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Home: Bathroom: Towel
Hardened Bathtowel   (+4, -5)  [vote for, against]
May not be soft, but it will get you dry.

Don't get me wrong, I like soft stuff as much as anyone else, but I hate grabbing a towel only to feel like I should be falling into it rather than drying myself with it. What I see is a towel that is impervious to fabric softener, hardened against its waxy ways.Too long have I dried myself after a shower. Seriously, it takes forever with the towels after my girlfriend softens them, not only with liquid, but dryer sheets as well. I know, I could just ask her to not use it, but I think it would be better just to invent a new towel.

EDIT: Ok, the idea is not for a hard bath towel. I like the generally soft nature of them. I mean hardened as in "hardened from attack", with the nasty waxy ultra softness being the attacker. Without the waxy buildup on the towel, it tends to dry much better.
-- rascalraidex, Oct 22 2007

Have you tried starch? http://www.lehmans....PRODUCT&itemID=7003
Also tackles sunburns and diaper rash. [DrCurry, Oct 26 2007]

Find me a towel harder than this. http://www.alibaba....pressed_Napkin.html
[Giblet, Oct 27 2007]

You could maintain a private towel, and wash it yourself?
-- pertinax, Oct 23 2007


Dry your towels on a line and they'll be rough enough to debride the skin off your back..dryer sheets or not.
-- Klaatu, Oct 23 2007


Move to a hard water area. Then after washing your towels, they are crispy and abraisive with Calcium Carbonate.
-- hippo, Oct 23 2007


swap her fabric softener for some starch but dont tell her
-- Iridium7, Oct 23 2007


<Puts down beer and Hustler for a minute to dispense wisdom>

Look, all you have to do is shorten up her chain a little so that she can't reach it!
-- the dog's breakfast, Oct 23 2007


I live in a hard water area currently, thats why she uses the softener. The swapping is a pretty good idea, shes legally blind, so if i just keep the same bottle, she might never know. Really the idea isn't for a hard towel, just a towel hardened against softener. A nice non-waxy feeling towel.
-- rascalraidex, Oct 23 2007


Don't use it anywhere. It's detrimental, pointless, and has a non-zero cost. The golden trifecta of eschewal.
-- Texticle, Oct 24 2007


shower -> dogshake -> airdry (perhaps an excuse to wander about in your nothings for a while)
-- lurch, Oct 24 2007


//It's detrimental, pointless, and has a non-zero cost. The golden trifecta of eschewal.//

any or all of that [marked-for-tagline]. brilliant really.
-- k_sra, Oct 24 2007


How about a water softener instead of a fabric softener?
-- Noexit, Oct 24 2007


Harden the water more to defeat it! Add large blocks of chalk to your mains inlet; you can often buy inline filter units which can have their filter removed and chalk added instead.
-- vincevincevince, Oct 24 2007


Well. As much as I applaud the sentiment that softener is detrimental to the env. and understand that it makes fabric less absorbant blah blah (endless, endless circular discussion with my fella on this very subject), I do think us girlies and the more sensitively-skinned men should be allowed a drop of eco-friendly softener in our wash.

You know what one of the main building materials here abouts is? Tufa. There cannot be a region anywhere on the face of the planet with harder water than here.

If my fella does the washing and hangs the towels out across the line, I can stand them up afterwards like a little wendy house and use them to grate carrots, parmesan, my tender pink hide etc.
-- squeak, Oct 24 2007


//tender pink hide// ... it's called exfoliation and if you get it for free, be happy
-- vincevincevince, Oct 24 2007


she's/he's "legally blind". <Adds deaf and mute, and stares whistfully into space>.

Less frivolously, replace the softener with the water you boiled your spuds in, recommended only if towels are washed seperately to other laundry. Replace towels fortnightly.
-- 4whom, Oct 24 2007


<makes plans to use "golden trifecta of eschewal" more often in conversation>.
-- 4whom, Oct 24 2007


Volunteer to take over doing the laundry, then don't use fabric softener when you wash the towels.

Sounds like a win-win situation. And if she complains that you do a crappy job at it, let her resume doing all the laundry except the towels. Tell her you want to be "towel guy".
-- Canuck, Oct 26 2007


"It's detrimental, pointless, and has a non-zero cost. The golden trifecta of eschewal."

You could say the same about living, really.
-- phoenix, Oct 26 2007


Hotel towels are pretty hard.. especially the one that they leave over the edge of the tub. But I completely understand about soft towels.. they never really get you dry the same way that a rougher towel does. Plus its a good way to "scratch" as the drying water against your skin starts to make it itch.
-- Jscotty, Oct 26 2007


Ah...I was thinking hardened in the military sense...
-- DrCurry, Oct 26 2007


Thats the sense I meant it in [DrCurry]. Hardened against fabric softeners, that way you could wash towels with other items. So your socks and pants would be soft, the bath towels still rough and non-waxy enough to dry you.
-- rascalraidex, Oct 26 2007


But it will still show up on radar and all that?
-- DrCurry, Oct 26 2007


<phoenix is soft enough for me> sigh...

I don't get this at all - soft towels sop up moisture quite nicely and towels dried on the outside line are lovely.

if you are that hard, try cardboard. -1 guys just don't do laundry
-- po, Oct 26 2007


[DrCurry] Depends on how you fold it.

[po] I'm not saying soft stuff won't absorb water, but fabric softener leaves a waxy layer that doesn't let the towel absorb as much. The towel would not need be physically hard, just hardened against fabric softener. I need to edit the idea slightly i guess.
-- rascalraidex, Oct 26 2007


I guess!
-- po, Oct 26 2007


How about small little dry pucks that when you start to dry yourself with them they expand into toweletts?

See link
-- Giblet, Oct 27 2007



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