Live and learn. Just when we think we are covering all our bases on men's grooming at GorillaKilla.com a customer contacts us commenting on a recent post titled "I Sheet You Not." You might remember, it's addressing men who seldom wash their bed sheets. Well this customer said "although men definitely are guilty of not washing their sheets enough, a much more serious offense is men not washing their bath towels."
So, we decided to dig a little deeper on the subject. But frankly after seeing every man in the room give a guilty nod of admission to this crime it was clear this was a topic we needed to address.
First, let's begin by saying that our customer was right on the money, unwashed towels are actually a worse offense than unwashed bed sheets. Think about it, your dirty, smelly bath towel affects more people. When we discussed cleaning your bed sheets we were mainly addressing the potential of bedding down with a date and how much better off everyone (mainly her) would be if they were lying in a clean bed. In the case of unwashed bath towels, the odor affects anyone who steps foot in your house or uses your bathroom including dates.
So, how did his happen? We know, as well-groomed men we take showers daily (using soap) to look and smell our best, but why is it then we make the assumption our towels don't need to be cleaned on a regular basis or as one Tarzan put it “or ever!” Here's how, men are pragmatists, a nice way of saying that we don't do a stitch more than we have to when it comes to domestic chores. We like to base our decisions on common sense and common sense tells us that we should not have to clean a towel when all we use it for is drying our freshly cleaned bodies. It makes sense right, if we are clean getting out of the shower how in the name of all that's remains holy could the towel possibly get dirty or smelly? Here's how, whenever you use bath towel (including wash clothes) skin cells slough off your body and stick to the towel. Those cells serve as food for bacteria, bacteria that's thrives in damp, dark, densely woven environments containing plenty of hiding places to safely fester. So when you reuse the unwashed towel on your freshly cleaned body, any small scrap or cut can be used as a portal for these bacteria, potentially causing skin infections. Oh, the side benefit of this bacteria harboring in your towel is the pleasant aroma of wet dog or musky 70's basement.
The solution is simple, wash your bath towels at least weekly and make sure after using that you hang the wet towel so it will dry within hours not days. Leaving towels on the floor to dry does not count. One more thing, sharing towels is close to the same a sharing toothbrush so have more than one towel and leave the sharing in the bedroom.