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Why you should give attention to your towel

Joy Anyim

Towels are a daily essential. We use them to dry the body after bathing; to dry the hair after a deep wash; sometimes to dry our hands after washing; and even when we sweat at the gym or during exercise, we just cannot do without a towel.

Just as we take care of our clothes, ensuring we wear a neat piece always, so also it should be with our towels. Like our underwear, the towel is also a very sensitive piece that should be given proper attention.

You may not need a fresh towel daily like you do with your underwear, but experts have advised that towels be washed after every fourth use.

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You may ask why you need to wash your towel that often, especially when it may still appear neat. The fact remains that towels absorb moist when you dry off with them, a porous damp environment is the perfect breeding ground for bacteria.

Everytime you use your towel to scrub your body, dead skin cells cling to the material and linger there. If you get a musty smell, when you bring the towel up to your nose, that’s bacteria growing on the towel itself.

A common bath towel can have yeast, mold, and E. Coli. growing on it, without you knowing. Regular wash, however,  prevents bacteria from growing.

So, if a family or partners share a towel, at the fourth use, it should be tossed into a wash to avoid an infection. According to a dermatologist, Alok Vij, an infected towel can cause an outbreak of toenail fungus, athlete’s foot, jock itch and warts, eczema, or even cause the skin conditions to spread.

Like you pamper your skin, you should also pamper your towel, this is because, the towel also adds to a healthy-looking skin.

Here are a few tips to help keep your towels neat.

1. Have more than a towel, either for bathing or washing, have more than a towel, so that when one is washed, the other can serve.

2. Towels should be washed after every third or fourth use. Even if you share the towel, at the fourth use, it should be washed. But for want of time and convenience you may wash at least once every week. So you obviously need more than one towel.

3. After using a towel to dry the body, hands or hair, it should be spread out in an airy room. It should not be hanged from a hook. Spread out if possible for sun to dry. This is because a wet towel will always be a breeding ground for bacteria.

4. For a sick person, the towel should be tossed in the laundry after every use. This is to prevent the spread, especially when it is a communicable disease.

5. The Infection Control Department of Mid – Western Regional Hospital of Ennis, Ireland recommends washing towels in water that is at least 140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 degrees Celsius), or more to kill bacteria. If you have a sanitize mode on your washing machine, use it. If not, you may consider raising the temperature on your water heater.

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6. On fabric, plush towels with a high thread count are fine and they feel good on your skin, although they take longer to dry. Micro fibre towels dry faster than cotton, so they are better for the gym.

7. As a way of knowing you need to change your towel, when you put your nose close and you perceive any odd smell, it is time for a fresh towel.

8.  Cut down on the amount of detergent you use. This is to make sure your towel does not feel stiff.

9. Don’t share your towel, except with a very close family member. But ideally it should be a person to a towel.

10. For those who travel a lot and would have to stay in a hotel, it is always better to go with your own towel. Don’t always depend on towels at hotels, you are not sure how they were washed, so to be safe, always travel with yours.

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