Wash coloured terry towelling from the beginning with mild detergent without optical brighteners and please keep to the recommended temperature of 60 degrees without fail in order to prevent the colours from bleeding. White products keep their bright white best with a full detergent and a temperature of also 60 degrees.
In the case of dark and strong colours, excess dye can easily be deposited during the first few washes. Do not leave damp terrycloth items on top of each other for a long time, this can also lead to discolouration.
Heavy-duty detergents contain bleaching substances and optical brighteners; you should only use these for white terry towelling. For coloured and coloured laundry we recommend mild detergents without optical brighteners (colour detergents). They prevent colour changes and fading of the laundry items, thus terry goods retain the full brilliance of the colours for many years.
Washing machines have many washing programmes. Often a very high spin cycle is already pre-programmed. These high spin speeds cause mechanical abrasion, which puts a lot of stress on the fibres and quickly makes the fabric brittle. The laundry becomes too dry and also creased.
Too much fabric softener remains like a film on the cotton fibres, reducing their absorbency and water absorption. The softeners it contains also encourage the formation of lint.
Tip: A tumble dryer ensures particularly beautiful and fluffy soft laundry by trapping air. In principle, you can then do without fabric softener altogether.
Speaking of softening: Stiff towelling that has been dried on the heating can be softened again by kneading and rubbing.
It is normal for new terry towelling to fluff a little at the beginning - especially high-quality and high-pile terry towelling fabrics can initially shed loose fibres. To avoid heavy and persistent fluffing, the material should not rub too much in the washing drum. Mechanical overstressing can be prevented by a well-filled washing drum. From the first wash, please follow the machine manufacturer's recommended load.
Our tip: Stretch both the damp and the later dried terry towelling pieces briefly by hand and pull them into shape. This will help you avoid too much shrinkage.
And: The temperature of your tumble dryer should not be set too high, otherwise the cotton will overheat.
You should not pull out pulled threads, but simply cut them short (except for the inner threads). To avoid pulled threads, never wash terry together with clothes with hooks or zippers.
