Spa towels have a certain effortless confidence. They’re plush. They’re fluffy. They quietly suggest you’ve made good life choices. Your towels at home, meanwhile, often feel stiff, scratchy, and weirdly hostile to your skin.
The irony? Most towels don’t start their lives this way. They get crunchy over time thanks to detergent buildup, fabric softener residue, body oils, and minerals in your water slowly clogging the fibers.
The good news is this is almost entirely reversible. You don’t need to replace your towels or accept exfoliation as a lifestyle. With a few smart tweaks, you can bring them back to hotel-level softness without turning your laundry room into a chemistry lab.
1. Strip Built-Up Residue from Towels
Most scratchy towels aren’t old. They’re clogged with detergent residue, body oils, and minerals from hard water. Think of this as laundry rehab.
Wash your towels on hot with one cup of white vinegar (no laundry detergent). Then run a second hot wash with one cup of baking soda (still no detergent). Lastly, dry normally.
This breaks down residue and lets the fibers breathe again. Your towels will feel noticeably fluffier after one cycle. If they’re truly crunchy, repeat once more. Some towels have seen things.
No matter what your care tag says, these must-haves keep your clothes looking and smelling their best—minus the guesswork.
2. Stop Using Fabric Softener on Towels
Fabric softener coats fibers with a waxy film. It might feel soft at first, but it slowly turns towels into water-repellent sandpaper.
Instead, use ½ cup white vinegar in the rinse cycle occasionally. It softens fibers without clogging them.
3. Use Less Detergent (and Switch to Laundry Pods)
More laundry detergent does not equal cleaner towels. Excess suds can stick in the fibers and stiffen them over time.
This is exactly why pre-measured laundry pods exist (and why they’re especially clutch for towels.) When you’re free-pouring liquid detergent, it’s almost impossible not to overshoot. A heavy hand today becomes crunchy terry cloth six months from now.
Laundry Sauce’s pre-measured laundry pods remove the guesswork entirely. Each pod delivers the right amount of concentrated, enzyme-based detergent every time, so you get deep cleaning without buildup, overdosing, or mystery sludge lingering in the fibers.
Here’s a simple rule of thumb when washing towels with Laundry Sauce pods:
- Small load (2–4 towels): 1 pod
- Medium load (5–8 towels): 2 pods
- Large or heavily soiled load (9–12+ towels): 3 pods
4. Add Wool Dryer Balls
Wool dryer balls help fluff towel fibers as they tumble, which improves airflow and prevents stiffness from setting in. They also reduce dry time and keep towels from clumping together into sad, damp burritos that never quite finish drying.
Bonus: dryer balls eliminate the need for dryer sheets, which leave behind residue that contributes to stiffness and reduced absorbency over time.
5. Shake Towels Out Before Drying
Before tossing towels into the dryer, give each one a strong snap. This loosens compressed fibers and helps the towel dry with more loft instead of matting down and compacting into itself. It takes about ten seconds and pays off every single load.
6. Avoid Overdrying Towels
Overdrying is one of the fastest ways to make towels stiff and brittle. Excess heat damages cotton fibers and bakes in any remaining residue that didn’t rinse out completely.
Dry towels until they’re just dry, not desert-crispy. If your dryer has a moisture sensor, let it do its job for once instead of running an extra “just in case” cycle that quietly ruins your softness.
7. Wash Towels in Warm or Hot Water
Cold water doesn’t dissolve body oils and detergent buildup as effectively, which allows residue to accumulate inside the fibers over time.
For most towels, warm or hot water delivers better cleaning and better long-term softness. An occasional hot sanitation cycle also helps reset the fabric and prevent buildup from sneaking back in.
8. Address Hard Water If It’s an Issue
If you have hard water in your home, mineral deposits slowly coat fabric fibers and make towels feel stiff, no matter how well you wash them.
A monthly vinegar rinse can help dissolve mineral buildup, while a water softener additive can make a noticeable difference in particularly mineral-heavy regions. If you’re truly committed to soft laundry and home upgrades, a whole-house water softener is the long-term power move.
9. Line Dry Then Tumble for Extra Softness
Air-drying preserves towel fibers and extends their lifespan, but it can leave towels feeling stiff if they never get mechanical movement.
The hybrid approach works best. Line dry towels most of the way, then toss them in the dryer with dryer balls for five to ten minutes to restore loft and softness. You get durability, airflow, and that freshly fluffed feel without overbaking the fabric.
Common Questions About Softening Towels
These are the questions laundry experts hear most.
How Do You Prevent Towels from Getting Stiff and Scratchy?
Use less detergent, skip fabric softener, dry properly, and occasionally run a vinegar rinse. Consistency matters more than heroic one-time fixes.
Will Vinegar Make My Towels Soft Again?
Yes. Vinegar dissolves detergent residue and mineral buildup, allowing fibers to relax and absorb water properly again.
How Do I Keep Towels Soft?
Shake them out before drying, avoid overdrying, use dryer balls, and don’t overload your washer. Also: less detergent than your instincts want.
Why Are My Towels So Rough After Washing?
Residue buildup, hard water minerals, overdrying, and fabric softener coatings are usually the culprits working together in quiet sabotage.
How Do Hotels Keep Their Towels Soft and Fluffy?
Hotels use high-quality detergents, controlled dosing, proper wash temperatures, commercial dryers with good airflow, and zero fabric softener.
Soft Towels Deserve to Smell as Good as They Feel with Laundry Sauce
If your towels are going to feel like they came from a five-star hotel, they should smell like it too.
Washing your towels with Laundry Sauce gives you the best of both worlds. The enzyme-based formula cleans deeply without leaving behind the residue that turns towels stiff over time, while the fragrance profiles smell more like a boutique hotel lobby than a utility sink in a basement.
If you want to dial the scent up a notch, add Laundry Sauce scent booster beads to the wash. They layer long-lasting fragrance into the fibers without coating them in waxy buildup or compromising absorbency. Your towels stay plush, functional, and unapologetically elevated.
