AIBU to not "get" expensive towels?

[QuizteamBleakley]

Each year our family does a Secret Santa: you pick a name out of a hat and then spend up to £75 on that person. Saves a LOT of admin and means the recipient gets one gift they really want.

This year I got a bath towel. It's lovely but who are the people who regularly spend £70 on a bath towel? I'm not complaining much as it will be a lovely poncey touch for the guest bedroom. It feels much like the supermarket ones we get and is cotton, not unicorn pelt. Surely a towel is a towel is a towel or do we actually live in a world where people do not sniff at the idea of paying £70 for a £5 towel?

What don't you "get"?

About four years ago I did a re-stock. I bought the children department store cheap(er) towels for the bathroom, not horrifically cheap, but definitely cheaper than the Christie ones I bought for my en-suite. The children's towels are now threadbare. My Christie ones are still like new.

We were given Harrods towels as a wedding present, and they are huge and fluffy, but we only put them out for guests. Much prefer older, cheaper thinner ones which are quicker to dry (and I like them crispy so no tumble drying for mine!) Don't get the point of bath sheets - lovely but too big and impractical.

I was about to come on here and say you are being unreasonable as, if people want to buy expensive towels for themselves and they can afford it, they should.

Then I saw someone bought YOU an expensive towel and have completely changed my answer to them being unreasonable and you not being unreasonable!

Unless you specifically asked for the towel, which you clearly didn't, it's a very odd way to spend a £75 secret santa allocation. I hope you get them in future and can repay them with t-towels or something.

Expensive towels are often 'zero twist', which feel lovely and lofty but don't wash and last particularly well.

A thread count of around 300 is the best - still breathable but feels luxurious. Any higher and it's heavy and doesn't add any benefit.

I'm a textile Buyer.

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This is why I love MN! I learn so much whilst avoiding housework

I got some Christy ones in TK Maxx which were ruined after the first wash as, apparently, the thread used at the flat bits towards the edges of the towels is not cotton. So they're all puckered now and don't lie flat probably why in TK Maxx. Hate them.

A set of nice towels I could understand, but just one is a bit odd!

I can never get my towels to stay 'square' (if you know what I mean) after their first wash. Whether cheap or expensive, they just never fold neatly and it drives me a bit bonkers!

Egyptian cotton? That's what my £5 Tesco towels are! The only difference it seems is the colour.

I'm a towel snob and spend a lot on amazing Egyptian cotton ones. They are huge and fluffy, I love them!

And they last years. Sorry, but I've used many a cheaper towel and hate them

I remember when I first left home for uni and my mum wanted to make a few of my basics 'luxury', so she got me some lovely fancy towels so I could have a little bit of loveliness while living a skint student lifestyle

Only problem was that my student house was a bit damp, none of us could be arsed to spend money on heating, and we didn't have a tumble drier. I don't think those towels dried out once in the year I used them

I returned them to DM for a boil wash at the end of first year and invested in some thinner ones (and did start re-diverting beer money to the heating company!)

Motto of this story: fancy towels are for fancy people and I am not one of them

thecatsmother tea towels... or 75 items from the Poundshop, that would be fabulous payback!