I need absorbent towels

April 3, 2009 11:51 AM

I need recommendations for bath towels, and they need to meet only one criterion: they must absorb and remove water from my body.

Any bath towels I've purchased in the past 4 years or so have been absolute crap at absorbing water.

I got a set of very plush, quality-seeming towels for Christmas, and they are like drying off with a plastic bag. They just smear the water around and it's maddening.

Notes: I do NOT use any fabric softening products on towels. I have washed all of these towels many, many times, and their absorbancy has not increased. I've tried soaking them in a tub full of borax. Nothing helps. At this point we're using our old, ratty, scratchy towels from YEARS ago, because at least they dry us off.

I've Googled the old towel brands in hopes of purchasing more of those, but none of them appear to be available (most were probably Mervyn's towels and there are no longer any stores here).

So, any recommendations for awesome, absorbent towels you've purchased somewhat recently?

posted by peep to shopping (32 comments total)

Gah! I know exactly what you're talking about. It's like the entire towel industry has become obsessed with some kind of faux-silk material that's incredibly soft to the touch but completely fails to absorb water! It's like trying to dry yourself off with a duck.

Get yourself a large-sized camping towel. Almost any camping store will carry them in various sizes, but REI carries an X-large version.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 12:02 PM on April 3, 2009

Go to LL Bean. Great towels.
posted by shothotbot at 12:09 PM on April 3, 2009

You have to get the sizing off the towels--sizing is the stuff that makes even cheap towels feel soft. I do this by running new towels through on hot with a couple tablespoons of white vinegar along with the detergent.

The hot water and detergent get the sizing off, and vinegar helps soften them while maintaining the absorbancy. You do this with cloth diapers, too!

To keep them absorbent, don't use liquid fabric softener.
posted by girlbowler at 12:12 PM on April 3, 2009

I have found that the only solution to this problem is to buy the cheap thin towels at Kmart/Target. They have to be the thin ones, otherwise you will run into the drying off with a duck (LOL!!!) problem.

I personally like long, thin towels so I stock up after the summer is over on clearanced beach towels to use as regular towels.
posted by crankylex at 12:13 PM on April 3, 2009

I've experienced this too. Last year I decided to buy some high-priced "luxury" towels and they're a complete disappointment. They feel soft and look plush but they definitely don't absorb (it almost feels like they have some kind of water-repellant coating on the fibers, which totally defeats the purpose of being a towel). I went back to buying cheapie Walmart towels and they're perfect.
posted by amyms at 12:16 PM on April 3, 2009

In my experience, the key is Turkish cotton terry.

I'm a big fan of the Turkish Towels at Restoration Hardware. They're pricey but they're thick, absorbent, leave no annoying fuzz behind, and mine still look new after a number of years. Pottery Barn's classic towels are similar.
posted by squeaky at 12:17 PM on April 3, 2009

Large microfiber towels?
posted by wongcorgi at 12:24 PM on April 3, 2009

I have two sets of towels from Crate and Barrel (both pretty plain, pastel colors, and both bought on sale). They seem to do a great job.

The "bamboo" towels, on the other hand, from their sister company CB2, seem to have the same problem you describe. They do feel so nice and soft to the touch, though.
posted by olinerd at 12:47 PM on April 3, 2009

These Turkish towels from Macy's have actually worked for me. I know, it's astonishing.

"drying with a duck" -- made me laugh!
posted by barnone at 12:48 PM on April 3, 2009

My Lands' End towels have been absorbing water and removing it from my body for 6 years. And I agree with shothotbot that LL Bean's towels are excellent. Don't buy the extra-long-looped ones at either place, though. Too soft.

My mom has a couple of short-term rental units -- she buys towels from here. Cheap and good, but you have to buy by the dozen.
posted by wryly at 1:03 PM on April 3, 2009

I've noticed this too. I bought some towels from Target from their Thomas O'Brien line. They're nice and fluffy, they absorb water just like they should, and they're pretty cheap to boot.
posted by Who_Am_I at 1:04 PM on April 3, 2009

The thing is either to buy really cheap towels or really expensive towels. Nothing in the middle seems to work.

Go to a dollar store and buy cheap towels made in Pakistan and they will dry you like a charm. IKEA also has some effective-at-drying cheap towels.

Or buy the expensive Turkish towels recommended in the thread. If you stalk the Horchow.com website, they have big sales on towels every now and then.
posted by Sidhedevil at 1:04 PM on April 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

I cannot recommend the Restoration Hardware towels that squeaky mentioned enough. They're fantastic - they last forever, they're plush, and if you get the bath-sheet size you can use it as a tent in an emergency. Seriously, they're HUGE, which is why I love them. I'm 6'2" and...not svelte, and these towels are plenty big enough.
posted by pdb at 1:10 PM on April 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

I have also ended up using the Restoration Hardware towels. (Actually I was just thinking recently about asking MeFi for less expensive alternatives, so I'll be bookmarking this thread.) What squeaky said; also, if you buy the bath sheets, they are huge, which is another thing I require from my towels. The bathrobes are also excellent, though expensive.
posted by Herkimer at 1:13 PM on April 3, 2009

Dude, chamois. Did you watch the olympic swimmers last year? Or see the shamwow commercials? If that's your only criteria, find a chamois/shammy towel. I use one for yoga and there's nothing more absorbent.
posted by scazza at 1:13 PM on April 3, 2009

I have no input on which towels to buy, but I will throw my two cents in, and second what girlbowler said. I had heard the same thing from a friend, and have experimented, and it seems to be true. If you want absorbency, don't use fabric softener. Take it for what it's worth.
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 1:32 PM on April 3, 2009

Wow, Restoration Hardware must be taking over the towel market — I came in to recommend them as well. Nthed.
posted by nicwolff at 1:58 PM on April 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

Good question. We just bought these. They probably have them on line if you are not near a Nordstrom.
posted by Zambrano at 2:40 PM on April 3, 2009

I'm told that waffle-weave stuff works very well.

One caveat on the camping towel: you may have to wash it more often than you're used to. I used mine strictly as a hair towel, reusing it for about 5 washes or so, and it got stinky kinda quickly.
posted by Madamina at 2:52 PM on April 3, 2009

I use beach towels. It's a little thinner than bath towels, but it works very well. Maybe they don't scotch-guard beach/swimming pool towels? At any rate, they're nice and big and they work.
posted by dogmom at 4:19 PM on April 3, 2009

Just another person here to agree that the Restoration Hardware towels really are worth it! It's a nice heavyweight towel, and there's not a thread coming out of place after we've put it through five years of use.
posted by belau at 4:40 PM on April 3, 2009

OK, I'm deciding between the Macy's Turkish towels and the highly recommended Restoration Hardware ones. Macy's is about 10x easier for me to get to, and I don't want to buy online. I'll choose by next week and update then!
posted by peep at 5:30 PM on April 3, 2009

Who_Am_I mentioned the Thomas O'Brien towels at Target, which are satisfyingly thick and absorbent, BUT - I've found the seam stitching to be weak. Some of mine are looking ragged at the edges already, when they aren't very old at all.
posted by illenion at 5:54 PM on April 3, 2009

thirding girlbowler. no fabric softener and the towels will absorb. it doesn't matter how soft or expensive they are, the fabric softener ruins absorbency.
posted by msconduct at 6:09 PM on April 3, 2009

Dude. People. I said I DON'T use fabric softener!
posted by peep at 6:44 PM on April 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

ShamWow!
posted by jenkinsEar at 7:40 PM on April 3, 2009

When I was in the market for new towels I found an article on towel weight and absorbency in the Wall St Journal where they tested several brands. It prompted me to try Abyss towels, which are quite pricey at $64 a pop for a bath towel. While not the thickest or the heaviest or the most dense, these are lovely to use and very absorbent indeed. I just lightly brush the towel against my skin and I'm dry.

I use Charlie's Soap to wash them. Half a tablespoon for a large load of laundry and no softener needed. Great stuff.

If you prefer more substantial towels, I like the ones by Thomas O'Brien from Target that are recommended above.
posted by Dragonness at 7:41 PM on April 3, 2009

Lands' End all cotton won the Good Housekeeping seal and Consumer Reports top rating a few years ago. Polyester, modal, bamboo can all be tossed.
posted by brujita at 8:08 PM on April 3, 2009

Like Who_Am_I I also like the Thomas O'Brien towels from Target.
posted by radioamy at 9:55 PM on April 3, 2009

I had the same issue, and after some research, bought the turkish cotton towels at Pottery Barn. I ended up returning them because the dye came off in small areas after one wash. PB said this happened because they now use a vegetable-based dye with no nasty chemicals. I asked at Restoration Hardware if they have this problem and they said yes, sometimes. (I guess the problem is some facial cleansers, although I use only Ivory soap.) I went ahead and got white towels from Restoration Hardware, and have been happy with them.
posted by dreamphone at 2:27 PM on April 4, 2009

Plush towels use more water to wash and a lot more energy in the dryer. Cheap towels from *Mart, as long as they're all cotton, work great.
posted by theora55 at 5:40 PM on April 4, 2009

OK, I bought one Turkish towel from Macy's (the one in barnone's link). It's worked great so far so I'll probably buy 3 more to match. It's only been washed and dried once, and it's working very well. I think it needs a few more washes to be ideal, but it's vastly superior to any other new towel I've purchased recently.

Since summer's coming up and I'll hate to run the dryer much, I'm taking theora55's advice (and others') to heart and I'll be getting some cheapy towels too.
posted by peep at 8:37 AM on April 10, 2009