The thongs I use for sport with leggings and work are a mix of polyester and spandex. I want them to last as long as possible.
I experimented a bit with one: I made a baking soda paste, applied it to the stained parts, let it sit for an hour, hand scrubbed it, rinsed in cold water, pressed the thong to get rid of as much water as possible, let it to air dry. Am I being too careful?
Baking soda removed all stains.
Do you only hand wash your undies?
heat is one of the primary killers of fabrics. i have definitely seen more longevity by cold washing, short cycles and no dryer.
Did you mean cycle shorts?
/jk
Would a lower temp, but longer dryer cycle be any better?
I think that the answer to that is a solid “maybe”. Damage to materials by energy (heat) is a two dimensional thing; energy input and time. Before a certain temperature threshold, your thought probably is correct. Whether that threshold is equal to the settings available on your dryer and whether it is practical are further questions that will probably vary with the fabric in question.
i would assume so… my dryer has a ‘no heat’ option but i was always afraid of the wear on the clothing tumbling around forever
There are heat pump dryers which take longer but are more gentle because the clothes are heated significantly less. They recycle the air across a cold plate to condense out water vapor out then a hot plate to re-heat the air. Its essentially a dehumidifier.
From my partner:
- Yes, but the same could be achieved on a cold and delicate wash with no tumble dry
- Reconsider the materials, especially if hand washing. Switch to merino for active wear and cotton daily to avoid infections. “Synthetics are for fun time.”
Switch to merino for active wear and cotton daily to avoid infections.
does your partner hand wash her merino thongs? Merino is expensive and my experience with thin merino garments is they tend to break easily. Doesn’t merino itch? Does she have to wash the piece more often than other undies?
I wonder how a full cotton thong would improve my health because so far I haven’t had any trouble with my synthetic ones with a cotton gusset. Or does your partner mean full cotton thongs are better than polyester ones with a cotton gusset? Why?
All great questions, the merino ones I can handle 😉
Yes, merino is expensive, but it does last if you take care of it. The stuff you get on Amazon is often thinner than it should be, and prone to excesive wear. Usually a merino mix, where the garment is over 50% merino is a good balance, though we go more merino in socks (Darn tough with around 70+% and the lifetime warranties make u for the price to us).
For washing, we either use a bag with a gentle wash cycle or hand wash all our merino undergarments (and others) using Nikwax wool wash. We are in the outdoors a lot, so have definitely learned the advantages of the natural antimicrobial (and thus anti-smell, too) capabilities of the material.
As for itching, while merino is wool, it is from an entirely different kind of sheep than “normal” wool, and has a much tighter weave. If it’s authentic, it should not itch at all. If it does, it’s probably mixed.
And for washing frequency, that’s part of the reason we use merino. May be gross to some, but if you’re backpacking, you end up airing out your undies and socks on alternating days as you hike, and merino is great for that due to the above mentioned antimicrobial properties. (Note: We are not “alternative” in any way to be clear, we are both engineers and there’s science behind it)
For your final question about the gusset, that’s outside of my area of expertise because she and I haven’t discussed that and she’s out ATM, but my guess would be the contact point of the cotton is what natters most, so a cotton gusset would be A+. I’m happy to ask her when she’s back, if you would like.
The only people I know who hand wash their undies are wearing expensive lace. Thongs and normal underwear are fairly resilient. Cold water washing helps, as does either tumble drying or hanging. You can also use the drlicates cycle on your washer, and get a lingerie bag.
With those materials, hand washing is essentially theater. Machine washing spandex or polyester isn’t going to make enough of a difference over the life of the garment to matter. You’ll wear it out through use before the washing method could do anything.
Some fabrics are more delicate, but those are tough as hell.
I have clothes that I keep out of the dryer, but I’m willing to put pretty much anything in the washing machine (aside from dry clean only stuff). I will hand wash my workout clothes, mainly in the summer, when they are drenched in sweat and I don’t have enough dirty laundry to make it worth putting them in the laundry right away. I just put a little splash of laundry detergent in the sink with some cold water to wash them, then hang them to dry. But I do that to keep them from getting stinky, not to prolong the life of the clothes.
Unrelated to washing.
If you have body hair, each one acts as a miniature saw that rips through your clothes making them lose integrity much faster than otherwise.
Does it mostly happen to you during full moons?
How’d you know?
