Keeping those salon towels fresh and fluffy for your clients should always be a top priority. If you’ve noticed your towels have been feeling a little rough lately, follow these steps to revive them.
You don’t have to pay for a professional service. If you have space for a washer and dryer in your salon, you could save a lot of money in the long term by tackling your own cleaning. Read on to discover how to wash salon towels with incredible results every time.
Choosing quality towels with a high thread count will help to ensure your towels last a long time, even after repeated washing. Since towels need to be cleaned between clients, you’re going to have quite the pile of laundry to tackle.
Before you wash your towels, you need to understand how they are made. Standard terry towels have lots of small loops of fabric that help to increase the surface area of the towel to make them more absorbent. The denser the loops, the more absorbent your towels will be. This is what the thread count refers to.
A common problem that salons face when washing their towels is adding too much fabric conditioner and then subjecting the towels to a heat drying process.
This leads to scratchy towels as the conditioner coats the loops of fabric, and then the heat melts the plastics in the conditioner. Air drying your salon towels will also lead to scratchy towels as the fibres need to be fluffed up after washing.
Using Salon Iris to help monitor your upcoming appointments will ensure you always have towels when you need them.
Salon towels come into contact with a lot of harsh chemicals, so you can’t let the laundry pile up. Wash them the same day to ensure that the bleach and other chemicals don’t damage your towels. Choosing bleach-resistant towels may help.
Next, you need to choose a quality detergent. A biological detergent may be better, but there is the risk your clients and staff could be allergic to it. Some biological detergents can cause contact dermatitis.
Next, skip the conditioner. It might seem counter-intuitive if you want fluffy towels, but this really is the best way to achieve soft and absorbent salon towels.
Pop them in the dryer on medium heat with wool dryer balls to help speed up the drying process and fluff up your towels even more. You can add essential oils to your wool dryer balls to help them smell even more amazing.
Once the cycle is finished, always take your towels out and fold them immediately to help avoid creases.
If you really don’t like skipping the conditioner phase, try washing your towels with a cup of plain white vinegar. This helps to soften the fibres, particularly if you’ve accidentally washed with conditioner and want to revive them.
White vinegar will strip the towels of any build-up from detergents and from salon chemicals. When you’re done, your towels will be fresh and feel just like new. And don’t worry, they won’t smell like vinegar!
