Adding a touch of effortless elegance to your bathroom can be as simple as replacing your old towel set with a new, soft one. Although it sounds simple, choosing a decision can be challenging when faced with a plethora of products in a single aisle. Which do you choose: the plushest, the priciest, or the heaviest? Towels for the bathroom are not as simple to select as one might think. Towel selection is heavily influenced by individual taste. It’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with your selections and the many kinds of towels available, as well as their many varied features, before making a purchase of new luxury towels.
Towel material, weight, and size are the three most important factors to think about while shopping for new towels. By teaching you how to buy towels you are sure to enjoy, our “Ultimate Towel Buying Guide” aims to make both your towel-buying and towel-using experiences more pleasant.
Make sure you’re getting high-quality, well-made towels no matter what kind of bath towel you’re looking for. Single-ply yarns reduce breakage and lengthen the life of your towel; long-staple cotton makes for the softest, strongest feel. Not only should you think about the towel’s fabric, but also its size, weight, absorbency, construction, characteristics like loop density and double-turned edges, durability, and care and cleaning.
The Fabric of the Towel
- Cotton is a natural fiber that is differentiated by the length of its individual fibers, or staples. Typically, the plusher the towel, the finer and longer the staple.
- The selective harvesting process that gives Egyptian cotton its luxurious appearance. By reducing the strain on the plant fibers, a finer yarn is produced, which in turn makes for a plusher and more absorbent towel.
- Extra-long fibers in a flat weave make Turkish cotton towels (also known as foutas) thin while still being extremely durable.
- Towels made from Pima cotton are exceptionally soft and absorbent because, like Egyptian cotton, the fibers in Pima cotton are particularly long and fine. The main distinction is that Pima comes from the United States (although from the same plant) and is produced at a lower cost.
Towel Weight Matters
The weight of the towels is the next factor to think about while shopping for new high-end bath linens. The higher the weight, the denser the towel or sheet will be, and vice versa for bath towels. Towels of greater weight are typically more fluffy and absorbent.
- Lightweight, 300–400 GSM, Luxury Towels. Towels that aren’t too heavy to carry around are more convenient and can be used for more tasks than their heavier counterparts.
- Towels in the 400-600 GSM medium weight range are versatile enough to serve as both bath towels and guest towels.
- Towels of the heavy weight range (600-900 GSM) are the highest quality available and are used in high-end establishments because of their superior density, thickness, and absorbency.
When shopping for new high-end towels for your home, a good rule of thumb is that the denser and heavier the towel, the more durable and absorbent it will be.
Construction of a Towel
You might notice “two-ply,” “combed,” “ring-spun,” or “waffle weave” on the label, all of which refer to the weaving method used to create the towel. Fabrics all have their own individual look and feel because of the different weaving techniques used. Examples of common approaches to towel construction are:
- Combed Cotton: Cotton that has been combed before to weaving removes dirt and shorter threads, leaving finer, longer threads that are more resistant to pilling and produce a fabric with a cloudlike, robust quality.
- Ring-spun: Cotton that has been ring-spun is a high-quality yarn because the small and long fibers are twisted together. In this way, ring spun cotton becomes softer and more luxurious.
- Waffle weave: Towels made with a waffle weave may not be as luxurious as those made from regular cotton, but they make up for this in efficiency and drying time thanks to their honeycomb pattern.
Bath towel or a Bath sheet | Know the difference
Have you ever had trouble because your bath towel was too small? Possibly a bath sheet would be more appropriate. There is a distinction between the two, however it is often confused with one another. The typical bath towel is between 27 and 30 inches long, while the larger bath sheet is between 35 and 70 inches long and provides more drying space after a bath or shower. The Belem Bath Towel comes in six eye-popping colors to enhance your bathroom aesthetics and is significantly larger than a typical bath towel, so you can use it to dry off your whole body.
Focus on the Fine Print
Examining a towel closely for its finer points is the key to finding one of high quality bath towels. If you want your bath towels to last, it’s best to invest in ones made from high-quality materials and well crafted to withstand daily use.
- Loop Density: Density of the cotton loops determines the GSM of a terry towel; the larger, longer, and denser the loops, the higher the GSM. This denotes a plush, absorbent towel.
- Double-turned stitching: Towels with double-turned edges are finished with two rows of stitching across each end to prevent fraying, or with ribbed detailing (the characteristic parallel lines that run the length of the towel) for a sleek, contemporary look.
- Sewn-in-loop: Towels that are thinner and have a sewn-in loop for hanging will dry more rapidly even if they are slightly clumped together, which is a terrific feature for small bathrooms.
Towels, like most other home textiles, don’t come in a universal “one size fits all.” Outside of our personal preferences, certain situations call for specific towels. Using these facts, we hope you’ll be able to find the best towel for your household’s needs.
