Why do some clothes shrink when washed in hot water and why can’t they stretch back to their normal size?
In: 845
Fabric is made of tiny curls of stuff. If it’s plastic, it usually doesn’t change much if you wash it unless you melt it, like polyester or nylon. If it’s organic, like cotton or wool, the little tiny curls were first straightened and then twisted together to hold in long threads. When you get them warm, the straightened twisted fibers become curly bent fibers, so they shrink.
You can relax the fibers back sometimes. Hair conditioner and cool water, plus gentle stretching, can repair minor shrinkage of wool, for example. But nothing can help if you’ve “felted” together the fiber, where the curls are all so tangled now they can’t ever be made to lay in straight twists again.
Latest Answers