Stiff, hard, and scratchy — if the towels in your house can be described with these three adjectives, we've got just the solution for you and it's only a small change.15:28, 23 Jul 2026Few things in life are more comforting than taking a nice hot shower and wrapping oneself in a soft and fluffy towel after stepping out. However, this feeling of contentment can quickly become awful if the towel is stiff, hard, and scratchy.‌If the towels in your house can be described by these three adjectives, look no further, because we have just the solution for you. With just a little bit of TLC, towels can be kept soft and fluffy for a lot longer. Using the correct techniques to wash towels is a small and basic, yet supremely effective, step you can take to maintain the luxurious feel of your towel.‌For those hoping to preserve the indulgent feel of a nice and soft towel, we’ve got a criminally overlooked top tip from home experts which will help maintain your towel’s quality for a long time to come. Because we all know that drying yourself with a hard and scratchy towel can feel like rubbing sandpaper against your skin — and who likes that?‌There are several reasons behind why towels become hard and prickly, including how they are washed, how they are dried and the type of water they are washed in. On top of all this, the actual quality and material of the towel is paramount.Home experts at Secret Linen and The English Home suggest choosing good quality towels to begin with. Towels made of 100% cotton with natural raised fibres are a great choice, with cotton also contributing to the towel’s softness over time.‌Ideal temperature to wash towelsTo ensure your towels feel less like sandpaper and more like a cloud of cotton candy, one crucial condition must be adhered to while washing them — the temperature at which they are washed.According to the home experts at Secret Linen, lowering the temperature when washing your towels is crucial. They say: “High temperatures strip the natural fibres [of a towel] of their natural softness. We suggest washing your bath towels on a cooler temperature, between 30 and 40 degrees.”‌The experts at The English Home echo the advice: “Don’t wash them at too high a temperature. The ideal temperature to prevent them going hard is a 40 degree wash for coloured towels or 60 degrees for white towels or coloured towels that have been heavily used.”Lucy Ackroyd, head of design at Christy, tells The English Home: “Wash your towels at 30 or 40 degrees, as repeated washing at higher temperatures will damage that precious cotton.”Common mistakes making towels hard and scratchyThe home experts at Secret Linen suggest going easy on the detergent. Many of us can universally agree that we are guilty of using too much laundry detergent in our washes.‌The experts caution: “With towels, it's really important you follow the guidelines on the laundry liquid bottle. If you use too much, it will simply be harder to remove during the rinse cycle. This will then accumulate over time and add to the stiffness of your lovely towels.”Another common mistake we all have probably made at one time or the other — I know I have — is stuffing all our towels into the machine in one single washing cycle.‌The English Home experts say: “Tempting as it is to wash all your towels in one go, cramming too many into the machine does them no favours.”Secret Linen home experts agree: “It's tempting to stuff all the family's bath towels in the wash at once, but this won't help with softness or cleanliness. If there are too many towels in the wash, laundry detergents and fabric conditioners will not rinse out properly, leaving a build up over time which dries and goes hard.”Speaking to The English Home, James Montgomery-Castle, junior buyer at Soak & Sleep, advises washing towels in small loads, as a full drum can directly impact how clean the towels can get. Design expert Lucy adds: “The towels will benefit from lots of room to slosh around and reopen those dried-up fibres.”Article continues belowWhile a smaller load is best, the experts at The English Home explain how it’s a careful balancing act, since too few items in the machine are also likely to break down the fibres of a towel faster.It’s also a good overall practice to wash towels separately from the rest of your laundry, so that the pulling and pilling of the towel’s fibres can be avoided as per home experts, which is another major reason behind why towels lose their softness and fluffiness quickly.