Navy blue bath towels - fluff, etc. - persevere or cut losses?

jason1231972

(This will probably sound daft, but consider the fact that in my 40 years, I've done virtually nothing domesticated whatsoever).

In an effort to be more domesticated/house trained, I went out and bought 6 navy blue bath towels which go with - or I thought they went with - our pristine white & blue bathroom suite/decor.

Upon showing them to my OH, she reacted with a wry smile, and forewarned me that these towels would cause problems.

They were only cheap-ish (2 for £12).

So, I gave them an initial wash (as you do with new towels), got them dry, and hung a couple out for use. After towelling off with one of them, post-shower, I was covered in tiny blue bits of fluff. Much to my OH's disdain, the recently-cleaned bathroom was also covered, and needed wiping down again.

No bother, I thought, I'll just wash them a few more times, get rid of the fluff, etc.

Well over a week later (each towel having been boil washed to within an inch of its life many times over, I'm dreading the electric bill), the problem persists. Our bathroom is 1) small and 2) sparkling white, so blue fluff has colonised it, resulting in more work for me/us.

What's the problem here? Quality? Newness? If newness, how many times should the towels be washed, as I'm getting a bit tired now? (washer full of boiling towels as we speak).

Any suggestions, or just chuck them away/relegate them to our 'rag bin'?

Slinky_Malinky

I had the same problem with a navy blue flannelette duvet cover and no amount of washing stopped the fluff - it was everywhere, even on the downstairs skirting boards.

I solved the problem by giving it to my ex-husband :rotfl:

ammonite

Same problem with black towels. Solved the problem by buying white towels and putting the black ones in a posh towel rack "for show and decoration". They were a total pain!

jason1231972

Hmph, they should come with a health warning, never had so much faffing over something so minor! Will see how they fare, if no improvement by the end of the weekend...they're getting scrapped

joedenise

At the charity shop I hope!

jason1231972

joedenise wrote: »

At the charity shop I hope!

Not sure a charity shop would accept used towels? TMI, but there's been a bit of 'crack flossing'!!

I'm a labourer by trade, can get quite dirty most work days, so these will come in handy for 'spare' towels that I can get dirty to my heart's content (and come out all nice and blue at the end of it).

mishelly

Same happened with our new deep red towels. I really started panicking after I had dried the kids off after their bath, i thought they had some kind of red rash until i realised what it was! Only took a couple of washes before they didnt fluff any more.

Yours may come in handy if you need to impersonate a smurf?

aeb_2

Put them through the tumble dryer. That'll get rid of the fluff soon enough but the towels don't last long (and electric bill will go up)

Waffle_On

Another vote for the tumble drier - a few goes through that and there will be no more fluff. Just remember to clean out the fluff filters in the dryer!

nickyhutch

I have purple ones and a white bathroom. Purple fluff everywhere, all the time.

I find chenille towels don't give you the same proble, regardless of colour.

missprice

here too tumble dry a few times that should work.
did you buy proper cotton towels or those beach types towels?
cotton will defluff eventually but the beach type never do hence the only unused towel in my cupboard is the beach one.