Wearing new clothes for a while before washing them seems like a good way to keep that new clothes feel for longer, but after reading about all the yucky stuff found on some new clothes we may want to wash before wearing.
Because, as Heidi Mitchell of the Wall Street Journal discovered after speaking to professor of dermatology at Columbia University Donald Belsito, new clothes are often far from clean:
There are two major culprits when it comes to allergens in new clothing: dye and formaldehyde resin. Most synthetic textiles are colored with azo-aniline dyes, which can cause a severe skin reaction akin to poison ivy in the small population of people allergic to them. For others, reactions to dyes are less extreme, and may result in slightly inflamed, dry, itchy patches of skin...
“I have seen cases of lice that were possibly transmitted from trying on in the store, and there are certain infectious diseases that can be passed on through clothing. The other infestation I’ve seen from clothing is scabies.”
*shivers* I suddenly feel the urge to wash every piece of clothing in my closet...
-Via Lifehacker