How to Wash a Hoodie Without Shrinking It

Most ruined hoodies were ruined in the same ten minutes: a hot wash, then a hot dryer. Cotton doesn't shrink because it got wet. Heat lets the fibres relax back toward the length they held before the mill stretched them, and agitation locks them there.

Why cotton shrinks

Knitting puts yarn under tension, so the cloth holds a shape it would rather not. Heavy loopback has more yarn to move, so a cooked 480gsm hoodie loses more length than a thin one. The method is one instruction: take the heat out.

Read the label first

The label gives fibre content and the maker's temperature limit. Cotton relaxes with heat, polyester doesn't, so 100% cotton has most to lose. A pre-shrunk tag doesn't change the method.

The first wash

Most movement comes out early. Wash a new one cold, alone or with like colours, and judge the fit dry. Dark cotton gives up loose dye for a few cycles, so keep a new black one out of a mixed drum.

A new one feels stiff. That's the cloth, and it softens with wear, not washing. It also sheds for the first few washes, so clear the lint filter after each.

Measure it before and after

Measure it new and dry. Flat on a table, smoothed, not pulled.
Take three numbers. Body length, high shoulder to hem. Chest, armpit to armpit. Sleeve, shoulder seam to cuff.
Measure again dry. Same table, same method.

If the numbers dropped, blame the dry, not the wash.

Before it goes in the drum

Empty the pockets, shake out the grit. A pen costs the whole load. Sand rubs the face all cycle.
Check the seams. A small split at the shoulder opens in the drum.

What not to wash it with

Towels. They shed lint, and heavy loopback holds on to it.
Jeans and anything with rivets. Metal hardware rubs the face like grit does.
Open zips and hook fastenings. They catch the knit and pull loops.

The wash

Turn it inside out. The inside takes the abrasion, and rubbing cracks a print.
Cold water, 30C or below. Cold gets a hoodie clean.
Gentle or normal, not heavy duty. Long agitation rolls loose fibre into pills.
Do up the zip, tie the drawcord. Open teeth drag. A loose cord works out of its channel.
Half a cap of detergent. Excess doesn't rinse out, and dries stiff and grey.
No fabric softener. It coats the fibres, kills absorbency and leaves cotton slick, not soft.
Get it out promptly. Wet cotton left in the drum sours and creases.

The spin, the machine and the load

A fast spin buys drying time, since water left in the loopback is hours on the rail. It also sets creases against the drum wall. Medium is the trade. Shake it out straight away.

A top loader's agitator is rougher on heavy knit than a front loader. A packed drum can't move water through the load, so detergent stays in and dries stiff. One heavy hoodie and two light things make a load.

Washing one by hand

Dissolve the detergent first. Neat on dry cotton, it leaves a pale patch.
Ten minutes in cool water. Press it under, leave it, press again.
Rinse until it runs clear. Suds left in the knit dry stiff.
Press, don't wring. Wet 480gsm hanging off one shoulder pulls it out of shape.

At a laundromat

Set the dial to cold yourself. The last person's setting is still on it.
Bring your own detergent. A dispenser dose is measured for a full load, not one hoodie.
Carry it home damp. A shared dryer on hot is the ten minutes that ruin a hoodie.

Hard water

Minerals tie up detergent, and the residue dries into the knit, scratchy and dull. More detergent makes it worse. A second rinse helps.

Keeping black black

Dye leaves cotton two ways: hot water, and rubbing at the surface. A short, cold, inside out cycle covers both. Dry a black one out of direct sunlight. More in how to stop a black hoodie fading.

Washing a matching set

A hoodie and sweatpants bought together only match if they're treated the same.

Wash them in the same load. Every cycle takes a little dye. Same cycles, same fade.
Dry them the same way. One piece through a hot dryer comes out shorter and duller than its pair.

Prints and embroidery

Inside out, every time. A print cracks from rubbing on the face, not from the water.
Don't scrub a mark on the print. Blot it from the back.
No iron on the face. Inside out, low, a cloth between.
Lay embroidery flat to dry. Thread is heavier than the knit around it and pulls when it hangs wet.

The dry, the part that kills it

Air dry, flat or over a rail. Not a narrow hanger: it stretches wet shoulders, and they don't come back. Most shrinkage lands in a tumble's last ten minutes, when dry cloth keeps turning in heat.

Reshape it while it's damp. Pull cuffs and waistband to shape and square the seams. Turn it once. Damp is the only time you get a say.
Keep it off the radiator. That's dryer heat by another route, and a baseboard heater is no different. Move air instead: a cracked window, a fan.
Plan the wash around the dry. Washed at night, a heavy hoodie isn't dry by morning, and that's when the hot dryer comes out. Wash it in the morning.

If the dryer is the only option

Find the no-heat setting. Air fluff, air dry, whatever the dial says.
Time it, don't trust the sensor. It runs until the load reads dry. The hood dries last, and the rest keeps turning in heat.
Pull it out damp. Reshape it, finish it on the rail.

The hood dries last

A hood is two layers sewn face to face. Cuffs and waistband are folded double and stay wet for hours after the front feels done. Open the hood flat and check the cuffs, waistband, hood seam and pocket bag. Cool and heavy means wet.

The smell that survives a wash

Sweat is oil as well as salt, and it sits deeper in heavy loopback than a short cold cycle reaches. Contact time fixes that, not heat.

Soak it first. Detergent dissolved in cool water, half an hour, then wash as normal. Smell sits in the underarm, hood lining and cuffs.
Dry it faster, not hotter. Cloth that never quite dries smells by the next wear.

Creases, snags and pills

A hot iron is dryer heat in a smaller dose. Iron it damp only if you must, inside out, on low.

Hang it in the steam. A running shower drops most rail creases.
Don't cut a pulled loop. A snag is yarn pulled out of the knit, not a broken thread. Work it back from the inside with a blunt needle.
Cut pills, don't pull them. Pulling drags a loop out. A fabric comb or a cheap razor, held flat, takes only what stands proud. Why heavy cotton pills covers the cause.

If the drawcord pulls out

Pin one end. Close a safety pin through the cord near the tip.
Feed it through. Push it into one eyelet, bunch the channel over it, and work it through to the other.
Even the ends and knot them. Hood flat, tails matched, a knot in each so it can't slip back.

More in how to get a drawcord back into a hoodie.

Spot cleaning

One mark isn't worth a cycle. Blot from the back, toward the edge.

Sweat and blood: cold water only. Heat sets protein stains.
Grease and food: a drop of dish soap worked in, left a few minutes, rinsed cold.

Putting it away

Store it clean and fully dry. Sweat and sugar left in cotton darken into a mark. Fold it. On a hanger its own weight pulls the shoulders.

If it already shrank

Some of it comes back. Soak it half an hour in cool water with a capful of hair conditioner. Lay it flat, ease out the hem and sleeves, and dry it in that shape. A first offence comes back better than one cooked ten times.

Wash it less

Heavy sweats don't need a wash after every wear. Air it overnight, spot clean, wash when it needs it. Every cycle is wear, and the cloth only has so many.

The short version

Cold wash, 30C or below, inside out, zip done up, cord tied.
Half a cap of detergent, no softener, no towels or jeans in the drum.
Gentle or normal cycle, room in the drum, medium spin.
Air dry flat or over a rail, off the radiator.
Dryer only on no heat, and out while it's damp.
Open the hood, reshape while damp. Fold to store.

If it goes wrong past the point of laundry, write to us.