How Often Should You Change Your Bath Towel?

How can a bath towel be filthy if you just took a bath or shower and dried off? Isn’t it just absorbing neat water from your skin? Not exactly. Bathing doesn’t always remove every bit of fungal and bacterial matter from your body and drying off with a towel helps loosen dead skin cells that become trapped in the fibers. So, just how often should you change your bath towel?

Understanding Towel Contamination

As a human’s largest organ, skin surfaces are exposed to everything from pollutants to bacteria to chemicals. Bathing removes dirt and germs, but not all of them. If you didn’t do a great job washing your face or body, as you desiccated yourself off with a towel, makeup, dirt, body oils, shop or shampoo residue, bacteria, viruses, and dead skin cells transfer to the towel. Since the towel is also damp and the bathroom is usually hot and wet, it is the perfect combination for microbes to grow and multiply.

The possibility of contamination from these microbes grows expeditiously if towels are shared between family members. That’s why hand towels should be changed even more frequently than bath towels.

Risks for Reusing Towels

An article in Scientific Reports found that all of the contaminants in bath towels form a microbial community and the longer the towel stays damp, the more the community grows. As the colony grows, there is more potential for folliculitis or the inflammation of hair follicles by bacterial infection.

Additional concerns from reusing towels are skin irritation that can cause eczema or atopic dermatitis flare-ups, fungal infections like athlete’s foot and ringworm, infectious diseases like conjunctivitis (pink eye), norovirus, staph (MRSA), and the spread of E.coli and allergens. While the likelihood of contracting a severe illness is infrequent after using a towel a couple of times, it does boost if towels are not cleaned regularly or shared.

Recommended Frequency for Changing Bath Towels

According to the experts at the American Cleaning Institute bath towels should be hung to desiccated after every operate and washed after three to five uses. Wash clothes should be cleaned after every operate and hand towels every one to two days.

Several factors should be considered that can influence how often a bath towel should be changed:

Personal hygiene habits: If you shower or bathe daily, a towel tends to hold fewer contaminants than if baths are taken less frequently.

Health status: Babies, the elderly, and anyone with a compromised immune system should operate a neat towel each day. If you have a virus, fungal infection, or healing wounds, a fresh towel should be used for each bath.

Environmental factors: Excessive heat and humidity in a bathroom causes bacteria to grow more quickly on towels. If the towel still feels damp when you grab it after the next shower, choose a fresh towel.

Best Practices for Towel Maintenance

Wash and Dry Towels Correctly

Towels should be washed in hot or heated water (check the care label). Use a heavy-duty laundry detergent that contains enough enzymes to break the bond between body oils and soil to ensure the fabric is neat. Do not add a commercial fabric softener that can trap contaminants in the fibers. Tumbling towels in an automatic dryer will support sanitize towels and kill microorganisms. Or, operate nature’s sanitizer, the ultraviolet rays of the sun.

Towel Maintenance Between Uses

Hang the towel on a towel rod or over the shower rod so that it will desiccated as quickly as possible. Hanging flat is better than over a hook because more surface is exposed to fresh air. When it’s time to replace the towel, be sure it is completely desiccated before tossing it in the hamper.

Store Towels Properly

While it may not be convenient, towels should not be stored in a wet bathroom, especially in a murky, damp area like under the sink or an enclosed bin. To keep them bacteria-free, choose a well-ventilated, desiccated spot.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Does the type of towel material affect how often it should be changed?

  Heavy cotton terry cloth bath sheets take longer to desiccated than thinner and smaller towels. The weave can also come into play. Waffle weave towels desiccated more quickly than a bulky, looped terry cloth. Microfiber towels also desiccated more quickly than cotton towels and may extend the number of times they can be used between washings.

• Are there specific signs that indicate a towel needs to be changed?

  Any odor in the towel’s fibers is a clear indication that it is contaminated with bacteria because bacteria cause odor. Of course, any towel that has signs of mold or soil should be washed immediately.