How to Wash Turkish Towels (and Break a New One In)

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Wash Turkish towels warm, around 104F (40C), with half the usual detergent dose and no fabric softener. Line dry or tumble on low. A new peshtemal needs two or three washes before it absorbs properly -- that is the cotton wax leaving, not a fault.

A new flat-woven cotton towel is stiff and water-repellent. Cotton fibers carry natural waxes, and most weaving adds sizing agents to hold the yarn together on the loom. A terry towel hides this because its enormous surface area absorbs anyway. A flat weave has no such margin, so it is obvious.

1. Wash one: warm, normal detergent, alone or with like items. Do not add softener. Do not add vinegar yet either.
2. Wash two: same again. Most of the wax is gone by here and the cloth is visibly softer.
3. Wash three: add half a cup of white vinegar to the rinse. This strips the last of the residue and sets the cotton. After this the towel works.

Fabric softener works by depositing a thin layer of cationic surfactant -- functionally a fine wax -- on the fiber. That layer is what makes laundry feel soft, and it repels water. On a shirt it is harmless. On a towel it is a slow, invisible way of turning the towel into something that pushes water around rather than absorbing it.

On a flat weave it is worse than on terry, because there is no reservoir of surface area to compensate. One or two softened washes and a peshtemal stops working noticeably. More on what softener does.

A Turkish towel that has gone board-stiff after a year or two has almost certainly not worn out. It is carrying build-up -- detergent residue, softener film, or hard-water minerals -- and all three come out.

1. Run it through a hot wash with no detergent at all and half a cup of washing soda. The alkali lifts mineral and oil deposits.
2. Second cycle: half a cup of white vinegar in the rinse, no detergent. The acid neutralizes what is left.
3. Dry it fully. It should come out noticeably softer.
4. If it is still stiff, strip it properly. Full method here.

Hard water is the most common cause by a distance. If everything in your house feels stiff after washing, the water is the problem rather than the textiles -- a washing soda booster in every load is the cheap standing fix.

The tassels will tangle, and occasionally one will pull loose. Wash peshtemals with other towels rather than with clothing that has zips, hooks or velcro. When a thread works free, cut it flush with scissors -- pulling it runs the knot and loses a whole tassel.

Some people shorten the fringe deliberately after a few years. It is not traditional, but it is a reasonable response to a cloth that is otherwise still perfect.

Line drying is best and barely slower than tumbling, because a peshtemal is dry in about an hour on a rail. If you tumble, keep the heat low -- high heat does not damage a flat weave the way it scorches terry loops, but it does shrink cotton and it wastes the one advantage the cloth has.

Whatever you do, dry it fully before folding. A peshtemal folded damp will smell within a day, exactly like any other cotton -- the difference is that it is far easier to avoid, because it dries so fast.