It’s a debate which sparked into life after presenter Roman Kemp posted about it earlier this year, and now a new survey of 2,200 UK adults suggests no-one is totally sure.
Of those asked, 44% said they would wash their towels after three months or more.
Almost one in five surveyed said they washed their towels once a month, a quarter said once a week and one in 20 chose to wash every day after a bath or shower, according to data from a shower company.
Why do we even need to wash our towels?
To cut to the chase for how long you should leave it, Dr Bloomfield, Dr Sally Bloomfield, a home hygiene expert, says “a sensible amount would be at least once a week. Despite the fact they may look clean, they’ll have picked up millions of germs over time and could be a serious health hazard to whoever you live with.” She says if you don’t wash your towels regularly “the number of organisms on the towels builds up”, and when it comes to laundry time “it’s very difficult to remove all of them”.
If you’re living with others, then you should be extra careful. Organisms can be passed on to other people if you share a towel, but also if you wash your stuff in the same laundry load as other people’s items.
Dr Bloomfield says if you’re using a towel to wipe sweat, it’s important to wash it regularly. “You’re raising sweat, shedding skin cells from the surface of your body and more bacteria on to the towel.”
And if you’re wondering whether you need a separate face and body towel - Dr Cristina Psomadakis is a consultant dermatologist and definitely recommends keeping different towels. “Don’t forget that when you’re using a body towel you’re towelling off places where the sun doesn’t shine, where you might have certain types of bacteria that are related to bowel movements. You might have different types of organisms that you don’t want anywhere near your face,” she says.
Those are appalling statistics …
Apparently, many people are not only breeding their own germs by the million but they’re sharing them with others …
See also:
Presumably, the same people are the ones with appalling hygiene habits …
Face cloths, small hand towels in the bathroom/loo get changed daily and towels used for gym, Sports or swimming get laundered after each use.
My own shower towel, hair-drying towel and bath mat usually get laundered once or twice a week.
If I have family or friends staying, they each get their own set of towels/bath mat, so nobody needs to towel-share.
I usually change and launder bed linen once a week.
I noticed a comment at the end of the article -
“Dr Bloomfield accepts there are environmental and cost concerns about using washing machines but says it’s better to wash regularly on a low temperature, than at high temperatures once in a while.”
Although I try to use lower temperatures for most of my outer clothing (both for environmental and cost reasons) I find I cannot bring myself to launder towels/bed linen at less than 60°C.
My washing machine has a special setting for “Bed & Bath 7 day”, which is a shorter cycle than a full cotton wash cycle but still washes at 60°C, so I presume it uses less energy than a full cotton wash, so that’s the setting I use.
The research showed that almost one in 10 UK residents surveyed wash their bathroom towels twice a year, which equates to over four million people.
Men were found to be five times more likely to clean their towels just once a year, with five per cent of the male respondents admitting to the annual clean, compared to just one per cent of women.
A shocking one third of people surveyed put their towels in the laundry just once every three months, equating to over 17 million people.
And, if you were eager to find out the least hygienic cities, according to the research Leicester and Glasgow win the prize. The residents who live there are more likely to go longer without washing their bathroom towels.
There’s only the 2 of us and we share the hand towels, i wash that once a week. Have bath towels for showers and we share the same one and for washing our hair, i wash that once a month. Always put the bath towel in the airing cupboard between use.
Never thought about other people if they come to visit but that’s once in a blue moon.
I wash my hand and bath towels every day . Couldn’t bear to dry myself with a towel which might have dried my bum the day before . Or even worse someone else had dried their bum with it
. Or even worse someone else had dried their bum with it 