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Why some clothes shrink in the wash and how to unshrink them
- imbusy111 9mo agotl;dr; you can't, cause the fibers are crinckled up in a lower energy state, but try soaking in 1 tablespoon of hair conditioner per liter of lukewarm water and stretch.
- mnw21cam 9mo agoJust buy them slightly oversize and let them shrink down to the right size.
- comrade1234 9mo agoI have the following printout in the laundry room. I haven't had any problems with shrinking or fading, etc. https://www.ihateironing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/The-complete-care-label-gude.png https://www.ihateironing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/07...
- skerit 9mo agoWhat the hell does "Do not dry" mean? You have to keep it moist forever?
- p00dles 9mo agoIt probably means to air-dry (to not use a dryer)
- skerit 9mo agoYou would think that, but there is an icon for not using a dryer. There is an icon for all forms of drying. On a clothes line, in the shade, "flat", ...
- Jackim 9mo agoThe Do Not Dry symbol is only used in conjunction with a Do Not Wash symbol, i.e. don't get this wet, and don't heat it.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- HWR_14 9mo agoThat seems to be a nonsensical generalization. A lot of symbols have the negative condition applied with an X. So if you applied it to "generic dry" it would mean do not dry. But it's reasonable when applied to a subset. For instance, do not tumble dry
- cameronh90 9mo agoI find clothes labels are way too conservative. Half of my stuff says don't dry, hand wash only, or cold wash on delicate. Unless it's a particularly expensive or dry clean only, I just wash at 40 degrees "daily" programme, except for underwear, towels and bedding which go in at 60. Most stuff is fine. On the rare occasion something gets ruined, I don't get that brand again.
- jorvi 9mo agoThey are too conservative but it really depends. Lots of formal pants are a mix of wool, rayon and cotton. They'll indicate to only steam clean, and whilst they can be washed on 30c + delicate, you have to make sure to wash inside out and to dry them hanging from the legs. Mostly due to the rayon, although the wool is also a sensitive fabric. In general it's just smart to wash and (air)dry things inside out. Keep the wear and tear on the inside. And if you have decent suit jackets, pants or dress shirts, please just steam or hand clean them.
- account42 9mo agoI take the opposite approach: wash everything on the default setting and whatever survives (almost everything) is now confirmed safe for that setting. Keeps things simpler and has the advantage that you can cut of those scratchy labels that are always attached in the most uncomfortable places possible.
- lotsofpulp 9mo agoIf I have to choose anything but the default wash and dry setting, I'm not worthy of wearing it.
- lostlogin 9mo agoDarwinian washing. I like it.
- stronglikedan 9mo agoI have a similar one, but all it says is wash anything and everything except sheets and towels on cold/permapress/delicate with half the recommended amount of detergent, and use your head when deciding what to put in the dryer on a setting that leaves just a little moisture. Sheets and towels get the hot water treatment with a full drying cycle.
- taeric 9mo agoIt has been ages since I had clothes shrink on me. To the point that I had assumed something must have gotten better in modern dryers. Is that not the case? Edit: Quickly searching, this appears to be the case? Specifically modern moisture sensing dryers that stop appropriately goes a long way to never having something shrink on you.
- testplzignore 9mo agoThere have been changes in the manufacturing process to "pre-shrink" fabrics. Similar improvements have been made to improve colorfastness. Mixing new reds and whites used to consistently produce pink. Not anymore.
- taeric 9mo agoI should have been clear, I also expected that there were changes to the clothes. I was just more surprised after we ran some sweaters through the cycle on accident, only to find that they did just fine.
- cogman10 9mo agoStill happens sometimes, especially if you do warmer water. I have some semi-recent pinkified cloths. That said, washing everything on cold water and low temps in the dryer works pretty well at extending the life of cloths.
- dylan604 9mo agoNot buying fast fashion helps with the color fastness. There was the article sometime back about one of the popular depeche mode sites with "swimming attire" vs swimsuits as they were not meant to get wet and the colors would run down your skin if you got them wet.
- toast0 9mo agoThat's a weird topic for an 80s band fan site, but ok.
- CurleighBraces 9mo agoMe and the wife have so many discussions about this :) We have a lot of "shrinkage" in our house, that I am convinced is more due to both of us uhh "growing" rather than the clothes shrinking ;) You can imagine, it's a delicate subject
- xenospn 9mo agoI think it's definitely possible to gain weight between wash cycles when living in America.
- bakies 9mo agodo you dry on high or wash on hot? I'd recommend low and cold.
- danparsonson 9mo agoThat's happening to me too! My trousers are selectively shrinking around the waistband, it's weird...
- DANmode 9mo agoJust come with a tape-style tape measure, should remove the delicacy.
- scaradim 9mo agofunny & true :-)
- benrutter 9mo agoI am tall enough that shrinking t-shirts is a constant annoyance! (though I have to admit I haven't ever tried the 'conditioner and water' trick, even though I've heard of it before). Low temperature washes and avoiding tumble dryers works. I've also noticed thicker material t-shirts seem to definitely shrink a lot less! Much thinner cottton t-shirts seem to shrink a lot more, my mental model is that there's less material so when it bunches together to it's "happy place", it ends up a lot smaller. I have no evidence for this though. Any other tips from people here? Also, has anyone actually tried stretching with hair conditioner?
- jpalawaga 9mo agoHang-dry your tees. It's a slight annoyance vs just bombing everything into the dryer, but it's very worth it to not have sleeves that are too short. I usually hang mine on the shower's curtain rod to dry. And frankly, this seems like less effort than trying to apply some hack to unshrink them after the damage is done.
- kevinmchugh 9mo agoHigher rise pants help. I have a long torso and started buying higher rise pants for the aesthetic difference, but they also make me less concerned about a t shirt becoming a belly shirt
- FuriouslyAdrift 9mo agoOr get shirts made for people with longer torsos... YMMV https://www.landsend.com/shop/mens-tall-t-shirts-tops-tees/S-xfe-xez-y5b-xh1-y04-16t5-xec https://www.landsend.com/shop/mens-tall-t-shirts-tops-tees/S...
- vaindil 9mo agoI'm 6'9" / 206cm, and I've struggled my whole life to find clothing that fits, since I'm slim. If we're sharing links, the two I've been buying from lately are https://tallslimtees.com https://tallslimtees.com and https://www.2tall.com https://www.2tall.com. The latter has a large selection of knitwear, which I've never found anywhere else, it's been a game changer. (Most tall sizes are both bigger and taller, so they don't fit correctly. These sites sell taller clothing that'sonly taller.)
- abdullahkhalids 9mo agoI had the opposite problem recently. Where Levi's jeans expanded and loosened up after a couple of washes. What's the reason for that?
- Xenoamorphous 9mo agoThat's probably not the washes but due to wear.
- abdullahkhalids 9mo agoIf somebody wants to wear tight jeans, how can they do that, if the jeans that were tight in store expand afterwards? Surely you can't buy a size smaller because then you can't wear them to break them.
- Xenoamorphous 9mo agoIf the jeans have elastane (which most tight cuts have), it should help. As an aside, skinny jeans haven’t been fashionable in years.
- crazygringo 9mo ago> how can they do that The answer is literally, with great difficulty. Anything tight that needs to be broken in is reaaally tight at first. But when there's a will, there's a way.
- 542354234235 9mo ago70s and 80s movies come to mind where girls would be getting ready and lie down on the bed and suck in to get the button buttoned. Dazed and Confused comes to mind where they literally use a pair of pliers to put up the zipper because its so tight. Until you break it in, you are just having to suffer. Once they put elastic into jeans, people jumped on it because its just easier. I love my old-style selvedge denim, but it is more work and care than throwaway stuff.
- throwway120385 9mo ago
- teekert 9mo agoMy eye hit the "It’s not just hot water – here’s why" as one of the first things... em-dash, here's why... I smell the smelly smell, even though I'm not even opposed to it haha.
- latexr 9mo agoIt’s not an em-dash, but an en-dash. So it’s incorrectly used.
- webstrand 9mo agoIts correctly used, just not common in American English. <https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/book/ed18/part2/ch06/psec089.html https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/book/ed18/part2/ch06/ps...>
- latexr 9mo agoLink is behind a login wall.
- webstrand 9mo agoWild, apparently my institution pays for that, sorry for the dead link. <https://cmosshoptalk.com/2020/06/09/en-dashes-the-editors-mark/#:~:text=En%20Dash%20as%20Dash https://cmosshoptalk.com/2020/06/09/en-dashes-the-editors-ma...> quotes the relevant section here. I can't find another source for the CMOS.
- 9mo ago
- Der_Einzige 9mo agoDay 39585 of HN not knowing anything about selvedge denim, or other nice quality men’s fashion…
- 65 9mo agoEh, selvedge denim these days is just a fashion trend. It's fine, yeah. But there are other clothes one has to wear besides denim.
- rconti 9mo agoI'm sure some day we'll notice the consequences. Real soon now...
- cmtm4 9mo agoI hardly have anything that I'd trust to a mechanical washer or dryer, these days. The things I do (mostly underwear and socks) still need cold-wash and extra-low-heat dry.
- Der_Einzige 9mo agoThe default for all people should to cold wash and hang dry what they care about taking care of, and to use extra-low-heat on what they don't care about. Indoor hang drying is easy. Get a box fan, and a de-humidifier. Both are about 20$ USD. Now you don't even need to open the windows or worry about what's going on outside. I went from zero to hero with clothes when I realized I should care about them, and seeing the night and day difference in how long my clothes last has been jarring. Shrinkage is a thing of the past.
- Eiriksmal 9mo agoI bought a SpeedQueen washer-dryer set to have a dedicated wool wash option to care for my Gustin wool flannels and various 100% merino wool sweaters. Does that count? I would imagine most people on this site don't deal with clothes shrinking any more because they are wearing screen-printed, startup-logo-emblazoned tri-blend t-shirts with a very low cotton count. So even though the shirt is presumably using the cheapest, gnarliest short-staple cotton the manufacturer could get his hands on, the sheer amount of manmade fibers in it allows that Custom Ink goodness to remain firmly a Medium for years. Well, that and the hugely boxy fit. How would you notice if any of it shrank? "Modern" dryers' ability to tumble clothes on low until they are still pretty damp, but now wrinkle-free, then pull it out to finish on a rack means I don't have to give much thought to the proper maintenance of 99% cotton jeans or 100% duck canvas pants. I don't think the 100% cotton American Giant shirts and hoodies are particularly prone to shrinking, either, but they do seem to soak up stains more readily than American Apparel's tri-blends given away as swag.
- the__alchemist 9mo agoTeam no dryer. I have been cold wash + line-drying for my whole adult life; works out. (Unless something is actually soiled; then hot)
- ynac 9mo agoI'm down to just a few sweat shirts and over shirts from the 80s, but they are hanging in there. Both the colors and the fabric. When the subject comes up with friends who ask about a particular shirt I joke, "The cotton was tougher back then". Recently, I've had jeans, shirts, and even socks that didn't make it through a single summer. Is anyone else freaked out about cleaning their dryer's lint filter given all the new fabric materials? I'm putting together a dryer-vac system to keep it from billowing into the air of our small laundry room.
- troyvit 9mo agoI don't have any clothes as old as yours though for sure, but line drying generally helps your clothes last longer. I'm so glad I live in Colorado. It's a warm winter, but it takes like 3 hours to dry stuff on the line (especially synthetics). Of course that means all my synthetic fibers are literally billowing into the air I guess. Still, we've been going without a dryer for about five years now and I've had no regrets.
- dylan604 9mo agoI use my line in Texas, and 3 hours would see the clothes go from wet -> dry -> melted! And that's in the shade! Unfortunately, the line dried clothes are not soft, so I end up fluffing them in the drier using the air dry setting. Still cheaper than running the heating element, but hasn't eliminated the drier for me.
- user070223 9mo agoHer logic seems reasonable but stating that the fibers "return to their original crinkled state" is missing the fact that the fiber go through the process of spinning to improve tensile strength (as well as the options of making an infinite yarn from finite fibers by twisting them together). regardless to return to original "crinckled state" they need to overcome those forces as well as the forces of the geometry of the knit(on a different scale). BTW Rayon is also made from cellulose, cellulose II. While Cellulose I(natural) is metastable it can be converted by disolving in lye to a stable form (beta-gllocouse molecolue chain goes from being parallel to being anti parllel which increases the # of hydrogen bonds as well as helping create a more stable 3d structure) which again improve tensile strength and resist wrinkles on a different scale.
- prmph 9mo agoBought some dress shirts (made of mostly cotton) from Banana Republic, the same brand that had good shirts some years back, the exact same size I wear. Shockingly, after hand washing them for the first time in cold water, the sleeves have shrunk so dramatically that I cannot wear them any longer, except to roll up the sleeves Up to beyond the elbow. They just lost customer for life. Enshittification strikes again.
- crazygringo 9mo agoThat doesn't even make sense. Banana Republic cotton is fine. I have a bunch of their shirts and machine wash cold and hang-dry and zero shrinkage. Did you put it in the dryer afterwards or something? Like I know that sounds dumb but I'm struggling to imagine what could have possibly caused what you describe. There's zero "enshittification" of the cotton at a brand like Banana Republic.
- steviedotboston 9mo agoDo you find there's a difference in cotton quality with different shirt brands that results in some shrinking more than others?
- crazygringo 9mo agoNot when washing cold and hang-drying. When washing warm or machine drying, absolutely, although I'm not sure how much is attributable to the cotton itself versus how much is attributable to the denser weave that tends to come with nicer brands. But this comment was specifically about washing cold, hence my confusion.
- prmph 9mo agoWhat I'm relating is 100% the truth, and I did not machine dry them after washing. I could not even believe my eyes when it happened, because I've been a customer of their dress shirts since like a decade ago and always relied on them for a precise fit. I bought two of them, the ones that shrunk. They are labeled as wrinkle-resistant slim shirts, 98% cotton and 2% spandex. Don't be mistaken, the quality of their apparel has definitely gone down of late. I went on Reddit and its definitely a thing people have noticed.
- kuon 9mo agoI just buy bigger and wash at 95° once, then no problem.
- ortusdux 9mo agoThere was a great custom order screen printing website blog where they documented their shrinkage testing. They made a pressure sensitive shirt form and then ran 30+ brands of shirts through a battery of tests, measuring fit after each washing. I've heard reports that the newer heat pump clothes dryers are less prone to cause shrinking. In their default mode they act more like a dehumidifier than a heater. In theory you can wash more delicate dry-clean only garments as well.
- dgacmu 9mo agoDo you have pointers to good sources you've found about that? I've been wondering about exactly this from an optimization-of-the-laundry perspective. (I've been tempted to just yolo buy one to try it out but installing it in my house is a pain in the rear because of the location.)
- ortusdux 9mo agoAs I understand it, many people prefer the heat pump dryers because they are easier to install. Most are 110v and don't exhaust moisture, so you can just shove one in a closet if it has sufficient electricity. You do need to remove the water reservoir and pour it down a drain after every few loads of laundry.
- dgacmu 9mo agoOh, that part of the installation is easy, it's literally just physically getting a large, heavy rectangular cuboid navigated through my basement to the laundry room. The last time I brought one in I put a hole in the door (by accident).
- mattmoose21 9mo agoMany have an optional hose to pump to a drain if available.
- gwbas1c 9mo agoI have a heat pump dryer, and I can confirm no shrinkage. It's very gentle on clothes, but it does take a bit longer to dry.
- saghm 9mo agoGrowing up I was always told that cotton would shrink in the dryer but polyester wouldn't, and I should just check the tag on a shirt to find out if it would shrink (which usually would say something like 100% cotton, 100% polyester, 50% cotton/50% polyester, etc.). Seeing the title on this article made me think that it would be a refutation of that conventional wisdom, but it sounds like what I was taught growing up was basically correct. I can't help but be curious now; is this something that other people my age (born in the early 90s) had heard when they were kids? Did people who grew up earlier than that hear it when they were kids, or did this idea maybe not reach mainstream status until a bit later (maybe my parents were relatively early in repeating this wisdom)? Or maybe it's something that used to be common knowledge that's been "lost" to newer generations for some reason? I'm genuinely a bit surprised to see that this article was published just last summer, since I assumed that the basic premise would be have something the average person would have learned before then from existing sources. Maybe I'm assuming too much about whether this article was intended to be about the "what" rather than the "why", but the language seems intended to be approachable to those from a non-scientific background (e.g. "on a chemical level, there are also links between the chains called hydrogen bonds"; I would expect someone talking to another scientist to be more direct and say something like "there are hydrogen bonds" with the expectation that they understood what they were already).
- bakies 9mo agoYou need to be constantly updating your knowledge in this area. Laundry detergents and garment materials have evolved a lot in the last few decades. A lot of conventional wisdom is outdated. You don't need to wash Hot. Detergents work in cold water now. Cotton is often pre-shrunk but YMMV. Personally I do not use any of these chemical additives for clothes. The best wash is unscented detergent with vinegar in the pre-wash (where liquid fabric softner goes). Vinegar does the job of deodorizing, getting rid of static, and fabric softening. You don't need a dryer sheet. I'll use spray and wash still for stains. Dish detergent for oil stains. I stopped wearing plastic so I'm not sure what modern polyester shirts are like. Washing cold and drying low means you'll rarely shrink something. My favorite shirts I'll hang dry.
- Izkata 9mo ago
- TightFibre 9mo agoI have had some low temperature wool disasters. The spin cycle I think is to blame. But you want it dry, you think you'll get away with it, then you sigh deeply upon finding the shrinky dinky.
- htx80nerd 9mo agoi hang dry almost all my clothes. anything i care about. even $5 tshirts.
- kccqzy 9mo agoI just have a different threshold. If it cost $100 or more I’ll hang dry. Otherwise it gets into the dryer.
- sct202 9mo agoI accidently mildly shrunk a wool sweater from using warm water instead of cold, and the unshrinking method in the article does not work very much.
- maximgeorge 9mo ago[dead]
- tippa123 9mo agoThe Levi's logo now makes a lot more sense.
- 65 9mo agoJust a tip if you want to prevent shrinkage is to not dry clothes you don't want shrinking. I air dry my pants and any shirts I don't want to shrink.
- steviedotboston 9mo agoI have this problem with button down shirts. I buy one that fits me perfectly and then all of a sudden months later its too small in the sleeves. I wash them very carefully. Only cold water, and air dry. This helps somewhat but the problem seems to re-occur still. I'll try the delicate cycle on the washer, but it's incredibly frustrating.
- kazinator 9mo agoMake sure they are pre-shrunk cotton. It can still shrink, but far less. Make sure the shirt is sized so that when you extend your arm laterally, the cuff approaches your knuckle. If your idea of a fitting shirt happens to be that the cuff just covers a wrist watch when you extend your arm, then you have no spare headroom for shrinkage.
- kazinator 9mo ago> Textile scientists and engineers are also working on fabrics that resist shrinkage through advanced material design. Among promising innovations are blended yarns that combine natural and synthetic fibres. What odd language! The fact that cotton-poly blends resist shrinking and wrinkling better than natural fibers has been known for like 80 years. While it may be that research continues, the "promising innovation" era of this category lapsed eons ago. I'm also mystified why the article would not at least acknowledge the existence of something called pre-shrunk cotton, which is a material that is put through processes that cause shrinking before being measured and cut for clothing, to minimize further after-market shrinkage for the consumer.
- armcat 9mo agoWow an article from my university in Melbourne (I am an old alumni), so proud!
- morgan814 9mo ago[dead]
- AndrewDavis 9mo agoWow! Never thought I'd see my little Alma Mater on Hacker News!
- xp84 9mo ago> Textile scientists and engineers are also working on fabrics that resist shrinkage through advanced material design. Among promising innovations are blended yarns that combine natural and synthetic fibres. Can someone who knows things about textiles explain to me how the above is different than all the many items I own that say on the label, 60%/40% blend polyester/cotton, etc. I assumed that's what these were.
- diogenescynic 9mo agoAnyone who is a little bigger ever noticed how it doesn't really matter what size you buy because after a few washes they all shrink down to the same size? Makes me think it's the same amount of fabric being used so the shirt even if it's sold as a bigger size, ultimately reverts back to another size over time.
- rjmunro 9mo agoI want someone to engineer a fabric / fibre that grows with each wash rather than shrinks. I feel like with modern materials science it must be possible. I'd use it for children's clothes. After you wash the clothes, you wait for the kid to grow a bit before they wear it again. No more growing out of your favourite things.