Uk households urged to make change when drying towels outside

UK households are being advised against drying towels outside due to a scientific quirk that causes them to become rough and abrasive. The frustration of dealing with stiff, scratchy towels

is a common household problem, especially when it feels like laundry is a never-ending chore. However, a discussion on Reddit has shed light on the reason behind this issue, and it's

linked to air-drying towels outside. A user on Reddit's r/AskUK posed the question: "Why are old people's towels always dead hard?" It turns out that this phenomenon is

not exclusive to older people and can happen to anyone, regardless of age. The culprit behind coarse, rough towels lies in the drying method. One respondent attributed the difference to

tumble drying versus line drying, stating: "Definitely the tumble drying vs line drying. As someone who WFH most of the time, I am fortunate enough to be able to line dry my clothes

much of the time. It's better for the environment and better for the fabric." However, they acknowledged that line drying can make towels slightly crisp, suggesting the use of

laundry conditioner as a solution. Nevertheless, they pointed out that towels tend to regain their fluffiness after the first use, rendering the extra step unnecessary for many users,

reports the Express. Another person shared their unique drying preference, recounting a conversation with their late father: "Air dried instead of tumble dried. I actually asked my

father about it. He has since passed away when he gold told he was obsessed with drying his towels outside. He told me that he likes the feeling of the towel being scratchy. I was perplexed

because when I get out of the shower or bath I want a comforting, soft towel." How Stuff Works provides insight into why towels dried in the open air tend to feel rougher. The site

clarifies: "Drying your laundry outside in the sunshine feels wholesome, doesn't it? It's a simple thing you can do to save energy (those clothes dryers really suck up the

kilowatt hours) and sun-dried fabric just smells good. But there are some items of laundry for which air drying does no favors, and one of them is the bath towel." It continues by

explaining the science behind this phenomenon: "When it comes right down to it, most fabrics (with the exception of silk and wool) that aren't made out of plastic are made out of

plants. Cotton is made from the fluffy seed casing of a small shrub, while rayon, modal, viscose, acetate, bamboo fabric and the like are made out of wood pulp. Plants contain a lot of

cellulose, an organic compound that helps keep plant cell walls stiff. Cellulose is great at absorbing water, which is why we make towels out of cotton instead of polyester." The

explanation delves deeper: "Water molecules cling to cellulose and climb along it through a process called capillary action - cellulose can even defy gravity in order to pull the water

along its surface. "Because water is a polar molecule, meaning one side of it holds a more positive charge and the other end a more negative charge, water is easily seduced by

electrical charge. In the study published in the February 2020 issue of The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, the research team found that individual, cross-linked fibres on air drying fabric

like a cotton towel actually have 'bound water,' or water that behaves in unique ways as it adheres to the surface of something because it likes the charge of that thing, which

gets sandwiched between the fibres, causing them to stick together."