How to Wash a Dress Shirt (2024)

FAQs

How to Wash a Dress Shirt? ›

We recommend a cold water wash for darker fabrics, but warm or hot water is okay for white shirts or lighter colors. To minimize shrinkage, we recommend letting your shirt air dry on a sturdy hanger. If you do use a dryer, we recommend low heat and you should remove the shirt while it is still damp.

Use the right washing cycle for dress shirts

Wash the shirts on a delicate cycle, using hot water for whites and light colors and cold water for dark colors. Of course, if the care label indicates specific setting, follow those instructions. Be sure to use a high-quality detergent.

How To Wash A Dress Shirt: Take time to ensure the shirt is entirely unbuttoned. Any buttons remaining clasped will lead to excessive pulling when in wash and will damage the shirt. Turn the dress shirt inside out as this will help with removing deodorant and perspiration stains from the underarm.

Machine wash your non-iron dress shirts on a warm or cold water setting and tumble dry at a LOW heat temperature. The low heat will activate the time-saving non-iron properties, leaving you with a shirt that looks just pressed wrinkle-free.

Now, shrinkage happens over time, and unless there are some drastic circ*mstances the average shirt fabric won't suddenly shrink dramatically, so don't panic too much. You'll generally only find it starts to get a little tighter after you've washed it a good few times.

If you need or want to use the dryer, avoid high heat or overdrying the shirts. Many dress shirts will call for a delicate or low temp cycle but, as usual, refer to your garment's care tag first. Use the dryer to remove most of the moisture from the shirts and then allow them to air dry.

Outer clothes like dress shirts and khakis can be worn a few times before washing unless it is hot out and you are sweating or they are visibly dirty or stained. Jeans can typically be worn 3 times before washing. Leggings and tights should be washed after every wear to get rid of the baggy knees.

Avoiding heavy duty cycles, fast spins and high-heat drying can also prevent shrinkage. Use delicate cycles instead, and place delicate clothes in a mesh laundry bag for added protection. When drying, consider a low-heat or air dry setting. When in doubt, always follow the instructions on your garment's care tag.

But how long should a good quality dress shirt last? A clean dress shirt hanging in a closet with a little ventilation and not exposed to heat, humidity or sunlight may last for years or even decades. It's when you wear them and how you care for them that affects their useful life.

In a word, yes. It's absolutely normal for clothes made from 100% cotton to shrink, especially if they haven't been pre-shrunk. Pre-shrunk cotton will generally only shrink 2-5%. Non pre-shrunk cotton, on the other hand, can shrink as much 20% if you're not careful.

Should you wash dress clothes separately? ›

Separate your shirts based on color. Keep whites with whites and colors with colors. It's not merely an old wives' tale; it significantly reduces the risk of color bleeding, according to the University of California, San Diego's laundry guide.

Use a delicate or hand-wash cycle with cold water to minimize the risk of color fading and lettering damage. Turn the t-shirt inside out before placing it in the machine to protect the lettering. To provide extra protection, consider placing the t-shirt in a mesh laundry bag to prevent excessive agitation.

"There's just too much dye transfer potential for this to be worth it." Another tip to remember is that whites shouldn't be washed with new items that contain color without first checking for colorfastness. "Even darker items you've had for a while may still lose dye each time they are washed," Gagliardi warns.

In conclusion: Dry cleaning is ultimately the best way to keep your uniform looking new, at home steam clean is a good alternate, and throwing it in washing machine is a last resort.