Gynecomastia Shirt Washing Instructions
Gynecomastia shirts come in all shapes and sizes, but they all have one thing in common. If not properly cared for, they will wear out fast. After years of experience with compression fabric I have come up with some useful tips in care and washing that will extend the useful life of your compression wear.
Gynecomastia shirts use similar materials as sports compression clothing only in different densities and different cuts and weaves. For these shirts, proper care and washing is even more important since the compression effect the shirt has directly affects how well it hides your man boobs, so wash and care instructions should be strictly adhered to.
The following is a list of various washing is methods and their effectiveness in cleaning your gynecomastia clothing and the wear it can cause.
1. Soak in cold water with mild detergent, then rinse with cold water, wring out, then hang to dry.
Cleaning effectiveness: moderate, just soaking will help clean but if you have stubborn sweat stains this may not remove them.
Garment longevity: excellent, since you are not agitating the shirt, you are using cold water, and you are hanging the shirt to dry.
2. Hand wash in cold water mild detergent, then hand rinse with cold water and hang to dry.
Cleaning effectiveness: good to excellent, depends on how well you hand wash the shirt. For stubborn sweat stains you can rub the areas with additional detergent to help remove them and also soak if necessary.
Garment longevity: very good to excellent, you are agitating he shirt but fairly gently. The use of cold water and mild detergents help as well, and the biggest gain is from hanging the shirt to dry, since heat is a gynecomastia shirt’s worst enemy.
3. Machine wash in cold water with mild detergent, machine rinse with cold water and hang to dry.
Cleaning effectiveness: excellent! Using the washing machine to wash and rinse the shirt in cold water can really help get out stubborn stains. If they are really hard together rid of try soaking the laundry load first.
Garment longevity: good but you may start to notice some underwear to the fibers because of the agitation cycle. I have washed gynecomastia compression shirts this way twice a week for years and they no longer hold their shape as well, but they still work to degree.
4. Machine wash with warm water using mild detergent rinsing with cold water and hanging to dry
Cleaning effectiveness: excellent, better than just cold water
Garment longevity: The compression fabrics DO NOT LIKE HEAT so using warm water will reduce the life of a gynecomastia shirt, but there is a trick to this, you can regulate the temperature of the warm water. In older machines you have to set them on cold water wash to let some cold water in, then after a bit switch it to warm water wash to get the water temperature up a bit, enough for the detergents to work a bit better. But make sure you select cold water rinse as the rinse cycle. On newer machines you can adjust the temperature of the water, just set it to a luke-warm temperature.
5. Machine wash with hot water – Bad idea, although it will clean the best, it will cause the anti microbe treatment (if the shirt is treated with any) to break down very fast, with the elastic properties soon to follow. Avoid if possible,
Drying the shirts in a dryer
Compression fabrics DO NOT LIKE HEAT, so using a dryer on anything other than cold air will kill a gynecomastia shirt fast. You may be lucky and get away with it once or twice, as I have accidentally put some of my shirts through the normal wash with regular garments and then thrown them into the dryer (on high heat) and they survived but, you are playing Russian roulette, you could easily ruin a shirt the first time it goes in the dryer.
You can air dry your shirts much faster in the dryer (cold air only) than hanging them up, but the tumbling can cause pearling or fraying of the shirt material, not a huge concern if you are wearing them as undershirts, but it will affect the overall life of the shirt. This is something you have to decide for yourself, does the faster drying time and less effort of hanging the shirts up outweigh the lifespan of the garment? If you are busy and on the go and shirt cost is not a concern then this is by far the easiest option.