Get the most from your button-down.
The short answer: we recommend dry cleaning or washing on cold and hanging to dry.
To maximize the life of your shirt, we recommend:
- Wearing an undershirt
- Washing the garment as little as possible, and hand washing just dirty areas instead of the whole garment
- Wearing only deodorant, not aluminum-based anti-perspirant (anti-perspirant deodorant combined with sweat can create armpit stains and can make odor difficult to remove from the shirt's armpit area.)
- Investing in a heavier fabrication if you're extra tough on your shirts (ie 170gsm twill or 210gsm midweight oxford)
- Ironing on low heat, steaming, or hanging the shirt in the bathroom while taking a hot shower if your garment is wrinkled
Washing Tips
Dry Clean
Typically, when you take a cotton shirt to a dry cleaner, they launder it which involves harsh detergents, hot water, and heated drying. When taking your Wool&Prince shirt to the dry cleaners, you’ll need to call out “dry clean only."
Machine Wash
Check the temperature of your washing machine’s cold cycle. Depending on your location and how the machine was installed, cold cycles can run warm (75+ degrees) which will eventually ruin a shirt.
Regular detergent (Tide, Wisk, Arm & Hammer, Woolite, etc) is fine. Some of our customers prefer to buy natural wool-specific detergent brands such as Kookaburra and Eucalan.
Remove promptly and shake out for wrinkle free drying.
Hand Washing
Just what it sounds like. Fill up a sink or container with cold water, add a couple drops of detergent, and throw in your garment. Gently swirl the clothing in the sink for a minute or two. Rinse thoroughly. Instead of wringing dry, lay out a towel, lay garment on top, and roll up the towel with the garment inside while applying pressure. Hang garment in an open area.
Don’t use bleach or fabric softeners. Don't use stain removing pens (like OxiClean or Tide-To-Go pens).
Shrinkage
Even with proper care, you can expect a woven shirt to shrink just a little bit, in the realm of 2-3%.