Cause of B.O. on Bath Towel?

My husband's towels sometimes smell even though he is completely clean after a shower and dried with a freshly laundered towel. It's a mystery.

Don't be embarrassed! I'm certainly not judging my husband for something beyond his control. I simply wash the towels again.

Oh - just in case you need to know - towels should always be washed in Hot water. Don't use too much detergent, and never use fabric softener or dryer sheets on towels. If you have been, then give them all a good hot wash & rinse, using a good amount of white vinegar instead of detergent to strip out the residue.

Have you considered that it might not be you or your bath soap or anything you wiped onto the towel, but the towel itself? If you leave a load of towels in the washer too long before drying, they get icky/musty. And if you dry them, you won't smell the must again until you get the towel damp....when you dry off after your shower. Also, using too much detergent can cause towels to get smelly and musty quickly. Your clothes will get perfectly clean using HALF the amount you normally use.

I would wash your towels in a tablespoon of Borax and a tablespoon of Super Washing Soda, and put 1/4C of white vinegar in the fabric softener dispenser. No other detergents. Wash them hot. When they're done, put them immediately into the dryer without allowing them to sit at all. I'll bet that solves your problem.

How 'funny' would it be if someone else has been using your towel ends to wash his or her arm pits. You poor thing.

Do you have a pre-teen or teen in the house?

If it's on the end of your towels and you don't use that part of it, it's probably not from you. Does anyone else in your house use your towel, maybe, or just wipe their pits on it?

I don't think it is body odor, unless someone is using them you don't know about. I think they are just getting musty, and it smells like BO.

The towel in my husbands bathroom always smells, maybe because there is less circulation, and he hangs it over the shower rod where it stays damp.

When it gets like this it reeks, and is similar to a BO smell, but it is not. Make sure you are haning them somewhere they can dry really well. And when you launder them make sure they are REALLY dry before you put them away. Also maybe put them out in the hot sun for a bit, that can help remove smells. Sometimes towels just need to be replaced. Try a brand new towel for a week and see if the smell is still there.

Are you sure it's only your towels? Nobody else's? It's summer - it's hot, it's humid, and things never really dry out. So any bacteria left on the towels after washing has ample opportunity to multiply, and the towels will start to smell really gross after a while.

Does your washing machine have a "sanitize" cycle? Mine does, and I wash all of our sheets and towels on that cycle - and since I've started doing that, our towels do not stink at all. If your washer doesn't have a sanitize cycle, wash your towels in hot water and use color-safe bleach (or regular bleach, if your towels are white, of course). During the summer, you might just have to switch out your towels more often.

are you sure it isn't when others use it to? I would think its when the towel is left to long in the washer. you put it in the dryer. it smells fine, but then if it gets wet, the musty smell will come back. I have to think its something to do with rehydrating the towel and releasing a smell.

after a shower, I am sure you don't smell. and if your husband says you aren't stinky to begin with, I am even more sure its not you. maybe you have longer hair, making the towel get more wet after your shower than your husband does, releasing the smell.

Since the odor on the towel doesn't smell like your pits or your under pants area and you don't use the end of the towel which has the most odor I suggest this is not b.o. I would wash them in the way Christy Lee suggests. This will get out the build up of detergent and other odor causing stuff.

My Dad was an appliance repairman. He said many laundry problems are caused by too much detergent. Use half of suggested amount. I also run my laundry through a second rinse setting.

This was happening on our pillow cases only - my husbands and my pillow cases had a sour, musty, very BO like smell too.

I let our cases soak in hot water with liquid dish soap to break up the oils (my husband has oily skin) then put them through the most thorough cycle on our washer - they were in there for 2 hrs!

This did the trick, BUT I realized the smells came right back after they were used. I determined that it must be my husbands oily skin. If you smell the pillow cases on wash day, his has this smell and mine does not.

I bought him his own set of white pillow cases. This way, I can wash his each week in hot, bleach water and that helps.

The matching pillow cases I use now have no odor to them at all. When my husbands pillow cases begin to get that smell and it stops coming out in the wash, I buy him a new set. Luckily, he is not fussy and the Mainstays Walmart brand are fine with him, since their essentially disposable in our house!

Maybe your own towel or two you can put through with the bleach wash?

My SS's towels smell after he uses them and it started in the last couple of years, that I've noticed. The whole family uses the same set of towels, but it is always the one he uses. Took me a while to convince him and DH that's what it was. What we do is not allow him to reuse them (they go straight to the wash pile) and we wash them on hot/warm with vinegar. SS himself doesn't smell. It's like something transfers to the towel. We also replaced our wooden towel rods with metal ones. If your DH says YOU do not smell, then just don't reuse your towels.

Another thing to consider is are you eating or drinking anything different? Like if my DH drinks a whiskey sour, something about the whiskey can seep out his pores or something.

it could certainly be a hormone thing. but i'm betting it's an odor in the towel, that just gets released when the towel gets damp. i use mine for a couple of days and hang it where it gets plenty of air.
maybe give yourself a week where you replace the towel daily and see what happens?
khairete
S.

It could be several things.
Maybe you are not washing yourself as thoroughly as you thought and it gets rubbed off on your towel - try washing with a washcloth and rinsing well before drying yourself.
Maybe your sense of smell is stronger (you smell it but no one else does).
Maybe the towel doesn't dry well after you use it and bacteria/mold can grow on a damp surface in between uses (do you wash it weekly?).
Is there any chance anyone else is using your towel and not telling you?

Do you have a front loading washing machine? If so, the smell could be from the machine not being completely clean and mold growing on the towels, You must leave the door open so it dries completely between washes and you must clean the machine itself with specially designed washing machine cleaner. I seriously doubt the smell is you.

I wash my towels in hot water and with bleach. I do not add any fabric softener since that coats the fibers to lessen static issues. It makes towels where they just don't absorb.

It might be that you're just not getting them clean in the wash. Do you use the same towels week after week? I have 3 towels that are mine. I use them and no one else has the same style. Hubby's towels are all dark brown. Girls towels are orange. Boys towels are red.

Do you shave your underarms? YooHoo? If not the hairs may be retaining the odor and rubbing the hair around during drying could be releasing oils and the concentrated odor.

Cold water doesn't really get the body oils and stuff out. Most detergents don't really work well in cold water either.

And that Tide commercial....it doesn't matter what clothes you wash together if you can use the same additives in that load such as bleach. It's all about how you dry them.

Jeans take forever to dry on delicate

Lycra and Spandex burn to a crisp on high

Perma press stuff just won't look nice and wearable if it's dried on high.

I think if you wash your towels right and hang them to dry where they'll stay fresh there shouldn't be any issues with body odor.