If you wear jeans almost every day, how often do you wash them?

[genetix]

I've just bought a new pair of jeans, and the instructions advise hanging them out on the line to freshen them up and avoid washing them if possible, to preserve their colour.

You'd think in this day and age that someone would have invented colour-fast dye for jeans!

I just read that as 'washing every ten years'. 😄

I live in a country with serious water shortages so I don’t wash anything very often! We are constantly being shouted at to save water. I can wear jeans for several weeks and they don’t smell. Jeans don’t need washing much at all. The only thing I don’t wear more than once are knickers.

when I did live in England I was horrified by how often people washed things. Growing up reliant on rain water only in a country which had frequent droughts, I have learnt to be very careful with water.

Why? Do you have a mucky job?
Do you wash other clothes that are not next to your skin after every wear as well - hoodies, cardigans, jackets, coats?

You must spend all of your time washing.

Probably every 10-15 wears. They don’t smell, aren’t dirty, don’t lose their shape.

I only wash clothes when they need washing. For some items this is after one wear. Similar to wool and cashmere knitwear, I find jeans can go a long way before needing a wash.

Unless you have issues (past trauma, MH etc) and if they aren’t covered in crap, then I’d say 5 wears or so.

@Nannyfannybanny
‘I think it was Vivian Westwood who said you should wash jeans. 30 years ago, you were told to dry clean them only.’

Both untrue…

I’ve been wearing jeans since the 1960’s and have never seen instructions to dry clean. However I do remember sitting in a bath of cold water to shrink my Levis though! 😀

Vivienne Westwood said not to wash jeans.

The indigo dye doesn’t like being washed. It faded with each wash as it’s basically trying to get out of the fibres.

However, l have never ever heard of a wash label saying don’t wash clothes. What make are they?

l used to design jeans and worked in Textiles all my life, some of it 30 years ago. I’ve NEVER heard of jeans that don’t wash. Unless they were made of sequins or something. Then they wouldn’t be jeans.👖

'proper' jeans dyed with indigo will fade over time.
it's not as stable a dye as synthetic ones.

fwiw we wear jeans around 5 times, unless visibly dirty.
the black ones I wear to work get a dye wash about once a year.

I'm.in shock that a pp said they wash their regular trousers once a quarter. How many pairs do they have? Even if they have 4 they are wearing them for weeks!

As soon as the crotch smells of crotch!

I take a similar approach. I have several pairs and wear them in rotation. They get checked for stains and are sniff- checked too. Wear them, air them, spare them, wear them again.

Why?

Wait.. people don't wash jeans??

I might get a second day out of them at the most, after that I'd just feel gross

Once the bum / knees start to sag a bit.
Say 5 wears. I’ll give them a quick sniff too!

I wear skinny jeans and normally get 2, sometimes 3 wears before they become too baggy. That’s always the point I throw them back in the wash to tighten up again.

I don’t worry about any ‘infections’ as surprisingly I wear clean knickers underneath. Who on earth is having rough jeans rubbing all over their bits?!?

Not washing proper denim much is very common. It is heavy duty workwear fabric so can be spot cleaned.

The more you wash them the more they will fade and bag.

I have a heavy duty demin wrap skirt from Toast and I think I have washed it twice in the three years I've owned it. I wear it over tights and a vest so it is never next to my skin, air it after each wear and spot clean any infreqent spills.

I have about 8 pairs of jeans I wear regularly. I get about 2 wears from them before they need a wash & thats usually because they have dried crusty food on them from my 11 month old.
Occasionally I can get 4/5 wears & they don’t smell.

Also pretty sure they aren’t causing an infection down there. Has anyone actually had an infection from wearing the same jeans for more than a few days? Are you going commando or something 🤣

Do you wash your coat/jacket after every wear too? 👀

If you mean me, I said I go to the dry cleaners once a quarter with a bag of drycleaning. My black tie dress has been in the bag since November and was worn once, it's got a grease spot on it. I also said I WFH in jeans all week. Just counted I have 13;pairs of wool trousers so it would take me about six months to wear all of them once. I dont wear them every day for three months jeez.

Well, I didn't have kids, which are a million times more ecologically damaging than my two weekly wash loads. So I'm not losing sleep over wearing clean clothing.

Has anyone shown up yet to say they put on fresh jeans after every daytime urination/fecal discharge and launder the previous pair at 90 degrees and anyone who doesn't is absolutely disgusting and crawling with lice and worms? If not, mumsnet - I am very disappointed in you.

@PelvicFloorClenchReminder

There are some rather fastidious posters on this thread.

Fair enough.

I am not from the UK and am sometimes amazed on MN about talk about peoples personal hygiene habits. I like to be clean and have clean clothes and clean hair and for my children to be clean. I'm not fastidious about it but i have a colleague (and I have heard this echoed on MN as well) who boasts for example she only washes her hair once a week as it is healthier to not interfere with the natural oils of the hair and 'no-one can tell as she does not smell'. Well- she does smell and if there is anything that ought to be interfered with IMO is dirt. On occasion I can smell her before I enter her office. I would not say I am a super smeller or anything but you can tell when people don't wash their clothes. On that subject- why do so few men wash their ties? I am not talking about silk ties that might need specialist care but bog standard M&S ties. My boss (barrister) has a court room tie that is literally oily at the knot from his skin. Mind you, this has prompted me to wash the Dcs school ties once a week and their blazers (thankfully washable and not clean dry only) every couple of weeks.

Maybe I have an especially smelly arse and vulva but 2 days max. Typically one wear is preferred but I can get away with a second if needs be.

I wash at 30 degrees and don't tumble dry. Colour seems ok after months. I have three pairs that alternate.

I do a lot for the environment but providing a sea breeze in the west mids isn't one of them.

I realised I did not actually answer the Ops question.

I would say i wash jeans after around 3 days wear. I am currently wearing a pair on the 4th day but i've been home the whole time. That's as much as i would extend it though.

When they're visibly dirty, probably after 5-10 wears. Sometimes sponge if necessary