The biggest myths about washing jeans, debunked

To answer the question of how often to wash a pair of jeans, we must agree that jeans need to be washed in the first place — and that all jeans are not created equally.

“There’s all sorts of bad stuff that can happen if you don’t wash your jeans. But there’s nothing bad that’s going to happen if you do wash your jeans often,” says Kiya Babzani, the founder of Self Edge. “The dead skin, dirt and grime that’s in the textile is not something you can see with your eyes, but if you don’t wash the jeans, it makes the cotton fibers very brittle, which causes premature breaking of denim, like tearing of the crotch and, like, holes behind the knees.”

The idea that washing jeans causes them to wear out, and compromises their look and feel, is mostly a myth. “Your jeans will last longer if you wash them more often,” Babzani says. “Now, there is a bell curve here where if you wash them too often, they’re probably going to wear out faster, so I’m not saying to wash them every day.” Ideally, he would like people to wash their jeans every five to seven wears, but since, in his experience, no one wants to hear that, he tells people to wash a pair of jeans every 30 to 45 wears. The jeans are dirty, he said: “They’re visibly dirty, and they smell, and it’s bad.”

As for handling different types of jeans, there aren't actually that many differences in washing an old pair of Levi's versus a spendy pair of raw denim jeans.

Everyday jeans

Treat your everyday jeans — the ones you throw on to run to the grocery store or to catch a game at your local watering hole — like khakis, chinos or cords, and aim to wash them every five to seven wears. If you go longer, that’s OK: Babzani’s “30 to 45 wears” rule applies to regular old dungarees as much as it does to more fashion-forward jeans. Just remember that if they are visibly dirty, stretched and sagging, or they smell, it’s time for a spin in the washer. Using cold water and a low-heat drying cycle, or air-drying the jeans, will help to prevent fading and other premature wear and tear.

Work clothes

Jeans that become contaminated while doing gardening or outdoor cleanup, that have been worn on a construction site, or that have been exposed to biological agents such as blood, feces or vomit should be washed as soon as possible. Avoid putting contaminated work clothes in the hamper with other items, do not shake them, wear gloves when handling, and wash them in a separate load using the hottest water temperature the garment can tolerate. (Consult the care tag for instructions.) In some cases, the use of a laundry sanitizer may be called for. Finally, “If you sweat heavily or spill anything on them, it’s best to wash them right away,” says Kim Romine, a fabric care scientist at Procter & Gamble.

Designer jeans, including raw or selvedge denim

Stop overthinking the way you wash your nicer jeans! “You take the jean, you turn it inside out, and you wash it in a washing machine on cold with any detergent. The denim companies we deal with are going to hate me saying this, but you do not need denim detergent,” Babzani says.

As for how often, he again recommends every 30 to 45 wears, or roughly once every other month — or once a month if there’s been significant wear. And he would again prefer more frequent washing, but he finds that people, especially his male customers, are resistant to the idea of laundering their jeans every five to seven wears.

Debunking myths

As for outré laundering methods such as wearing the jeans in the bathtub or performing a ritual called an ocean wash, which calls for donning the jeans and entering the (literal) ocean — “you use the sand to scrub the jeans while they’re on your body to quote unquote clean them” — Babzani says they’re not necessary and can cause irreversible damage. “ We recommend never putting the jean on while it’s wet because it stretches in an unnatural way,” he says.

Another offbeat method out there is the idea that freezing jeans will kill bacteria, rendering the pants clean. This is a myth, too. It is true that jeans will come out of the freezer odorless, but once you put them on, your body heat will reactivate the bacteria, and the jeans will be just as dirty — and smelly — as when they went into the deep freeze.

FAQs

I have a pair of dark jeans that leave a blue shadow behind on light-colored furniture, clothing and accessories. How can I remove the stains?

This is called “crocking,” the term for when friction causes dye to rub off from one fabric onto another. To treat denim crocking on furniture, rugs or car seats, use a carpet-and-upholstery-cleaning machine for large-scale stain removal, or spot treat smaller stains with a carpet and upholstery foam or spray cleaner such as Resolve. To remove indigo dye from light-colored clothing and accessories, spray the stains with rubbing alcohol and launder the garments as usual, making sure to check that the stains are gone before machine-drying them, as heat can set stains, making them impossible to remove. Treat larger or more set-in stains by soaking the garment in an oxygen bleach solution for an hour up to overnight before laundering as usual.

How about preventing indigo dye-transfer in the first place? Is there a way to do this?

Not really, which is a crummy answer to have to give! Preventing crocking is tricky because indigo dyes, both natural and synthetic, are resistant to dye-setting methods such as salt or vinegar baths. A fixative like Jacquard Reactive Dye Fixative or RIT Dye Fixative Liquid may help to set the color and prevent dye transfer from happening, but there is no foolproof or guaranteed way to prevent indigo from losing its color.

In the wash, fugitive indigo dyes can and will transfer onto other items, so wash dark jeans that are prone to running with other dark-colored items, and use a dye catcher such as Shout Color Catcher or Carbona Color Grabber to absorb loose indigo.

How do I keep my white jeans white?

Keeping white jeans white calls for frequent washing and a keen eye for spot-treating stains. Aim to wash white jeans after every wear, every two wears at most, and be diligent about applying a stain pretreatment product to spills, as well as to the cuffs and the seat of the pants, where soils build up and turn quickly to dingy spots. Wash white jeans right-side-out in the hottest water temperature they can tolerate per the care instructions, which will help to target soils and stains.

I air-dry my jeans, and they sometimes feel crunchy or stiff as a result. How can I soften them up?

There are a couple of things that will help to lend softness to garments that are air-dried. The first is being mindful of your detergent dosing; oftentimes, stiffness or crunchiness is caused by detergent residue left behind after the final rinse cycle, which is a result of using too much of the stuff in the first place.

Giving the jeans a shake when they come out of the wash will also reduce the stiffness that can happen when air-drying. Similarly, if you line-dry, hanging jeans out on a windy day will help to keep the crunchiness at bay.

Finally, you can always toss a pair of dry or almost-dry jeans in the dryer for five to 10 minutes on the lowest heat setting to lend some softness to the drying process. Using dryer balls will also help to eliminate some of that crunchy feel.