To hate cotton and prefer polyester?

[ParentOfOne]

Cotton may be breathable but it doesn't wick moisture away, so when you sweat it remains wet. This can easily lead to chafing and get uncomfortable, especially with cotton underwear.

Most synthetic fabrics, by contrast, especially polyester and bamboo, are breathable and also have good moisture-wicking properties - do the same exercise, even just running to catch a bus, in a cotton vs synthetic garment: cotton will remain damp forever.

Have you ever seen an athlete playing any kind of sports in cotton shirts and trousers? Or do they all use polyester? There's a reason for that! And you don't need to run marathons to start sweating.

Pre-covid, in the summer I used to go to the office wearing polyester, then get changed into cotton: commuting into cotton I would sweat and cotton would remain wet for most of the day, while commuting in polyester the fabric would not get damp.

I don't get why people claim that polyester makes them sweat more than cotton. The feel on the skin is subjective (cotton makes me feel clammy), the moisture-wicking properties of fabrics are not. Maybe everyone who complains buys super-cheap, poor-quality polyester? But you don't need to spend loads to get good quality synthetics : my £6 Decathlon t-shirts and my child's cheap polyester gym kit all do an excellent job.

The one thing I don't like about synthetic fabrics is the environmental impact, especially the shedding of microplastics. However, it is now easy to find clothes made of recycled polyester, plus I understand that washing clothes in laundry bags and using specific filters for the washing machine helps big time. Plus it's not like cotton has zero environmental impact, either.

@ParentOfOne

Cotton may be breathable but it doesn't wick moisture away, so when you sweat it remains wet. This can easily lead to chafing and get uncomfortable, especially with cotton underwear.

Most synthetic fabrics, by contrast, especially polyester and bamboo, are breathable and also have good moisture-wicking properties - do the same exercise, even just running to catch a bus, in a cotton vs synthetic garment: cotton will remain damp forever.

Have you ever seen an athlete playing any kind of sports in cotton shirts and trousers? Or do they all use polyester? There's a reason for that! And you don't need to run marathons to start sweating.

Pre-covid, in the summer I used to go to the office wearing polyester, then get changed into cotton: commuting into cotton I would sweat and cotton would remain wet for most of the day, while commuting in polyester the fabric would not get damp.

I don't get why people claim that polyester makes them sweat more than cotton. The feel on the skin is subjective (cotton makes me feel clammy), the moisture-wicking properties of fabrics are not. Maybe everyone who complains buys super-cheap, poor-quality polyester? But you don't need to spend loads to get good quality synthetics : my £6 Decathlon t-shirts and my child's cheap polyester gym kit all do an excellent job.

The one thing I don't like about synthetic fabrics is the environmental impact, especially the shedding of microplastics. However, it is now easy to find clothes made of recycled polyester, plus I understand that washing clothes in laundry bags and using specific filters for the washing machine helps big time. Plus it's not like cotton has zero environmental impact, either.

Cotton does dry really quickly what are you talking about?

I hate the feel of polyester.
I stink in it, I don't stink with cotton.

At least half of my exercise tops are cotton.

I wouldn't use anything at night that's not cotton, to wear or to sleep in.

I avoid synthetic clothing for the sake of those around me, because my sweat smells, and synthetic fibres make it smell worse. I've just googled it and found this:

Polyester is hydrophobic, or water-hating. That means it’s really great at soaking up sweat and then quickly getting rid of it through evaporation. This is what companies mean when they say a garment can “wick sweat,” and it’s what makes dry-fit workout tops so magical.

The problem is, polyester is oleophilic, a.k.a. oil-loving. So while it wicks away plenty of watery eccrine sweat to keep you feeling dry, any of the oily apocrine sweat compounds and already-digested odorous compounds that pass through the clothing cling to polyester fibers for dear life. There, they take on a new, especially foul kind of scent.

It goes on to talk about how hard it is to get the smell out of the fabric.

@bingoitsadingo "Just because the fibres are made of the same stuff doesn't mean the fabric has the same properties."

Precisely. Which is why I dare think that those who say polyester makes them sweat have simply not tried the right polyester.

After all, if some of us sweated more in cotton and some of us more in polyester, then some athletes would wear cotton and some would wear polyester. But that's not what happens - no athlete wears cotton, ever.

@GrumpyHoonMain Cotton does not dry as quickly as polyester but, most of all, cotton takes forever to dry on you if you sweat in it and cannot change - cotton absorbs and retains the moisture. Polyester dries more quickly in general but especially if you sweat in it and cannot change, because it will wick moisture away rather than retaining it.

That's what I meant when I said I was curious / puzzled, because it seems most people are just giving the wrong reasons for disliking polyester (talking about the objective properties of the fabrics, not the subjective feeling on the skin). Then, again, I am not in the polyester-selling business and I couldn't care less what people wear - just curious.

Nothing would convince me to use polyester - it makes my skin itchy and crawl.

You've got me really interested now, OP! Maybe it's people who produce more eccrine sweat who don't smell as bad as I do and who just want to be rid of the liquid ASAP who favour synthetic fitness gear, and people who produce more oily, smelly apocrine sweat who avoid polyester like the plague, even though it tends to be cheaper and can be made in brighter colours and have prettier designs printed onto it.