While rough cotton towels are far better at drying yourself quickly and exfoliating, I do prefer the feeling of towels when they’re soft and fluffy. I’ve not long bought quite a few towels, but after putting them through the wash five times, they already feel like sandpaper on my skin.
There are two main reasons why the towels have lost their softness after going through the wash: a buildup of laundry detergent and mineral deposits, otherwise known as limescale. Living in a hard water area means I need to add more detergent than usual, but this quickly leads to a buildup of the substance. To restore the towels, five cleaners recommended I use white vinegar for the job.
White vinegar is a wonderful product when it comes to the world of cleaning. It’s inexpensive and acts as a disinfectant because the acetic acid content breaks down bacteria and viruses.
This not only thoroughly cleans but also removes odours, so it’s a good option for older towels that seem to have a faint, lingering damp smell even when freshly laundered.
Crucially, vinegar works to break down detergent residue, therefore softening your towels’ fibres once more.
CEO of Cleaning Express is just one of the cleaning pros who advised me on vinegar, as he claimed that the “best natural and effective way to get a towel soft again” is to use white vinegar.
After adding white vinegar to the wash cycle with no detergent, the towels had turned significantly softer, even one that I had struggled to restore for years.
I was prepared to put them on a second wash after using vinegar, as I thought they would be left with a strong scent, but they were odourless.
To wash the towels, I put about 100ml of white vinegar in the fabric softener compartment and put them on a 40-degree wash, as that’s the best temperature to achieve softness. A hot wash will only aid in making your towels rough.
Once the wash cycle was over, I put it on a rinse and spin cycle, which helps the towels to dry fast and fluffs them up.
I then removed the towels quickly from the washing machine to avoid bacteria and odours forming. I put the towels to dry on my airer with a dehumidifier to speed up the drying process.
While tumble dryers can be used to dry towels, drying them using high heat can damage the fibres, causing them to become rough and less absorbent.
