What to do if towels become hard after washing: valuable recommendations and methods

Comfort in the house is created by various little things. A soft towel can continue the relaxing effect after a shower or bath.

But over time, the products lose their original appearance. There are several reasons for this.

There are simple, cost-effective ways to preserve the quality of new towels for a long time and even revive old products.

What to do if towels become hard after washing in the washing machine and why does this happen? How can I make them soft and fluffy again?

Why did the products lose their softness after being processed in the washing machine?

When buying a new towel, any housewife dreams of maintaining its softness for a long period. However, the product loses its original appearance after each wash. There are five main reasons that lead to hard towels:

1. 
   Poor quality of tap water . Unfortunately, most regions of Russia use too hard water. Calcium and magnesium salts clog fabric fibers, which negatively affects the appearance of products.

2. Inappropriate remedy . Particles of inexpensive dry powders get stuck in the canvas, making it rougher. The longer the pile of a towel, the more detergent remains in the fabric, which makes it stiffer.
3. Wrong mode . Each product must be washed, taking into account the properties of the fabric from which it is made. Each type of fiber has its own washing mode (manual or automatic, temperature, rinse, spin).
4. Errors in product care . This includes violation of the rules of drying, ironing, and storing towels.
5. Low quality fabric . Unfortunately, modern industry is designed to produce inexpensive goods that quickly become unusable.

To enjoy the softness of your towels for a long time, you need to clearly identify the cause of the hardness and eliminate it. In each case, either one provoking factor or all five are possible.

Reasons why towels become hard

The fabric can become rough and unpleasant to the touch both when washed by machine and when washed by hand. True, it is much easier to ruin a towel when washing in a machine - after all, manual processing cleans the material more carefully, and your hands will not allow you to use too hot water and low-quality powders.

The quality of terry items deteriorates for several reasons.

• Hard water. Unfortunately, in most regions of our country, the water contains a significant amount of lime salts. Settled in the fibers of the fabric, they deteriorate the quality of any material. Hard water needs to be softened. We'll tell you how to do this below.
• The quality of the detergent. In this regard, terry is a rather capricious material that does not like powders. Therefore, it is best to resort to liquid laundry detergents.
• Incorrect washing mode - too hot water, poor rinsing, spin at high speeds.
• Mishandling. Some housewives manage to boil terry towels or iron them without a steamer. This is strictly not recommended.

So how do you wash terry clothes without deteriorating their original properties?

Fabric softener and liquid laundry detergent will prevent towels from deteriorating

How to make them soft and fluffy and return them to their original appearance?

How to soften a towel and other clothes after washing? There are simple, cost-effective ways:

The more reasons that cause hard towels, the more difficult it will be to make them soft. You may have to use several methods and not just once, but regularly.

To keep towels soft, you need to choose detergents without chlorine and phosphates.

Homemade conditioner recipe for softness

You can make your own air conditioner at home. To do this, you will need a medium-sized vessel and three components:

• baking soda;
• 9% vinegar;
• water;
• essential oil

A glass of water and soda are added to the prepared vessel, and six glasses of vinegar are poured on top. Do not be alarmed when the soda and vinegar enter into a chemical reaction, allow it to complete and add 6 more glasses of water. To add aroma to your homemade conditioner, you can add 20 drops of essential oil.

When the product is completely ready, it must be poured into a tightly closed bottle. To make the product soft, it is recommended to use half a glass of home conditioner with each wash.

How to properly wash, dry and store so that the products are pleasant to the touch?

To keep your towels soft for a long time, you must follow the rules of washing, drying and storing. A tag with instructions for caring for the product is attached to any product.

Typically, the information contains advice on the following processes:

• washing;
• bleaching;
• drying;
• spin;
• ironing;
• professional care.

Towels should be stored separately from other linen in a ventilated closet.

It is not recommended to put contaminated items in a common basket , since they absorb unpleasant odors from other clothes and are then difficult to get rid of.

Basic rules for washing terry towels

Basic tips for washing terry products are as follows:

• It is recommended to use special canvas or mesh bags to prevent towels from rubbing against the drum of the washing machine.
• It is necessary to separate white products from colored ones to avoid shedding. Although modern dyes are durable, sometimes it happens that light-colored towels are accidentally stained.

• It is not recommended to wash terry towels with products that are decorated with metal or plastic elements. These hard parts can damage the pile.
• Do not wash a wet towel. It must be dried first. Otherwise, a musty smell may occur. If such an unpleasant odor has already arisen, it is recommended to air the towel in the fresh air for several hours, and then wash it as usual.

Features of the softening procedure depending on the material

The following main types of fabric are used to make towels:

1. Terry. Such items should be washed and rinsed in large quantities of water. It is better to wash with liquid detergents at a temperature not exceeding 60 degrees. Spin at 400–500 rpm. Ironing is not recommended. To add softness, it is possible to use all known methods.
2. Cotton. Universal towels. Widely used for body and kitchen needs. The products can withstand high temperatures and spinning, but shrink and become very wrinkled. Softness is returned in all the ways described above.
3. Bamboo. These towels remain soft even after 500 washes. Wash well at 300 without using bleaches or softeners. Spin at low speed is recommended.
4. Velours. Wash at a temperature not exceeding 40 degrees. Retains softness when gently pressed and ironed with a warm iron. Some manufacturers do not recommend ironing products.
5. Microfiber. It is of artificial origin. Products made from this fabric are soft and pleasant to the touch. They can be washed both by hand and in the machine. Do not use bleaches, softeners, or conditioners. No ironing required.
6. Linen. Hard to the touch. Used as kitchen hand towels. White ones can be boiled, and colored ones can be washed at a temperature not exceeding 600. Iron with a well-heated iron.

Manufacturers may add a certain percentage of synthetic fibers to the main types of fabric, so recommendations for caring for products made from the same fabric differ.

How to determine the degree of water hardness

As a very important factor when it comes to washing any type of textile, the water hardness level cannot be ignored. It’s quite easy to check this in several ways using available tools that are found in every home.

With tea

You need to brew loose-leaf black tea and, after a couple of minutes, look at the saturation of its color. It is important to do this not with a packaged product, because it brews quickly.

If the liquid is light and bright, then everything is fine with the water. When it is cloudy and very dark, the hardness is increased.

Using soap

A little laundry soap needs to be rubbed and diluted in water. If everything dissolves quickly enough, then the liquid is safe and suitable for washing without additional processing. Floating particles indicate that the quality of the water supply is poor.

A competent approach to choosing detergents and following individual washing rules will help you cope with the problem or avoid it altogether. Returning a material to its original state is more difficult than maintaining it. And we already know how to make terry towels soft after washing.

Useful tips

keep your towels soft :

1. 
   When washing items made from long pile, you need to set the extra rinse function, which will allow you to more thoroughly remove detergent residues.

2. Load the drum 60–70%, since a large number of items prevents thorough washing and rinsing.
3. Do not wash at temperatures above 600. Too high temperatures make the fabric rough.
4. Choose silicone-based rinses or those designed for children's clothes. Such products provide softness to products for a long time.
5. After washing the product, shake thoroughly and dry vertically in a well-ventilated area or in the air. Direct sunlight and drying on radiators make towels hard.
6. Products with long pile should not be boiled.
7. It is better not to iron or carry out the procedure with steam.
8. It is useful to use a special laundry bag, which will protect long-pile towels from the metal drum of the washing machine.

Washing process to preserve the original appearance of the towel

After washing in the machine, the towel should not become rough, so follow a few tips to help avoid this problem. Because otherwise, it will be more difficult to return hard linen to its original appearance after washing.

The first step when washing heavily soiled towels is to soak them. This will keep the fabric structure soft.

In order to most effectively remove stains and preserve the appearance of the towel, you need to make a special soaking solution. To do this you will need:

• 20 milliliters of ordinary table vinegar;
• liter of water per 20 ml of vinegar. When increasing the amount of solution, maintain the same ratio.