Irecently picked up my son’s cotton shirt and was dismayed to find it felt hard, almost crunchy, in my hands.
The shirt had been draped over my tub, air-drying after my son decided that playing in the bath was a perfect afternoon clothes-on activity. He had fun, but when I cleaned up later, his once-soft cotton shirt and pants had become stiff and hard.
Why? Nothing had been added to them, no stains or substances. Why was the same fabric, once wonderfully soft, now hard and stiff?
Solutions to the “stiff clothes problem” abound, from adding white vinegar to your washer to using less soap. But the real answer to why is because your cotton clothes are made of a versatile material called cellulose.