Towels and skin: how often to wash them, and why they get stiff

You use a towel on skin that’s just been cleaned, which makes it one of the most personal things in your laundry basket. It’s also damp for hours after every use. Here’s what that means for bacteria and smell, how often to wash towels, and why they turn stiff and stop soaking up water.

What actually lives on a towel

Every time you dry off, a towel picks up water, dead skin cells, a bit of skin oil and some of the bacteria that normally live on your skin. Most of those bacteria are harmless. The question is what happens next, while the towel sits damp on a hook.

Towels are good at keeping bacteria alive. A 2018 laboratory study in the Journal of Infection and Public Health tested how well several hospital-relevant bacteria survived on different fabrics. Every group survived better on 100 percent cotton towelling than on cotton sheeting. The looped, thick structure that makes a towel absorbent also gives bacteria a comfortable place to hang on.

That study used hospital germs in a lab, not ordinary skin bacteria in a bathroom, so it isn’t a picture of your towel rack. But it does explain why towels deserve a bit more attention than a T-shirt.

Why drying between uses matters so much

The musty “wet dog” smell a towel gets after a few days isn’t just old water. A study in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, from researchers in Japan, traced the sour, damp smell of laundry dried indoors to a bacterium called Moraxella osloensis. It produces a smelly compound, and the researchers found it tolerates drying and UV light well, which may be why it survives in laundry even after drying.

You don’t need to worry about that bacterium for your skin. It’s mostly an odour problem. But the practical lesson is the same for smell and hygiene: a towel that dries quickly and completely is a better towel.

• Hang towels spread out, not bunched on a hook or folded over a narrow bar.
• Run the bathroom fan or open a window after a shower.
• Don’t leave wet towels in a pile or in the washer after the cycle ends.
• Dry washed towels fully before folding and stacking them.

How often should you wash towels?

We looked for an official guideline and couldn’t find one backed by research. So here’s a common-sense approach rather than a rule:

• Bath towels used by one healthy person and dried fully between uses can go a few uses. Wash sooner if they smell, feel damp or look soiled.
• Hand towels in a shared bathroom get used by many hands many times a day, so they need changing more often.
• Face cloths stay wet and touch your face directly. Using a fresh one each time is easy if you have a stack.
• Gym and pool towels go straight in the wash; they’re often packed away wet.

Wash more often, and don’t share, when someone has a skin problem. People with eczema, acne or broken skin may prefer fresh towels more often simply for comfort.

Sharing towels: when it’s a real risk

For most healthy households, sharing a towel now and then is not a big deal. But it’s a genuine route for some skin infections.

A study of households in and around Toronto followed people with MRSA, a type of staph bacterium resistant to common antibiotics, and their family members. About half of household contacts carried MRSA, and sharing bath towels was one of the risk factors for picking it up.

The NHS gives similar practical advice for impetigo, a very contagious skin infection: wash flannels, towels, sheets and pillowcases at a high temperature. If anyone at home has a skin infection, give each person their own towel and wash them hot, following the care label. If a skin infection is spreading, not improving, or comes with fever, see your doctor or pharmacist.

Why towels get stiff, and what to do

Stiff, scratchy towels usually come from one of three things.

Line drying. Cotton holds on to a small amount of water even when it feels dry. Research reported by the American Institute of Physics found that this bound water acts like glue between cotton fibres as they dry still, much like hair spray. A short tumble in the dryer, or a good shake before and after hanging, breaks those bonds.

Too much detergent. Extra detergent doesn’t make towels cleaner. It just leaves more behind in the towelling. Measure the dose, don’t overload the washer, and use an extra rinse if your machine has one.

Softener build-up. This is the ironic one. Softener makes towels feel softer, but the University of Kentucky’s extension guidance notes that too much softener reduces the absorbency of towels. The coating that gives that silky feel also makes towels push water around instead of soaking it up.

Towels for sensitive skin

Your towel touches freshly washed skin, often skin you’re about to moisturize. For sensitive or eczema-prone skin:

• Choose fragrance-free detergent, and skip scented softener and dryer sheets on towels. You can browse fragrance-free laundry products the panel has reviewed.
• Pat, don’t rub. Rubbing with a rough towel is friction on already irritated skin.
• Soften with the dryer, not with a product. A few minutes of tumbling does most of the work.

What to remember: towels stay damp and bacteria like that, so let them dry fully, wash them regularly and don’t share them when someone has a skin infection. Stiffness usually comes from line drying or residue, and softener trades softness for absorbency. A fragrance-free detergent, the right dose and a short tumble are the simplest route to towels that are kind to your skin.