now and then, but they’re not crucial for keeping towels soft. What is? Giving your wet towels a shake before drying, then pulling them out as soon as they’re dry. Shaking helps fluff out the fibers for maximum absorption and more efficient drying. Overdrying (along with using too much soap) is one of the cardinal sins of scratchiness. If towels are still a little damp when the dryer finishes, err on the side of caution and hang them up to finish.

Keep the dryer sheets for non-laundry uses, though!

Hang Towels After Using

You don’t need to wash towels after every use. You’re off the hook as long as your towels are on one. Just dry off, then hang that bad boy up right away. (If you don’t have enough, it’s easy to add a few more towel hooks to your bathroom).

Also, keep towels off the floor and you can go at least three uses before washing, so you only have to worry about the rest of these tips once a week or so.

Try out these tips on your towels—then, once you’ve mastered the art of towel maintenance, you can feel a little better singing in the shower and splurging on Turkish cotton towels knowing that, with proper care, you’ll get years of dry, comfy softness out of them.

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How to make towels soft after washing

Any textile, including terry towels, requires careful care. A new product will retain softness and elasticity for a long time if it is washed, dried and ironed correctly. Otherwise, even an expensive high-quality thing can quickly turn into a hard, washed-out rag. If, after drying, the towel has become rough and prickly, does not absorb moisture well and literally "is worth a stake", you should not be very upset and immediately send the item to the scrap. There are several ways to restore the original appearance of the product and return the softness lost after washing.

Why does terry cloth get rough

In addition to its advantages, terry cloth also has disadvantages - it takes a long time to dry and becomes rough over time.

Terry cloth is the most commonly used for bath towels. Due to the loose structure, soft long pile, natural composition, various density, this type of fabric has unique properties that distinguish it from other materials. Due to the large surface of the villi, terry towels perfectly absorb water and massage the body, have a lasting color, and do not cause allergies.

However, terry cloth has its drawbacks:

Terry towels can be washed either in the machine or by hand. The main thing is to follow the manufacturer's recommendations on the product label. Roughening of the fabric after washing occurs for the following reasons:

In addition, the wear resistance of textiles directly depends on the quality of the fabric - the denser the pile, the longer the towels will remain soft and fluffy.

How to make a towel softer

A towel will become softer if you add a little salt to the powder when washing.

If, after washing, the towel has become so rough that it cannot be used for its intended purpose, urgent measures must be taken to restore the structure of the material. This can be done in the following ways:

  1. A hard-feeling towel is immersed in cold water and soaked for 12 hours. Then the product is rinsed in warm water and, after slightly squeezing out excess moisture, hang out to dry. Water will dissolve and remove the smallest particles of powder that have lingered between the fibers of the terry cloth after the main rinse. As a result, the towel will become more fluffy and pleasant.
  2. Cooking (better sea) salt will help correct the situation. When machine washing, it is added to the powder and the products are washed in a delicate mode. In manual cleaning, salt is used during rinsing. Salt crystals are dissolved in a container with warm water at the rate of 1 tbsp. l. per 1 liter of water and thoroughly rinse the towels in saline solution. Soaking for several hours in a solution prepared from sea salt and water, taken in a proportion of 3 tbsp, helps to restore the original appearance of terry textiles. l. powder per 1 liter of liquid.
  3. With the help of tea soda, terry towels damaged by improper washing can be restored. To do this, they must be soaked for 1 hour in a soda solution (3 tablespoons of soda per 1 liter of water) and then rinsed well in clean cool water. When machined, baking soda can be added to the conditioner compartment and an additional rinse can be carried out. This will not only soften the fibers of the material, but also remove stubborn stains and unpleasant odors.
  4. Dry hard towel can be steamed. This is easiest to do with a steam generator or a regular iron.

The methods listed above will allow you to revive damaged towels, although this will require a lot of time and effort. To save yourself from unnecessary work, you must be able to properly wash and dry terry cloth products.


How to wash and dry towels

Do not overdry towels.

In order for bath towels to serve for a long time and always remain as if they were just bought in a store, you need to know a few secrets and do not forget about them when starting the next wash.

Important! Terry towels should never be boiled. If the product has difficult soiling, they must be removed with a stain remover or other suitable product before washing.

When washing fluffy bath towels, many housewives use special rubber balls that are placed in the drum of the machine along with dirty clothes. The balls rotate with the laundry, breaking the fibers and preventing the items from bunching up.

Wring out terry cloth products at a low speed. If it is possible to dry clothes outside, you can not wring out the towels at all, but just let the water drain spontaneously and hang them up to dry. Without excessive twisting, the terry will only become softer.

Dry bath towels both in a vertical position, hanging on a rope, and in a horizontal position, spreading out on a flat surface. It is better to hang clothes on the street or on the balcony, as terry cloth loves fresh air, and the thing dried in this way acquires not only softness, but also a pleasant smell. The main thing is not to dry out the towels by hanging them under the scorching sun.

By following the rules for washing and drying terry cloth products, you can keep your towels in good shape for several years, enjoy their softness and feel comfortable.


How to make towels soft after washing in a washing machine

Today, housewives who have a home assistant - an automatic machine, have practically forgotten what hand washing is. Modern washing machines have a large number of special modes that allow you to wash even things that require special care. A towel is a common household item that needs frequent cleaning. Most users throw it into the drum along with the rest of the laundry and run the economy wash. This results in a loss of softness of the towels. Is it possible to wash products in the machine, while maintaining the initial properties of the fabric? How to make towels soft, let's talk below.

Making the towel soft

To keep towels that touch the skin daily pleasant to the touch, it is necessary to properly monitor them. Terry cloth is quite capricious and requires a special, careful attitude during washing. Here are some basic tips to help you properly wash your terry towel in an automatic washing machine.

  1. It is best to use liquid washing gel, such a detergent will maintain splendor, will not allow the villi to deform.
  2. Towels are recommended to be washed on modes that involve full filling of the drum with water and heating the liquid to 40°C - 60°C. After the main program, turn on "Extra Rinse".
  3. Load the balls used for washing down outerwear into the drum with the laundry - they will agitate the fibers, preventing them from caking.
  4. It is best not to use fabric softeners and bleaches when washing towels. Means are not washed out well enough from terry fibers, deform the villi.

It is advisable not to iron garments completely, or to smooth them with hot steam, hanging the towel on a rope, or holding it up.

Another reason why towels lose their softness is hard water used in washing. Everyone knows that in most regions of Russia, water of inadequate quality runs in water pipes, therefore, in order to preserve the laundry being washed, experts recommend installing filters either at the entrance to the apartment or in front of the inlet hose of the washing machine. Such a measure will avoid the formation of scale and sediment on the details of the machine, as well as give softness to the towels.

If it is not possible to install a filter, soften the water with proven products: salt, baking soda, vinegar solution. Along with the splendor of the terry pile, they also guarantee the maintenance of the color of the product.

Why does the fabric become stiffer after washing?

After some time of using a terry towel, you can notice that the fibers of the product have become less fluffy, compacted and slightly lost their shape. This can be easily explained by the following mistakes made by housewives:

Experts warn that the fabric should only be smoothed with hot steam.

If you avoid the above mistakes and try to maintain the quality of the product from the very beginning, so that it is soft and fluffy, you can avoid turning a nice towel into a “hard” fabric.

The best fabric softeners

At a time when the market was not full of different means for washing all sorts of fabrics, housewives had to invent their own ways to make towels soft. Such methods proved to be so effective that they are still used today.

  1. Salt. Softens fabric well. You can use both ordinary table salt and a special one designed for automatic machines. You can pour the product into the washer tray, for this 3 tbsp. spoons of salt are mixed with the powder, or pour saline (the same three spoons diluted in 200 ml of water) directly into the tank.
  2. Vinegar. 0.5 cup of 9% vinegar solution is poured into the conditioner tray. After washing in the washing machine, fluffy towels will be very soft. Additionally, vinegar will help to cope with unpleasant odors.
  3. Soda. Three Art. spoons of the product are poured into the washing drum. The baking soda will help soften the hard water in the system.
  4. Vinegar plus soda. 0.5 cups of nine percent vinegar are poured into the rinse aid tray, half a cup of soda into the drum of the unit. Especially this method of softening is suitable for washing light-colored products - soda with vinegar will also cause a whitening effect.

It is also possible to make a special homemade towel rinse. In a container, a glass of water, the same amount of baking soda and six glasses of nine percent vinegar are mixed. Wait for the frothing process to complete and pour another six cups of water into the container. To give the conditioner an aroma, drop it into a solution of essential oil (peach, grape, etc.). The mixture made is used instead of store-bought rinse if necessary.

Returning the former softness to an old towel

If your favorite towel has lost its appearance, has begun to look unpresentable, do not rush to throw the product away. You can try to revive a thing using proven folk methods. Dissolve table salt in a bowl of water.

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