Smelly Face Cloths

eljedo said:

i'm with you on this one, I know its nothing you are doing wrong and I doubt you smell like a badger - I too wash my face clothes very frequently, but I notice that they can smell sour over time, and I wouldn't call to question my hygiene habits as they are quite good (as evidenced by the fact that SWMBO doesn't complain...) I do use them to wipe up the excess water from the counter after I've finished shaving, and I wonder if that had something to do with it. Anyways, thanks for the tip to de-funk them, I'm going to give it a try.

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I often use the face cloth to wipe the soap scum out of the sink after shaving, but rinse it well afterwards. Maybe that may be causing the sour smell.

Thanks for the new word: My bank is defunct; my face cloths have been defunked.

I usually just use my hands to rinse the lather off my face, if I feel like I need a good face wash I grab my wife's Clarisonic that thing is amazing, just a drop or two of face wash before turning it on. Your face feels crazy clean after using it.

Great tip. Basic white vinegar is slightly acidic, which makes it a super cleaner.

I use ordinary small 8x8" (cotton?) towels of the kind hotels provide, soak the towel before the shave with hot water, put it on my face to soften the skin and moisten the stubble and then wash my face with glycerine soap or (Nivea) face wash.

After the shave, I use the cloth with nothing but clean warm water to wash the remaining lather off my face, rinse the cloth, wring out the moisture and hang it to dry.

I do make sure though that the cloth dries throughly and before my next shave it is bone-dry.

Never had any issues.
No vinegar, borax, or anything.
Once in a while they go in the laundry and I take the next one.


As others suggested, could the smell be associated with the towel not drying out completely between shaves?



B.

Shiloh said:

You might add some bleach to your wash cycle. To one poster's comment about side (front?) loading washers smelling funny...consider the "tub cleaning" cycle if your washer has one.

If only your face cloth smells sour, I'm stumped.

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........!!!!...100%......your socks and all towels should be washed in hot water with bleach,the smell you are finding is mildew from wet cloths / clothes sitting damp and growing mildew.Nothing will kill the mildew except bleach.It is also possible that severe growth of mold in the fibers may be too far gone to bring back to neutral,you will know after the first washing using bleach in the water.

I find that all towels (bath, hand, face, beach) eventually stink even when they're freshly laundered. I think it is because they eventually sat wet for a couple hours too long. When I'm drying off after a shower and think that a towel has a musty stink, it usually prompts me to gather every towel in the house and do a special series of washings: detergent plus Febreeze, then bleach. However, I could see vineger and baking soda (separately, of course! ) having something to add.

I have found that when damp laundry requires a rewash from being left in the washer adding Simple Green as you would bleach eliminates the smell. It would be a tragedy to use bleach in a load of anything but whites.
OP, maybe give this a try with he face cloths.

Vinegar is a great fabric softener. It ends up in every load I do. I promised swmbo that I'll do laundry as long as I don't have to do toilets. Anyways here is my laundry detergent recipe that I use in a h.e. washer.
1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda
1/2 cup oxy clean
1 grated bar of ivory soap

Blend everything together. Use 2 tablespoons per regular sized load. I use 1/4 cup white vinegar as fabric softener. Last year I spent $20 to do a years worth of laundry and swmbo approves thay our clothes are cleaner than tide!

jamesearthdrum said:

I have found that when damp laundry requires a rewash from being left in the washer adding Simple Green as you would bleach eliminates the smell. It would be a tragedy to use bleach in a load of anything but whites.
OP, maybe give this a try with he face cloths.

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I've never head of this product. I went to their website - are you using their laundry or all purpose cleaner?

I should clarify the way I use bleach. If you use much, it will destroy colors. If you put ~1 tablespoon in a large load of laundry and either put it in a bleach dispenser or put it in first before their are any clothes in the washer so it can dilute, it will not ruin colored clothes. Over time it WILL contribute to fading, but the fading will be even (not white spots). When our towels smell like this, the other alternative is the trash, so I'm willing to take some fading.

cvargo said:

Vinegar is a great fabric softener. It ends up in every load I do. I promised swmbo that I'll do laundry as long as I don't have to do toilets. Anyways here is my laundry detergent recipe that I use in a h.e. washer.
1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda
1/2 cup oxy clean
1 grated bar of ivory soap

Blend everything together. Use 2 tablespoons per regular sized load. I use 1/4 cup white vinegar as fabric softener. Last year I spent $20 to do a years worth of laundry and swmbo approves thay our clothes are cleaner than tide!

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Hey, this is cool. How much would you use for a typical, top-loading machine?

great trick. I throw mine away after a month's use
gonna try it

cvargo said:

Vinegar is a great fabric softener. It ends up in every load I do. I promised swmbo that I'll do laundry as long as I don't have to do toilets. Anyways here is my laundry detergent recipe that I use in a h.e. washer.
1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda
1/2 cup oxy clean
1 grated bar of ivory soap

Blend everything together. Use 2 tablespoons per regular sized load. I use 1/4 cup white vinegar as fabric softener. Last year I spent $20 to do a years worth of laundry and swmbo approves thay our clothes are cleaner than tide!

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Interesting. Will try this.

dwsteen said:

The solution: Borax

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+1
This should do it.

Putting in the Microwave for 30 seconds to one minute should help.

Boil wash all that type of stuff and make sure it is 100% cotton. Boxers, towels, sheets, handkerchiefs, face cloths etc.. "It's nice to know you're nice to know".

Good techniques for freshening up towels can be found by googling {stripping diapers}. We use cloth diapers and homemade laundry detergent here, and stripping both bath towels and diapers is a regular occurrence in or household.

I wear white cotton t-shirts under everything, so my face-drying cloth is always the t-shirt I had on the night before. It's always used once and washed in bulk with the rest of my white t-shirts. An old sponge is used to clean the post-shave detritus from my sink.

DickWhitman said:

Interesting. Will try this.

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Sorry for the late response. I have a front loader. So that is when I use 2 Tablespoons. I gave the recipe to my parents and they have a top loader that uses more water. They said that 3-4 Tablespoons is usually more than enough

Gentlemen,

Thanks for your thoughtful and helpful responses to my smelly face cloth dilemma (I have a much better set of problems today than when I first started DE shaving last year).


Tim

TinyTim said:

Beats me. I use the longer face cloths that West Coast Shaving sells and only use them when shaving (no razor cleaning, brush wiping, or other cleaning tasks. I dry them by hanging them up between uses. My guess is that the shave soap is not entirely rinsed out each time, and the cumulative effect is a smelly wash cloth. I'm surprised that no one else reports having this problem.

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If you're hanging them up between uses you're creating the absolutely perfect environment for fungi. Fungi and more importantly their spores are incredibly difficult to get rid of firstly because they're really hardy and secondly because they're omnipresent in the atmosphere.

Things to try non-chemical:

• Boil them.
• Freeze them (I'm not joking) once you've washed them and they are completely dry put them in a ziplock or similar and freeze them overnight.

Things to try chemical:

• Soak them in a dettol solution (if you can get it) & wash as normal. Make sure they're completely dry before storing them.
• Soak them in a weak chlorine bleach solution & wash as normal. Make sure they're completely dry before storing them..
• Soak them in barbicide & wash as normal. Make sure they're completely dry before storing them.

If I were you I'd try the dettol and barbicide first as chlorine bleach is very hard on cloth. Hope this helps.