Do You Really Need To Wash Your Jeans?

You might have heard this odd advice from fashion gurus before – “don’t wash your jeans!” But why? Is it real advice, or just a prank pulled on unsuspecting, dim-witted denim rubes?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff,
I'm Christian Sager and not to get too personal, but
when did you last wash your jeans? You don't have
to tell me if you don't want to. But here's
the thing. Whether you're wearing a pair of busted Levies
or brand new raw Denham from some fancy boutique, your

(00:24):
pants are part of a debate that designers and customers
alike have been having for decades. When should you wash
your jeans? And do you need to wash them at all? Well,
let's look at the basics. Denim is a kind of
cotton with a twill textile weave. In a twill weave,
the thread called the weft that's the cross wise yarn,

(00:44):
passes under at least two warp threads, and those are
the lengthwise yarns. In most genes, only these warp threads
are dyed, meaning that these other threads, the weft threads,
remain white. That's why blue jeans are white on the inside.
That blue shade on the warp thread comes from a
dye called indigo, and unlike some other dyes, indigo doesn't

(01:08):
penetrate the cotton. Instead, it sits atop the yarn on
the surface of each thread. Over time, molecules of indigo
chip away, causing the fabric to fade. This fade makes
each pair unique, so much so that the FBI analyzes
Denham patterns when tracking criminals. Yeah, that's a real thing.
The more you wear a pair, the more broken in

(01:30):
they've become. You'll see the appearance of fade patterns, whiskers
on the front, honeycomb patterns behind the knees, and so on.
Not all genes, however, were created equally. Let's divide them
into two rough categories. There's washed and raw. Washed Denham
is just that washed after dying to make the fabric
softer and reduce shrinkage. Then, in a process called sanforization,

(01:54):
the trousers are moistened, steamed, and stretched to reduce the
shrinkage rate. Most genes are sanforrized these days. Raw or
dry Denham can be samporized or unsaforrized. If it isn't,
it can shrink up to ten percent when washed. Sometimes,
washed Denham is artificially distressed to give it a broken

(02:14):
in or worn look. The fading of raw Denham, on
the other hand, happens naturally over time, depending on the
daily activities of the person wearing the jeans. The longer
you go without washing these genes, the more pronounced fading
patterns will become. Personalizing your pants. Once you have a
pair of jeans, you'll hear numerous pieces of advice about

(02:36):
caring for them. Most of this doesn't apply across the board.
For example, companies will ask you to wait at least
six months before washing your jeans because if you wash
them early, the indigo will wear off uniformly, robbing you
of the unique fade patterns. And this is the heart
of the whole to wash or not to wash question.
The longer you go without washing a pair of jeans,

(02:57):
the more pronounced the wearing pattern becomes. You'll also preserve
the indigo as well as the stiff texture of the fiber.
But what happens if you don't wash them. Won't bacteria
pile up, turning your lower hemisphere into a plague written
cesspool of filth? Well not necessarily in A microbiology student
at the University of Alberta went get this fifteen months

(03:21):
without washing his genes. He tested their bacterial content along
with the bacterial content of another pair that had been
washed about two weeks beforehand, and he found almost no difference.
So maybe it's more that everything we wear is already dirty.
So if you can't wash them, what do you do
to keep your blue jeans clean? Well, you're gonna hear

(03:42):
some crazy stuff. Levi's famously recommended freezing your genes to
kill bacteria and stave off any funky odors, but microbe
expert Stephen Craig Carry says that is a total myth.
Most bacteria in our pants comes from our skin, and
a lot of these organ is ms are preadapted to
low temperatures. Carry recommends actually using high temperatures think a

(04:06):
hundred and twenty one degrees celsius for ten minutes to
get rid of the denom or bacteria or you know.
He adds, you could just wash them. So depending on
how often you wear your jeans, their age, the denom type,
and what you do while you're wearing them, you really
don't have to wash them as often as say you're underwear.
If you want to get that uber cool, unique fading pattern, though,

(04:29):
your best bet really is to avoid washing them for
a while, even if you have to soak them first
to shrink them, and regardless of how carefully you care
for your favorite pair of raw Denom jeans, messes like
life find a way. One day, some sort of disaster
will strike and you'll have to clean your genes somehow, Yes,

(04:49):
even if that means washing them. Check out the brain
suff channel on YouTube, and for more on this and
thousands of other topics, visit how staff works dot com

(05:14):
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