Wash Cold. Washing with cold water protects against fading and shrinking. Turn your jeans inside out and avoid harsher soaps to preserve that indigo shade. Cold water also saves energy (and money), making it better for your jeans, your wallet and the environment.
Most of our jeans have been preshrunk, so they shouldn't really shrink that much, if at all. We recommend you purchase the size that fits you best before washing. Because they don't really shrink, they should still fit you fine after washing.
"Denim is a thick fabric (unlike your average T-shirt) so you can get away with more wears between washes. We recommend washing after 10 or so wears—or whenever jeans smell stale or unpleasant.
The more specific guideline is to wash them once every 10 wears at most to keep them fitting correctly and make sure you minimize sagging. We're not saying you can go even longer between washes—but we are saying some people wait until their jeans start to smell before they wash them. So, to each their own.
Wash Cold.
Washing with cold water protects against fading and shrinking. Turn your jeans inside out and avoid harsher soaps to preserve that indigo shade. Cold water also saves energy (and money), making it better for your jeans, your wallet and the environment.
Denim may feel like a tough fabric, but washing jeans too frequently can change the fit and color. “The more you wash anything,” says Taubenfligel, “the more you wear the fibers down and reduce the life span of the garment. Only wash them when truly necessary.”
To prevent shrinking or bleeding, only use cold water to wash your jeans, and wash them separately or with similarly-colored denim. If you decide to hand wash your new jeans, don't wring them out when you finish rinsing them. Instead, fold or roll them before squeezing out the leftover water.
If your jeans come out of the wash with white marks, it's possible that these are tiny bits of undissolved detergent. Powders are more likely to leave a white residue than liquid detergents, especially if you're running a cool wash, so just switching to liquid may solve the problem.
Before you start wearing the jeans, give them a soak (a hand-wash without detergent). The warmer the water the higher the shrinkage. After the first soak, wash the jeans whenever needed with either hand-washing or machine-washing. If you want high contrasts, postpone machine-washing as long as possible.
For a thorough and effective washing routine, it is important to turn your jeans inside out before putting them in the washing machine. This simple action can help protect against potential damage caused by fasteners snagging on other pieces of clothing or the jeans themselves.
A good rule of thumb is to wash your jeans after every 3-10 wears, or when they start to smell. If you're regularly active in your jeans (think: manual work, anything where you work up a sweat), wash them every 3 wears, but if you're working at a desk, you can probably go through multiple wears without washing.
Use a detergent designed to preserve colors like Woolite Darks Liquid Laundry Detergent or Tide Studio Darks and Colors. They contain ingredients to help fabrics hold onto dyes and to deactivate the chlorine in the water that can fade colors. Finally, it's best to wash jeans in cold water on a short, delicate cycle.
The 501 is not sanforized. That is a process invented in the 1920s that limits post-wash shrinkage. After sanforization the pants will only shrink about 1% in wash. But without it, a pair of raw denim will shrink up to 10% after the first wash!
One of the most common questions after getting a new pair of jeans is whether you should wash them before wearing. The answer is YES, with the exception of raw denim. Washing jeans before wearing them the first time helps to prevent dyes from bleeding onto your skin and other clothes.
Cold water keeps the fibers closer together and the dye more intact so that it bleeds less and doesn't fade as much after the wash. So that's really just a long-winded way of saying that you should wash your black jeans in cold water as opposed to hot or warm.
You can get past the major bleeding stage faster by washing and drying the denim 3-4 times before wearing. The hotter the water, the more the dye will come off—using a little detergent will also help.
When to Use Warm Water – For man-made fibers, knits and jeans, use warm water (90°F). Most of your clothes can be washed in warm water. It offers good cleaning without significant fading or shrinking. When to Use Cold Water – For dark or bright colors that bleed or delicate fabrics, use cold water (80°F).
In general, expect up to 3–4% shrinkage, which on a pair of jeans with a 32″ inseam would mean shrinking about 1″–1¼” in the length. The width is much less prone to shrinkage because there is less applied tension in that direction during fabric construction. This can vary from brand to brand and style to style.
Never use fabric softener or dryer sheets
That snuggly touch fabric gets from fabric softeners is great for your skin, but not so much for your denim. To give jeans that soft feel, fabric softeners coat the surface of the denim with a thin layer of chemicals, which, albeit mildly, abrade the fibers.
Over time, it's normal for the cotton fibers in denim fabric to lose their structure. Frequent washing and constant wear can cause the material to loosen, but the good news is that the baggy shape doesn't have to be permanent.
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. Suits typically can be worn several times during normal use before dry cleaning (3-4 times for wool and 4-5 times for synthetics).
Depending on your laundry schedule, you might need more than 5 pairs of jeans. But for most people, 4 to 5 pairs of casual pants, including denim jeans, are all that is needed to look stylish and well dressed. Keep in mind that you don't need to wash your denim jeans too often.
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