Washing Your Denim - solutions and process

[Sigur Rós]

For sanforized jeans, how early is too early for a wash? I got these jeans going for about 4 months now... but they smell weird. Like I can notice the smell when I sit in my car... :/

Just unload a can of deodorant on the jeans or throw them in the freezer.

[Geeman]

Just wash them if they stink FFS!

[Kushy]

Ok, I'm a relative noob but this thread just hurts...

[1fookntitefd]

This is probably a noob question but here goes:

What is the point of doing subsequent soaks on your jeans as opposed to just washing them? I see a lot of forum members who have 5+ soaks but why not just wash at that point? Do subsequent soaks bring out more contrast/color to the jeans?

[Cucoo]

You might soak a pair that's not dirty yet but has stretched a ton, maybe you just want to tighten them up again. That's about the only real reason for soaking instead of just washing that I can think of

[tigerstrom]

Yeah I agree with cucoo. I soak them to tighten them up.

[1fookntitefd]

^ is it same process as initial soak? Inside out with hot water? My samurai 710's have loosened up and I'd like them tighter....

[Cucoo]

If just soaking without agitation you don't need to turn them inside out. Just put them in the tub.

[Blue Nemo]

i think about washing my two pairs now every 2 or 4 weeks.

 

more precise:

the denime's every 2 weeks

the 666uhr every 4 weeks

 

or i think about something else entirely....hm

 

thought i'd let you know   

[mpukas]

OK, since this thread is here, I'll comment. 

 

I wash my jeans whenever I feel they need it, maybe every 4-6 weeks of wear. If they get dirty, I'll wash them. 

 

I have a front loading washing machine with a hand wash cycle. Inside out. Either Woolite for Darks or some eco-friendly detergent. Hang dry right side out. I'll try to get all the big creases out while wet. 

 

I have used the dryer on some jeans to try to shrink them as much as possible, especially some pairs that have stretched out a lot in the waist. It definitely makes them softer, and that can lead to less defined fades as I feel denim needs to have a certain amount of rigidity to it. But the crease & wiskers always come back rather quickly. 

[mpukas]

Now for some (many) random thoughts on washing (These are my personal opinions, and many will not agree); 

 

Not washing your clothes is disgusting. It doesn't matter what article of clothing it is. Jeans are clothes. You wash your underwear, socks, tee's, etc, not? Wash your jeans. If you can smell your jeans, you can bet everyone else can too. Wash your jeans. 

 

Freezing, hanging them in the sun & breeze, wearing a looser fit thinking that they breath more and therefore will smell less is all nonsense when it comes to having clean clothes. If you jeans are dirty and stink, wash them. 

 

Soaking jeans with with no, little, or minimal agitation with the intent on minimizing indigo loss is nonsense. 

 

Unsanforized denim shrinks and stretches. It's the nature of the beast. I find it frustrating as hell sometimes. If you wash and put them in the dryer to shrink them, they soon stretch out again. Eventually they'll settle. 

 

I agree w/ Max's expirmento - no appreciable loss of indigo happens from washing. Most indigo loss happens from abrasion. 

 

The only thing I can think of that washing raw unsanforized denim will do is remove starch, and therefore make them softer than when raw, therefore reducing sharpness in fades. 

 

Personally, I could care less about fades. Fades will happen. All jeans will fade and look great. I care more about the color, cut, quality of construction, details, denim, weave, etc. 

 

Washing denim, whether hand or machine, and using a dryer will have some effect of the nature of the fabric. With unsanforized denim, the weave will tighten, hence becoming heavier, and those changes may be more or less desirable to the wearer. 

 

Conventional top loading washing machines that have an agitator are detrimental to clothes, period. Front loading washing machines have no agitator and mix clothes with water and soap by tumbling. they are far more kind to clothes. There are now top loaders with no agitator, and these are better machines to maintain over time as there is a different bearing that costs less to replace than front loaders. 

 

Front loaders have a hand wash cycle that is the most gentle way to wash garments. They also have adjustable speed spin cycles. High speed spin gets almost all water out, but it also compresses fabric the most and can leave creases in heavy fabrics like denim. It may be necessary to press out any creases before drying, or iron them out once dry. Just be mindful of where naturally occurring whiskers and combs are. 

 

Using any sort of soap other than dedicated laundry detergent can lead to too many suds and overflowing a washing machine. Laundry detergent/soap is designed to be low suds. Dish washing soap is supposed to be high suds. Soap and detergents are all basically surfactants, so use what you like. 

 

As mentioned earlier, there are stain removers that use enzymes rather than surfactants to remove stains. OxyClean is another brand. I have no experience with them, but from tests I've read they do not have any ill effect on fabric. 

 

Fabric softener (not that anyone here would use it on jeans) is a myth. Fabric softeners coat the surface of a fabric's fiber with a slick substance giving the illusion of softness. It's similar to a rinsing agent used in a dishwasher to get spot-free dishes. It's also my care instruction on towels say not to use fabric softener because the substance also acts as a barrier and prevents the fibers from absorbing water. If you've ever used towels that have been washed with fabric softener, you'll know it feels like the towels are kinda slimmy feeling and you can never get completely dry. 

[Sugar Mountain]

I think you and I are largely on the same page Mpukas. My jeans tend to feel unpleasantly dirty after around one month of frequent wear in the environment and climate I live in. I have an Asian-style compact, top-loading drum washing machine that has a very forgiving delicate cycle on 30 or 40 degrees and gets my clothes clean without any loss of colour or excessive creasing. I don't need to fear the washing machine and the process is simple. Then I get back to wearing the jeans for another month. 

 

I can understand the philosophy behind rarely washing denim as a means of reflecting the ''true'' wear of the owner, but personally I think that the effect of washing regularly (though not necessarily super frequently) combined with daily wear of jeans produces the most attractive evolution of the fabric and feels to me a more honest representation of a garment's life. As you say, clothes should be washed and denim is no exception.

 

Remember as well that people have been washing jeans regularly in the machine with normal detergent since the 1950s and those old 501XX turned out alright in my book.

[itsbenhere]

My washing routine...

 

For unsanforized, I flip them inside out, soak them in the tub to make them pliable, and once they've been fully saturated with water, chuck them in the machine on hot and high spin, without detergent, for an hour or so. I've never had problems. 

 

I know wash no less frequently than every 3 weeks (probably 2 or 1 week now to be honest) because i think I've become hyper-sensitive to having jeans that feel dirty in any way. I love the feel of dry crispier denim, and I think that washing speeds up evo like puckering, roping, train tracks.

 

I wonder if the reason I've never had problems with washer lines is because I choose normal weight denim... It seems like really heavy (>20oz) is prone to getting weird lines, which is funny since it also seems like those with that weight denim personally feel they should avoid the machine. On the other hand, those that have really lightweight denim are already into washing more, and the lack of problems only further perpetuates the belief that washers ain't no thang.

 

Strong opinion: every jean turns out ugly if you don't wash it somewhat frequently.

[SuperJackle]

Anybody ever use a washing-board type device? I only hand wash and feel like the denim never gets as clean as I would like. Washer at new place is way too aggressive and almost destroyed my Roy's.

[Cucoo]

What getting into this raw denim thing has definitely taught me that I used to wash way too often, however. In the past jeans went into the laundry basket after one week wether they needed it or not. I certainly think that washing whenever dirty is a must, but for pants, weekly just seems really excessive to me now. Besides the ecological and economical advantages of not using as much water and electricity, I think it's also better for the fabrics to not wash too frequently. My old pre-washed Levi's etc. used to get so soft, they'd start to feel kind of slick and grimey even after a few days of wear - I think that washing so often had something to do with that. Made them hold on to every little bit of hand grease or whatever much more easily. (Them being standard pre-washed denim had something to do with it too I guess.)

[Maynard Friedman]

If I wore heavyweight 25oz denim (which I don't), I'd be worried that it would break my washing machine on the spin cycle!

[Ryu]

interesting thread !

i agree mr. mpukas's method

[st199ml]

Just do whatever the legend that is Ryu recommends above. End of thread I'd say. ;-)

[cthip]

As mentioned earlier, there are stain removers that use enzymes rather than surfactants to remove stains. OxyClean is another brand. I have no experience with them, but from tests I've read they do not have any ill effect on fabric.

 

I 100% agree with mpukas and others who said to wash your jeans thoroughly when they're dirty/smelly.  We just need to clarify the use of enzymes in OxiClean (and similar products, Biz is another popular one).

 

I'm not aware of any product that has fully replaced surfactants with enzymes.  To my knowledge, enzymes are only used as supplements and do not replace surfactants.  There are lots of reasons for this, to name a few:

 

- Enzymes are expensive, at least relative to surfactants

- Enzymes work in a narrow range of temperatures.  While the optimal temperature varies, the vast majority of them will work best in warm water, work slower or less efficiently in cold water, and may be completely inactive in hot water.

- Enzymes are relatively picky.  Lipases will only break down oily stains, proteases will only break down proteins in stains, amylases break down starches, etc.

 

As far as I know, the classic OxiClean doesn't include any enzymes.  However, there are now dozens of OxiClean formulations, and I guess some of them could include enzymes.  Keep in mind that OxiClean is primarily an oxidizing agent, and enzymes are inactivated when they're oxidized.

 

Oxidizing agents usually make things whiter and brighter.  Bleach (like Clorox) is an example of a relatively strong oxidizer.  OxiClean and washing soda are also oxidizers.  They do essentially the same thing as bleach, they're just much more mild.  Whether that's good for your jeans is a personal decision.  By whitening the weft, you might be able to develop more contrast in your fades.  However, if you specifically bought jeans with an unbleached, natural weft, then using something like OxiClean would seem a little counter-productive.

Edited May 18, 2015 by cthip

[mpukas]

OK, I have a correction. Some of what I had said before was based my (inaccurate) recollection of a review by America's Test Kitchen of stain removers (I'm an avid cook, and have done private chef work for a few years. I've had a subscription to ATK for years. While I have learned a lot from them, I'm very skeptical about many things they do/say; however, their testing methods are fairly good). 

 

The wining product they tested was OxiClean Versatile Stain Remover which contains sodium percarbonate as well as surfactants. No enzymes. Here's part of the text of the review; 

 

Our winner, a powdered product, was the only remover in our lineup to use sodium percarbonate, a combination of sodium carbonate and hydrogen peroxide. Activated when dissolved in water, the sodium percarbonate releases oxygen, which bubbles up and helps lift the stain from the fabric, while the hydrogen peroxide, a color-safe bleaching agent, decolorizes the stains. These ingredients are most effective on stains from natural substances, e.g., food-based stains. It also contains surfactants, which disrupt the surface tension of stain molecules, providing an entry for water and cleaning agents.

The rest of the products we tested attack stains using enzymes plus surfactants. Enzymes work by breaking down the stains’ big, water-insoluble molecules into smaller, soluble components and disrupting the stain’s bonds to the fabric. But each type of enzyme targets only a very specific type of stain, so manufacturers usually include a scattershot assortment of enzymes to make them more all-purpose.

This explains why enzymes were less effective than sodium percarbonate when tackling a broad spectrum of stains. For that reason, we can enthusiastically recommend only our winner. It takes a little more time and effort to use than the other products, which call for just a few sprays and some rubbing and waiting before laundering. But however convenient a product may be, the real goal is spot-free clothing. Next time we stain our clothes in the kitchen, we’ll reach for our winner.

 

and the comments from the winning product; 

 

Though it required a bit more time and effort to dissolve this powder in water and presoak stained clothes for hours, the stellar results made it worthwhile. A ghost of orange adobo sauce remained when we left stains untouched for 72 hours before treating, but even that disappeared with another round of treatment. Fabrics emerged bright as new.

 

Again, I have no idea how this product, or similar, may affect the color of denim. Apologies for the mis-recollection in my earlier post. 

[dwarffruit]

http://shop.tangentgc.com/product/tgc044-denim-wash

Came across this in a shop today, had a nice smell to it. Anyone here tried it?

[HAZARDkid]

anyone used the sugarcane detergent? i have like 4 packs but never use it yet lol

[babydials]

Has anyone tried the WIEUP Co. denim mist and denim solution?  The mist sounds promising.

 

 

 

Edited June 17, 2016 by babydials

[bod]

[ColonelAngus]

I do an initial tub soak to get the starch and some shrink out. Any wash after that the jeans get tyrned inside out, get thrown in the washer and then i'll use either woolite dark or a dye free detergent.

[jstavrin]

Has anyone ever permanently stained their jeans? I kind of can't believe I've never run into this directly after wearing this stuff for almost 8 years now, but I recently spilled some food on myself that has me a little nervous. I am of course going to throw them in the wash tonight, but I have doubts about the stain (curry!) coming out. 

[chicote]

I stained a good 3 inches of the thigh of one of my pairs with wet coffee grounds. At first, I was sure it'd come out in the wash, but waited about a month before doing so. That was close to six months (and ~10 washes) ago, and the coffee's still there!

All said, once your jeans start to tear I feel it's sort of open season for paint/food stains and the like.

[jstavrin]

I stained a good 3 inches of the thigh of one of my pairs with wet coffee grounds. At first, I was sure it'd come out in the wash, but waited about a month before doing so. That was close to six months (and ~10 washes) ago, and the coffee's still there!

All said, once your jeans start to tear I feel it's sort of open season for paint/food stains and the like.

 

 

Hopefully I can avoid that problem by washing them soon (and in a machine).

 

And yeah, it's pretty annoying to stain up jeans that are still quite dark and new looking. Otherwise I wouldn't really care. 

[setterman]

Has anyone ever permanently stained their jeans? I kind of can't believe I've never run into this directly after wearing this stuff for almost 8 years now, but I recently spilled some food on myself that has me a little nervous. I am of course going to throw them in the wash tonight, but I have doubts about the stain (curry!) coming out. 

 

The sooner they're washed the better, and probably going to need to pre-treat the spot.  I little water, detergent, and scrubbing with a soft bristled tooth brush on the spot prior to washing should probably get the worst of it out. No way around it though, you're going to lose some indigo where ever you scrub.   

 

Good Housekeeping's recommendations for curry stains are a little harsher than most of us would prefer!

 

http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/cleaning/tips/a16079/stains-curry-may07/

[jstavrin]

The sooner they're washed the better, and probably going to need to pre-treat the spot.  I little water, detergent, and scrubbing with a soft bristled tooth brush on the spot prior to washing should probably get the worst of it out. No way around it though, you're going to lose some indigo where ever you scrub.   

 

Good Housekeeping's recommendations for curry stains are a little harsher than most of us would prefer!

 

http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/cleaning/tips/a16079/stains-curry-may07/

 

 

Thanks! I'll give the toothbrush method a shot before I throw them in the wash, which will hopefully be soon. I don't mind losing a little indigo, as it'll even out eventually.