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For those of us with sensitive skin, we are bound to be familiar with how this can affect our day-to-day life. Here are our Top 9 Laundry Tips we hope you’ll find both helpful and useful!

It’s common for some laundry detergents to contain harsh chemicals such as fragrances, bleaches and dyes to promote efficacy. But if you have sensitive skin, it’s wise to avoid such detergents as they can, and most likely will irritate the skin. In this case, you’ll need to search for products that are made specifically for sensitive skin. You can also, if you like, keep it simple and make your own detergents to be 100% sure of what goes into them. Different recipes for homemade laundry detergents call for different ingredients. Therefore, if you are looking to make your own detergents, make sure you do your research to ensure you choose the correct ingredients for the fabrics you intend to wash.

When specifically dealing with sensitive skin, liquid detergents tend to fair better than powdered varieties. This is because powder tends to leave a soapy residue on our clothing. If this is not removed, this residue can irritate the skin when we put our freshly washed clothing on. While liquid detergents can also leave residue on our clothing, this tends to be less bothersome in terms of build-up as the consistency of the liquid means less is left behind to rritate the skin.

The function of fabric softener is to smooth fibres that form our clothes and make them soft to the touch. For sensitive skin, the rule of thumb tends to be to use products that keep clothing soft against the skin. When purchasing a fabric softener, try to choose a brand that is specifically designed for sensitive skin as these types tend not to contain heavy fragrances and are less likely to irritate the skin.

 How many of us know that to keep our machines ‘spik and span’ requires we clean them every 2/3 washes? This is important as this process draws out the excess laundry detergent and fabric softener that clump together if not removed regularly. If left unchecked, this can also promote the growth of mould in the washing machine draw, which can contaminate clothing leading to irritation of the skin.

It’s generally good practice to separate your wash by fabric, not only to avoid colour transference occurring but to avoid harsher materials such as denim rubbing against delicates like silk. This will damage the fibres of the more delicate fabrics and make the clothing more abrasive against your skin. To avoid this, try washing all of your harsher fabrics in one load and your delicate fabrics in the next load.

Before wearing new clothes, try washing them first. This is to ensure your clothes are free from any added starches, and/ or other products, the manufacturer or retailer has used in the production or marketing process before they reached you.

How many of us don’t bother to follow the washing instructions and over-pour detergents and fabric softeners into the washing machine draw? We do need to take care here to ensure we pour/scoop the correct amounts, particularly, if we want to avoid irritating our skin products that can linger on our clothes. We also should avoid overloading our washing machine as this makes it harder for detergents to circulate around he drum. This can result in residue product depositing and remaining on our clothes thus requiring a further rinse cycle to get rid of excess product that, if left behind, may irritate the skin.

When washing sheets, it’s good practice to give them a ‘hot’ wash frequently, especially in the Summer months, to ensure pollen and allergens are killed off with higher temperatures to avoid skin irritation.

Cleaning your washing machine regularly can minimise any build-up of washing detergents and fabric softeners. It’s a good idea, therefore, to run your washing machine through a rinse cycle to wash away any remaining detergents to leave your machine nice and clean, and ready for the next load.

Using our Top 9 Laundry Tips For Sensitive Skin can help to minimise unwanted irritation of the skin.

Contact us and we’ll ensure your laundry is washed using tried and tested methods that keep your skin safe, healthy and free from irritation.