My towels are hard and scratchy rather than soft and fluffy – it’s so bad, I’m almost embarrassed to hand them out to guests. I blame the endless wash cycles, which have been stripped of fabric softener for fear of ruining the towels’ absorbency. At the same time, the temperature is whacked up to 60 degrees to kill any bacteria and musty smells…
As a result, it feels like a cat’s tongue as you dry yourself in my home, and you almost need to snap them in half when it comes to folding for storage. But what can be done about this scratchy-towel conundrum? Or are towels ruined for good once they reach this state? It turns out there is a solution (or two), and it’s sitting in your kitchen cupboards. Here’s what you need to do.
Why do towels get so hard and scratchy?
Your towel won’t be the same after its first wash. That's because towels on the shop shelf have been treated with silicone (or something similar) to enhance their fluffy feeling and to give them a more appealing finish, making you more likely to buy them.
That coating will often be removed after one wash. In fact, the tag on the towel will likely say you need to wash it before its first use. Otherwise, the towel struggles to absorb the water and can't do its job. So, your towel is never going to be soft as you might have initially thought, but still, it does seemingly get scratchier over time – why is this?
Lots of things contribute to harder towels. You might overdo the detergent, which leaves them feeling crispy and rough. Alternatively, you might add too much fabric softener, which creates a waxy coating on the surface that deters the towels’ absorbency and has a hardening effect.
There are other factors at play, too. If you live in a hard-water area, the minerals left behind can contribute to rough towels. And if you stick to hot washes, that can damage the fibres over time and wear down the fluffy exterior. Then, there’s how you dry your towels, which we’ll come on to later.
What two ingredients can fix hard towels?
There are two items that you can rely on to restore your towels. It’s out trusted go-to green cleaners: distilled white vinegar and bicarbonate of soda.
Vinegar’s acidity will help to strip and breakdown any detergent as well as hard water minerals that are lingering in your towels. Meanwhile, bicarb can ‘fluff up’ your towels by neutralising the pH of the water and breaking down any lingering grime. It also helps to deodorise any lingering smells. Note that you need to do two washes for best results with these cleaners – otherwise they will react in your washing machine and create a fizzy mess!
Start by loading all your hard towels into the otherwise empty drum. Keep your washing machine’s capacity in mind as towels will weigh more than your usual laundry when wet! Next, tip 200ml of distilled white vinegar into the main wash compartment of the detergent drawer – don’t forget to keep the detergent flap down so it doesn’t drain away immediately. You don’t need detergent or softener in this cycle, the vinegar does everything!
Select a warm to hot wash cycle (warm for colours and hot for whites; ideally 60 degrees if the care label allows) and run it for its full length – don’t be tempted to cut corners with quick wash settings. In fact, you should run an additional rinse cycle to clear any final traces of vinegar. The good news is that the vinegar will help to clean your washing machine at the same time by breaking down any limescale. It might smell a bit like a fish and chip shop by the end, but it’s worth it!
Next, you’re going to tip 200g of bicarb directly on top of your towels in the drum. It may look like you’re making a mess, but this second step is crucial to give your towels a final ‘fluff’. Then, run the exact same cycle as you did before – a warm to hot wash with no detergent or softener, ideally with an additional rinse cycle to remove any final traces.
But what about drying?
How you dry your towels is crucial because, without a tumble dryer, the only alternative is a clothesline or airer, where they're likely to stiffen if there's little movement. There’s a couple of fixes for this.
First, you can give the towels a good shake before you hang them to open the fibres and release any wrinkles. You could also regularly rotate and reposition the towels on the line, so they dry more evenly and promptly. Finally, you could opt to dry them outdoors in the sun (if the weather permits!). The sun will heat your towels while the wind will regularly move them, creating a sort of natural dryer. For white towels, the UV rays will bleach them as a bonus!
Check out 6 clever ways to dry clothes indoors when you don't have space for an airer.
How should you wash your towels going ahead?
You always have the above method to fall back on if towels harden again in the future (you can use it once every few months or so), but if you want to keep them generally softer for longer, we recommend the following:
- Stick to cooler wash cycles and lower spin speeds when they’re sufficient to protect the fibres.
- Only wash once every 3-4 uses to limit wash cycles.
- Use the right amount of detergent so your towels don’t retain residue and soap suds.
- Use a small amount of fabric softener on occasion to help soften.
- If you are lucky enough to have a dryer, invest in some wool dryer balls to help soften the load and dry it more quickly.
GHI approved bath towels
92/100
