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Hello electricians and safety nerds. Fabric softener removes the fire rating on fire rated clothing protecting you from arc flash hazards.
I want to know more.
This is pure conjecture, but my guess is that the film of fabric softener left on the clothes would interfere with the fire retardant fibers/may be flammable itself.
From my understanding, the old fire gear I wore as a much younger man, the fabric was treated with special chemicals that could be washed out if not laundered correctly.
Yes, and it will even say so right on the tags. At least it did on the 35 year old bunker gear I wore when I was young and a volunteer fireman in my small rural town. They had special washing instructions right on a big tag sewn on the inside to the coat and pants.
It’s worth wondering how much fabric softener would cost someone over their adult lifetime as an exercise. Let’s say 50 years of adulthood, and 12 bottles a year costing $10 each. That’s six grand. For something that serves no functional purpose, makes towels less effective and has an environmental impact.
So yes it’s a scam. If someone really needs to use fabric softener, at least buy a cheaper supermarket brand and use it sparingly.
If your fabric needs softening then maybe you just buy the wrong clothes.
I don’t use the shit. My clothes don’t wrinkle and they sure as fuck aren’t uncomfortable so all I can think of is you’re buying shitty clothes.
Actually its because you are buying shitty clothes why they dont wrinkle. Synthetic fabrics dont wrinkle.
Sounds like you’re upset that you found out how shitty your clothes are.
Better luck next time.
They’re still right and you’re salty in polyester clothing.
Nope. Try again.
Well I guess I’m the chump buying all three things… But my clothes do smell good as hell.
Awfullydull and I are now best friends, I’ve been saying the same about dryer sheets for YEARS now
FUCK DRYER SHEETS pointless ass waste of money
What’s a dryer sheet? I don’t think I’ve heard of it before.
Literally just a thin disposable sheet of fabric impregnated with fabric softener that you throw in the dryer with your clothes. The idea is that it’s supposed to make your clothes feel softer, smell better, and reduce static electricity. Waste of money and material, just throw a damn tennis ball in there
A microplastic rag dipped in PFAS.
I’m talking out of my ass bc I don’t use them either, but I’d wager a buck my description isn’t that far off.
You put them in your clothes dryer to make everything smell like chemical clean and make them a little softer. And reduce static? I think? They give me a rash, personally.
My MIL swears that dryer sheets are good for cleaning baseboards. You take one and rub it on a baseboard and some how dust just… avoids those annoying little nooks and crannies. I haven’t had to clean them again in literal years, but thats the only good use I’ve heard for dryer sheets. It’s a hack on a tiny task I never take time to care about really, not sure if that in anyway justifies the existence of dryer sheets, but there you go.
‘Most millennials aren’t buying enough of our shit and that’s a HUGE PROBLEM that all of you definitely care about!’
That’s some pretty useful advice in the comments tho. But also I’m 52 years old and have literally never used fabric softener in my life and have no idea what it’s supposed to be for other than making companies like Proctor & Gamble even more money.
Also, another handy tip: ‘lather, rinse, repeat’ is bullshit, unless you have really thick or really oily hair and don’t wash regularly, you don’t need to wash it twice, the shampoo company just wants you to buy more. Same with fill marks in a washing machine, unless you’re doing a huge load there’s no reason to fill it all the way up.
Was “lather, rinse, repeat” an advertising jingle or something for you guys, or do you just all get taught to wash your hair twice?
It was on the instructions on the bottles and IIRC in the ads for the major brands too.
Cotton and mostly-cotton blends don’t get that much static but nylon, polyester, and bamboo/rayon/microfiber make sparks. If you’re trying to wash pet hair out of something, the softener can help it let go. Although, before you wash, try using a squeegee or a silicone bowl-scraper to remove most of the hair.
I’ve had a box of fabric sheets for a decade or so cause my mom got them for me when she house sat, and I didn’t have any. I sometimes use em if there are sparks when I pull something out of the dryer, and i don’t forget i have them.
I gotta wash mine twice(when i do wash it), but that’s because of the extra oils I put in my hair. The first wash absorbs so much of the oil it won’t really even lather.
Obvious solution seems to be to put less oil in your hair? shrug
Then it doesn’t look right. Obvious solution is to just wash my hair twice. So obvious it’s what I do and it works great.
I’ve literally never put oil in my hair in my life (tho now I say that I dunno if shampoo/conditioner has oil in it. Probably.) It’s looked fine this whole time.
I’ve probably had pretty long hair for longer than you’ve been alive. If you have long hair and wanting it to look not crazy without tying it up, you’re putting something in it. Whether it’s leave in conditioner, or fiber or pomade or gel or hairspray or some type of oil or you manage to skip all that by straightening it all the time; you’re putting something in it or doing something to it. Very few people have an exception to this. Namely people who have very straight, limp hair.
I’m in my 50s so color me skeptical on that count, but fair enough. ;) But yeah, I’ve never been able to grow my hair out and keep it that way even though I do have very straight, limp hair just because it was always a pain to wash and care for and I just didn’t care enough.
I learned that from Lizzie McGuire. Ethan Craft, the character frequently noted to have amazing hair, calls the “lather, rinse, repeat” thing a marketting trick.
It reduces static and leaves behind a film that makes things feel softer. It ruins towels because of this.
I use dryer sheets for static. shrug
Dryer sheets will ruin your towels too, just toss some wool balls in the dryer.
How so?
It coats your towels with a light film that makes them less absorbent.
Same thing just with more waste
and don’t wash regularly
Even washing hair regularly is a scam. If you wash once a week your hair will be fine. It’ll look like shit for a few weeks until your scalp gets the message that you aren’t stripping away all the natural oils still and that it can cut back on oil production but afterwards your hair will be healthier.
This is true, but greasy hair looks greasy and makes your pillow smell bad which impacts your ability to fall asleep.
Like sure, it’s not natural to wash your hair every 2/3 days, but imo it’s worth it
No, your hair stops becoming greasy. That’s the point. It gets that way because you’re stripping the oils, so it produces more to replinish it. If you stop then your scalp eventually adjusts and stops producing much oil.
People think greasy hair is just what happens, but no. It’s what happens when you’ve been stripping your hair dry for years and your scalp is trying it’s best to fix the problems you’re causing. Stop causing problems and it’ll normalize.
I wash with water frequently, but when I really need a good clean I wash with conditioner. The oils bind and are removed but your hair will be refreshed. I rarely wash with shampoo, for years at this point, and my hair isn’t greasy. It just feels healthy.
It’s what happens when you’ve been stripping your hair dry for years and your scalp is trying it’s best to fix the problems you’re causing. Stop causing problems and it’ll normalize.
Please do explain how an exocrine gland on the scalp is supposed to know how much oil is on a strand of dead hair cells, located inches away from the skin?
I think that it’s because the scalp itself gets dried out from too much washing, so the glands respond to that.
When the scalp skin “normalizes” the hair slowly normalizes as well, since the oil travels down the strands.
That’s my guess. I went from shampooing daily to every other day and at first I would get an itchy, gummy scalp. But eventually that gummyness worked it’s way out. Every time I shampooed I would get that dry, gummy scalp the next day.
So eventually I shampooed less and less. Now I don’t shampoo at all. I just rinse daily with water and massage my scalp.
I can assure you my gf and I both nvalidated this assumption during the covid19 lockdown. I have a friend who has thick grey hairs and he never washes his hair. I guess we are all different on that matter because I can’t even skip a single day (it gets scratchy and my skin starts to fall appart), as others testified in the comments.
I’m sorry to have to say, but the idea of “hair training” is a myth.
The oil glands (which are known as sebaceous glands, and produce an oil called “sebum”) are controlled by genetics, hormones, and stress. Sebaceous glands don’t have any sort of “sensor” to tell them when to produce more/less oil, so washing or not washing won’t make a difference.
Thank you. I have extra oily hair so if I skip washing it even a single day it starts to look like I’m using pomade, and whenever I tell people this they always insist I should just wash it once a week and my head will “adjust.”
I am the exact same, friend. My hair becomes a big oil slick after only a day without washing and it’s really obvious. Which is part of why this particular myth bothers me so much.
First, as teens, we had uninformed randos without oily skin telling us to heal our acne problems by putting nonsense like toothpaste and silly putty on our faces. Now, those same uninformed, non-oily randos tell us that our greasy hair can be solved by not washing it.
But my dermatologist was right about the acne care they recommended, I’m inclined to trust them about my scalp care too.
Yep, I had really bad acne when I was younger and the only thing that worked was isotretinoin, which is rough. My lips cracked and bled while I was taking that but when I was finished the acne was gone.
They made me pledge not to get pregnant while taking it despite the fact that I don’t have a uterus, lol.
I knew /r/nopoo was a lie!
I’m a head-sweater so when I work out my hair gets as wet as it would in the shower. I’m not gonna leave it like that, it’ll be stinky.
Yes, not all advice/recommendations apply to everyone. Specifically: our bodies vary quite a bit and they also change over time.
Apple cider vinegar and tea tree oil baby. (I am not a gross hippy, shampoo dries the f out of my hair and Ive gone no shampoo for ~10 years)
Your hair isn’t left smelling of the vinegar after?
It rinses out really well, and the tea tree oil is used to negate any residual smell
Main reason I do vinegar is because it strips out maybe 60-70% of the oils vs shampoo
Huh, I didn’t know that. But I mean I gotta shower every couple of days at most anyway or I feel gross, so might as well.
Hair training is a myth, so take their advice with a grain of salt.
Duly noted, thanks.
Oh, I shower every day with soap. I just don’t wash my hair every day. I also feel gross without a shower.
Soap is also not great for your skin; you don’t need to soap up more than your armpits and underwear area.
100%.
Use a shampoo that has aloe as the primary ingredient as well. Can comfortably make it a week and half before it looks gnarly.
Routinely get complimented on it so I know its not nasty.
I’ve used the same three tennis balls in my dryer for about 20 years now. My clothes seem to last well, and towels remain absorbant (fabric sheets can leave a waxy residue making towels less absorbent). After reading those comments maybe I’ll try adding a few drops of a scented oil to one of the tennis balls.
A bit of alcohol vinegar can replace or help fabric softener.
What’s a dryer sheet, I’m nearly 40 and I’ve never heard of that
It’s a sheet of chemicals that makes your clothes smell better.
Downside is it adds a sort of…coating to clothing which for some types of clothing, like wicking sports apparel, makes them less effective.
They’re absolutely useless and when I learned that I stopped using them and there was literally no negative change in my post-laundry output.
If your laundry tends to suffer from a lot of static when you remove it, it can help with that.
no negative change in my post-laundry output
What a beautiful phrase, I’m totally gonna nick the term post-laundry output
That makes me think of crockpot liners, which are apperently a thing
Like, you cook your food, in the plastic. The most pointless thing I’ve seen.
Mmmm that plastic bag taste. Just like mom used to make. Until she died of microplastic poisoning.
Slightly related, why does clingfilm smell so strong? I never used it because the taste always went onto whatever I wrapped in it.
We aren’t there yet but soon. GenX I bet you’ll see the first person die directly as a result of micro plastics. Boomers, I think cancer has got them for the most part and I’m confident we will solve that riddle in the next few decades
I suppose it’s for people who feel like they are not ingesting enough microplastics.
Gotta get your 5 grams worth!
Savings up for a credit card
Sous vide style slow cooking, vacuumized in a bag, had it’s merits as you can’t really do it any other way. This, however is a lazy way to avoid cleaning (like using plastic plates to avoid doing the dishes).
im ok with buying a container of laundry detergent every few months
Yeah I don’t use fabric softener or dryer sheets but a good value size jug of detergent is worth it to me. My wife and I both work two jobs., I don’t want to spend any time grating soap.
I’d recommend powdered detergent instead. It’s usually far cheaper per load since you aren’t paying for them to ship you the water that’s in the liquid detergent.
You also don’t need to follow the ‘load size’ guidelines listed on the scoop, as only the bottom line or two is really adding anything to most loads.
With my washer I get undissolved detergent if I don’t mix it with water before adding clothes. It’s not a huge deal but sometimes I’m tossing it in in a hurry and my teenagers don’t take the time to do it and then complain. Also teenagers can be very smelly and I have a little loyalty to a brand that seems to do a better job on the smell than others I’ve tried. I second your recommendation though for most people. I used to have a job doing laundry and the powdered detergent we used with the commercial washers worked great.
Add a 1/4 cup of distilled vinegar where you normally put in bleach. Vinegar is really good at removing smells, cheap, and doesn’t leave a residual smell on the clothes
Yeah, I just looked it up. The name brand that I buy is $23 for 132 fl oz. With the way I use laundry detergent, at 0.5 oz per cycle, that’s 264 cycles for $23. Less than $.10 for the name brand stuff, maybe less for a store brand.
I have kids so I run 2 batches per week, but that’s still 20 cents per week for a family of 4. Not sure that’s worth making my own.
That mentality is why I use a safety razor. Buy one and you’ll only spend a few dollars a decade on shaving blades and have a better shave. A lot of things in life are useless fluff that we only do because companies want us to do it since it’s profitable.
I use the throwaway safety razors that you can buy a bag for a few euros. I get a close shave and it costs very little. I’ve wanted buy a more expensive one, that style where you can get cheap replacement blades, but I’ve always hesitated because, you know, what if it is shit. Then I’ve wasted like a few year’s shaving budget on it. Would make for less waste though.
I use a trimmer now, never really cared for a close shave and I often leave it for a couple of weeks. I found a razor just got clogged up too much between the blades.
Annoyingly the trimmer I have seems to vary in power, the motor charges speeds a lot during use. I think it might be a poor connection on the AA batteries, surface might have tarnished. Did think of soldering some wires on and connecting it to an extra battery, better connection and higher voltage. Overclock shaving!
I found a razor just got clogged up too much between the blades.
You might have better luck with one of those bog-standard single-blade safety razors, i.e. one of these:
I’ve heard from a hairdresser that they prefer the single-blade ones, specifically because the multi-blade ones clog up so much.
I mean, currently I also use a trimmer for my face, as I cannot be asked to do a wet shave every day. But I still use the safety razor for cutting back armpits and groin for hygiene reasons, and it works quite well for that. It’s a lot less scary when you don’t have to cut thick beard hair.
I did also consider that option but I don’t really feel a need for a shave that close. I know using the multiblade razors left my skin feeling a bit uncomfortable after, not sure if safety razors do as well. Trimmer doesn’t at all.
Yeah, they probably will leave your skin feeling uncomfortable. Many seem to consider shaving cream and whatnot a strict requirement. That’s also part of the reason why I still use a trimmer for my face, too.
Just looked at it and I think most shaving creams cost more than my trimmer did
I have a rechargeable trimmer. Like you, I’m never going for that ultra-close shave. I have fairly light/thin facial hair though, so the 5 o’clock shadow looks works well for me.
Mine uses AA batteries rather than a built in lithium one, my hope was that it would mean it lasts longer as I can just swap NiMH batteries as I feel like it rather than having to throw out the entire thing when the lithium battery dies. Also its cheaper as it doesn’t come with batteries and charging circuitry.
i bought for cheap one pluggable razor much more powerful than those with batteries … also you have to oil the blades and clean them regularly.
I do oil and clean it, I live in the UK so we don’t normally have sockets in bathrooms. Getting one of those special ones installed would probably cost quite a bit.
If only i could shave my head with one i would in a heartbeat.
I shave mine with a safety razor. Knobbliness of head is probably a factor though!
I have a mole on the top of my head, multi blade razors glide over it, my safety razor is how i found out I had it: sharp pain and suddenly being covered in so much blood I could smell it.
So yeah knoblliness should not be overlooked.
Ooft, that’s rough. Eyyyy
I bought a Leaf Razor from an EU reseller about a year ago now and it was a game changer for head shaving with safety razor blades.
The head of the handle pivots so it’s very difficult to cut myself with it accidentally unlike the regular handle I was using before.
I’m hesitant to share a link because I don’t want to seem like a shill for a company I don’t know much about but just wanted to say there are options out there!
This thread is so wild I swear. A bottle of softener costs 2 bucks and last you for so many washes (up to 100?). A bar of soap cost one buck, then you have to factor in the time to prepare the softener, the other ingredients and whatnot.
Where is the saving?
https://www.target.com/p/downy-april-fresh-liquid-fabric-conditioner-140-fl-oz/-/A-82823990
Here’s a typical fabric softener at Target. $13 before tax. Still not a lot, but it’s not nearly as cheap as $2.
A bottle of softener costs 2 bucks and last you for so many washes (up to 100?).
What kind of fabric softener is that cheap for that much? My experience is that it’s way more expensive than that.
Sometimes I’ll be at the laundry detergent shelf at the shop and see a really low price, only to get disappointed by it being softener and not detergent. Shit be cheap, compared to detergent. Wouldn’t even use softener if it were free though, so can’t comment on how long it lasts.
The saving is due to not using a useless softener - the point of this this thread
Why? It smells good. If you can’t afford a 2 buck softener at lease every 3 months (assuming a wash once a week) I’d say you have got much bigger problems
I find it hard to believe that a $2 “fabric softener” smells all that good? Pretty sure it smells like cheap chemical fragrances.
Mmmm febreeze!
Sure, but the point is that fabric softener is not necessary.
At the very least in the case of towels (any type), it is actually counter productive, because it makes the towels less absorbent.
On top of that, it means clothes absorb less sweat, which, at first glance, seems like a good thing, until you realise it means your sweat will now stick to your skin longer, because it can’t evaporate from your shirt.
Oh it smells good? Idc, if I cared enough to perfume my clothes I’d do it at point of use.
It’s not the softener itself. It’s the softener plus a dozen other little luxuries that all add up.
What do you want your clothes to smell? What’s the point?
IMO fabric softener is utterly pointless but my main problem with it is that it can degrade some clothes faster.
https://fabrictopics.com/does-fabric-softener-damage-clothes/
how much is a cup in non freedom units?
59.15 ml
Wow I had not even realised that this would actually be a well defined unit. I thought it was like “add a spoon of sugar” in recipes.
I just realized 59.15 ml is 1/4 of a cup while 1 cup is 239.59 ml
Annoyingly, the US has two different “cups”
US legal units puts it as 240ml
US Customary Units puts it at 236.59ml
Then there’s Imperial cups, which is 284.13ml
Then there’s the metric cup at 250ml
It happened a lot in our nation’s history that folks would have relatively simple kitchens not equipped with scales or even a set of measuring cups, so eating vessels and utensils would be used. A lot of staple American baked goods like biscuits are really more about feeling the consistency of the dough than sticking to a recipe anyway, so laboratory precision is not necessary.
At some point the cup got codified as half a pint, or 8 fluid ounces, or slightly under 0.125L. A tablespoon is 1/2 of a fluid ounce and thus 1/16th of a cup. A teaspoon is 1/3 of a tablespoon.
It works out that tea- and tablespoons are ~ 4.928 and 14.786 mL respectively. The medicine industry, which actually does everything in metric and has for decades now, often writes dosing instructions in metric tea- or tablespoons of 5mL and 15mL respectively. For example, my bottle of Listerine mouthwash says in its instructions “swish 10mL (2 teapoonfuls) between your teeth for 30 seconds…”
Believe it or not we also know how long an inch is, too.
Yeah I get why it makes sense to have recipes with “add about a cup of X”, but it surprises me that someone decided to make it an official unit of an exactly defined amount
It boggles your mind that the units people were actually using became standardized?
not all cups are the same so why would anyone say “this is now the exact amount of a cup”?
The amount measured by a typical tea or coffee cup is approximately 1/2 US Pint, so when it comes time to codify it that’s a reasonable place to put it.
Anything else you wish to artificially complicate?
It happened a lot in our nation’s history that folks would have relatively simple kitchens not equipped with scales or even a set of measuring cups
That’s, like, every nation’s history. Cooking has never required that much precision, especially home cooking. Even baking can be done by feel, with enough experience.
Learning to use recipes and then learning you don’t need them are the two most important parts of learning how to cook imo. The first time I make something I use a recipe every time after that I do not and just go by feel/vibes unless I am trying to make something authentic.
Freedom units should be replaced with something like racist units or genocide units or orange units
I tend to use moon landing units.
Didn’t the Apollo missions use metric, though?
It is my understanding that a mix of units was used. I do not know how much metric was used in the design of the engines or rockets, the construction was largely done in SAE units because that’s what the aerospace industry was tooled up for. It is my understanding that calculations were done in metric but converted and displayed in nautical miles, feet, and feet per second for the crews who, being US aviators were accustomed to those units. The crawler transporter’s fuel economy is measured in gallons per foot.
So the metric units? Those were used by racists and genocidal tyrants throughout history.
Racism isn’t a defining characteristic of all metric users though .
I didn’t say it was. Just that has been quite popular with those types of defective people over the history of the use of the metric system.
The Imperial system has it’s own special though.
This entire argument is obviously ridiculous from both sides but the main difference between the metric system and the Imperial system in this context is that almost everyone uses the metric system while pretty much only the USA uses the Imperial system.
So the Imperial system can be blamed for any faults of the USA. But the opposite is ridiculous since that’s the standard. That would be like blaming Hitler on legs.
And yes again, it’s incredibly ridiculous to blame anything on a system of measurement but if you are gonna do it the Imperial system makes way more sense to blame.
Good thing the US doesn’t use the Imperial measurement system then, (we use US Customary which is different than Imperial). That pretty much started to diverge by the end of the revolutionary War. And for your information, we are all looking for that same missing 10mm wrench and socket just like you guys are. We use the metric system all the bloody time. From soda pop and whisk(e)y to every food item in a grocery store to the Canyonaro pickups we drive are all metric. We just don’t force it by law like the rest of the world.
The point was to make fun of any and all who think ANY measurement system is better than another or even matters at all. They all consist of made up units all thought up by random dudes long ago that enough other people thought were pretty skookum and decided to use.
Yes, I know that you use your own fucked up flavour of the Imperial system.
The metric system is objectively a better system which is why you guys use it when it actually matters (except the times you fuck up because you use two different systems, like with the climate orbiter.)
FYI: the metric system isn’t really “made up”. All SI base units are defined by physical constants. It’s also a logical system while the Imperial system was dreamt up by some mad lad.
The freedom was always sarcastic
soon enough it will be nazi units
Godwin’s law
Freedom units were imported from Britan.
And then bastardised.
Chad UK/Irish Imperial pint: 568ml
Virgin US Customary Unit pint: 473ml
American and British cups are also different.
Want to add in here, that some washing mechanics can’t hand the homemade detergent mix. I’ve damaged one or two with the mix. Not entirely sure as to the reason, but I believe it has something to do with the grated soap bar clogging something somewhere.
Wonder if you could powder it somehow.
Small batches in an old blender. Grated soap mixed with you washing soda, borax or whatever else you are using as a booster. The powders will coat the soap as it gets cut apart and keeping it from clumping back together.
This is hard on a blender so do smaller batches (and don’t use a good blender. Get one from goodwill or the like for ~ 10 bucks}. It will also produce very fine airborne power when you open the blender. I promise you that you don’t want strong alkaline powers in your lungs, and even if you do it will make the air taste terrible. Do this in a well ventilated place, use PPE, and be careful. I find that after you powder it, the soap in the mixture holds on to the other ingredients and keep them from becoming airborne.
Also use a laundry soap bar, the soap is often stronger so you can use less and it doesn’t have ingredients to moisturizer or make the soap easy on the skin. Those often contribute to buildup issues.
I wrote up a big rant with detailed instructions on how to remove residue from washers. A clean washer performed better and it’s over of the reasons people get a new washer and it ends up cleaning much better.
EDIT: a link to my washer cleaning and residue removal rant
You don’t need dryer sheets if you’re hang drying your clothes, which reduces wear on the clothes and uses less energy, along with requiring one less appliance, unless you have a combo washer/dryer.
I started hang drying my clothes maybe 4 years ago and I’m definitely not going back
I’ve been hang drying for a decade. Moved house recently, treated myself to a dryer. My god clothes feel so much softer now. Especially towels.
Yeah, I hang dry most of my clothes, but I use a dryer for towels because they get really coarse otherwise, and bed sheets because I don’t really have somewhere to hang them
For me, nothing beats clothes hung dry that have been drying in the sun. It has its own unique smell to them.
