This morning as I was finishing up a toasty, drenchy shower, I got to thinking about how much I appreciate a nice absorbent towel. And how, as far as I can tell, there's this built-in, inverse relationship between how soft a towel is, and how absorbent it is. If you want to get nice and dry, well then here's your scratchy loop of burlap. Which, actually is fine with me. If it dries you quickly, there's no need and no sense in belt-sanding yourself with it. Just dab dab dab, and tah-dah! But if you prefer foofy, bunnyrabbit-softness in your towels, well then you might as well swab yourself with bubble wrap for all the good it does you. But who am I to say if somebody wants to luxuriate in their drips and fluff until evaporation works things out. Maybe it's just a reflection of the level of investment we've made in our linens that I've come to this conclusion. Maybe if I was willing to spend more than $2.50 on a towel, at Target, I'd open up a whole new world of fleecy dryness. Whatever.
Cheap is using paper towels. :o)
Bah, it's Arizona. Just open the [darn] window and poof! You're dry!
Actually, you're spot-on about softer towels not drying as well. Towels work because all the little tiny loops in the fabric attract water and hold it there. One of the biggest problems is fabric softener. It frays the loops and causes them to lose their shape, so that they don't hold water. So if you're using fabric softener on your towels stop using it and see if they dry better.
But don't you work at Gore? You should be able to design the ultimate towel: A thin layer of silk that goes against the body. (Oooh, so soft!) Then a layer of your fancy-schmancy Gore hydrophilic moisture-wicking material to carry the water away from the body. (Oooh, so dry!) And finally a layer of some fabric that will let the water evaporate.
It could be the best towel in the world!
Towels? I thought six foot tall heat fans were all the rage nowadays.
The spousal unit and I have a running argument over whether or not the towels should be dried with fabric softener (making them -- duh -- softer but less absorbent) or plain (making them rougher but more absorbent). She usually wins, but I have a secret plan. We have a landscape architect working on the yard, and I have decreed that the design shall include space for a clothesline. Lara won't use liquid softener...just the dryer sheets. Thus, during the spring and summer, when we can hang clothes out to dry, I shall have my rough-and-ready towels!
Ha!
What does it say about Jeremy's blog and/or the state of our collective intellect that the post that generates the most comments is about fluffy-versus-absorbent towels?
I came to this website actually looking for the best towel in the world and all I got were stupid ramblings about how absorbent the harsh feeling towels are. Who cares?? It's not like you don't watch telly while waiting to dry!
Drinkall
P.s. I'm now closer to finding the best towel in the world!
Wooooo! My first random heckler!
A couple things though. First, your search tools need some work. "best towel in the world" as a search string on Yahoo!?? Come on now. Google isn't just the greatest search engine because it has a pretty logo. Yahoo gave you what...a 9 word snippet of the content of this page? Try Google. Go ahead. I'll wait. See that? You got like 3 times as much quoted content in the description didn't you! That's your first step in weeding through the useless fluff.
Next your quoted text is just attrocious. You're never going to find anything that way. You've narrowed the field way too much. Try ["best towel" review] or ["best towel" consumer]. See there? You're assuring the "best towel" content without overdoing by using some specious phrase that has to be matched word for word, but you're still helping narrow it to non-screedy weblogs by putting 'review' or 'consumer' in the unquoted part of the string.
Still, thanks for writing. I think it's interesting to see how these ramblings spam up people's less-than-discriminating internet searches ;-)
Send a note when you get that perfect towel!
::hangs head::
I came to this website with the search terms "toweled Jeremy"
Did you ever try Microcotton towels:
They are there in Macys - Hotel collection Micro Cotton; Khols - Laura Ashley Microcotton; They are fantastic