I have a confession to make: I was wearing new unwashed clothes regularly until I found out the shocking reason why so many people warned me against it.
And this discovery is way deeper than it sounds, because It also made me ditch my liquid laundry detergent for good.
It all started one day when I was at the mall with my friend Amy, we were looking for some Christmas gifts for friends and family. As we were browsing the stores I found the cutest sweater I have ever seen, and it fit me perfectly, you know the feeling when you find something that is exactly your style and it fits like they made it for you…
So of course I bought it.
Later that day, Amy came over to my place and I was wearing the new sweater, she just stopped and asked: “How did you have time to wash it?”
I replied: “Well, it’s new so I didn’t bother washing it at all”
She was shocked, and told me “Don’t you know that new clothes can contain all kinds of chemicals, and you’re not supposed to wear them before washing?”
I just smiled, because come on, how bad can it be, right?
She insisted that I research it for myself, so I went online and started digging… And I can confidently say - I will NEVER wear new clothes before washing again, and I DITCHED all of my liquid detergents.
It turns out that new clothes can contain chemical residue and carcinogens like formaldehyde, phthalates, lead, and optical brighteners.
But here’s the big catch - if you wash those clothes with traditional liquid detergents you can add even more chemical residue, including optical brighteners.
Because almost all leading liquids have optical brighteners in their formulas.
Why is this bad?
It’s bad because scientists have proven that optical brighteners can enter the human bloodstream. Yes, if your clothes have optical brighteners on them, they can transfer from your clothes into your skin, and straight into your bloodstream.
But I have some more news for you… Many traditional detergents also contain phthalates and parabens which are known hormone disruptors. Those chemicals can mess with hormones, especially in women.
It gets even worse… This fact really blew my mind: all leading liquid detergents contain 1,4 Dioxane which is a known cancer-linked chemical.
So guess what I did?
I went to my laundry room and threw all my liquid detergent away.
I asked my friend Amy, “What do you use instead of laundry detergent? Because I still need clean, and fresh-smelling clothes!”
She grabbed her bag and pulled out something that looked like a little sheet of paper “Here, just put this in your washer with your clothes”
Wait… What?