A shop assistant has stressed the important of washing new clothes before wearing them
A professional shop assistant is urging anyone who buys new clothes to immediately wash them. Palito Michelle, who works in a clothing store and regularly shares her experiences to her followers on social media, warned that you shouldn’t go straight to wearing newly bought clothes.
Describing work at a beachfront store, she spoke of ‘dirty’ people trying on the clothes before putting them back. And while she says shops do their best to keep products ‘clean’, there could be a lot of bacteria that’s not easy to see with the naked eye.
In the wider scope of things, shoppers should also be aware that garments and fabric go on a long journey before they end up on shop clothing lines. Each stage of this hourney can introduce new pollution and other contaminents that are transferred onto you when you start wearing the clothes without cleaning them.
Palito said on TikTok, originally in Spanish: “Please, when you buy clothes, wash them before wearing them. I know it seems obvious, but many people don’t, me included, on many occasions. I work in a shop located on the beachfront, where I see so many disgusting things. People are very dirty.
“I’ve seen customers with sand on their buttocks trying on bikinis, T-shirts or shorts. They leave everything full of sand, and also wet, and then they put those things back into the rack; they don’t even buy them.
“Disgusting! Today, a customer arrived, and he was very drunk. He was sweating, and his smell was awful. He tried on several T-shirts, which ended up wet and smelly.
” He didn’t buy a thing and left like nothing had happened, probably to carry on drinking. Obviously, shops have products to keep clothes ‘clean’ and if we see someone has left a mess and the garments have stains or worse, we remove the product, but still… Seriously, wash the clothes before wearing them.
“People are very dirty.”
Potential contaminants in newly bought clothes
A wide variety of contaminants can be found in newly bought clothes before washing them. In some cases, this could cause skin irritation, often referred to as contact dermatitis, which can result in itching, blistering, redness, dryness, cracking, and swelling of the skin.
Some contaminants that can be found in clothes that can cause irritation include:
- Excess dyes leftover on the fabric
- Fabric softeners
- Stain-resistant or water-repellent coatings
- Anti-mildew products to keep clothes fresh in storage
According to research that examined contact dermatitis in textiles, contact dermatitis from fabrics tends to come from substances that are used to give a material certain ‘qualities’ or ‘performances’. In fact, it notes that the textile dye mix has proven to be a tool in the diagnosis of allergic contact dermatitis.
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