It’s lockdown time and nature is blooming. The air is clean, the skies are blue, the stars shine bright, and gone is that blackish grey film of sticky dust. Naturally many of us would think of wearing a bra many times before washing it.

After all, with less dirt and dust around us, do we actually need to wash our bras every day or are we simply wearing them out by over-washing them?

The answer is an unequivocal YES in favour of a daily wash.

The clothes that stick most to our skin are our undergarments. And it is because of this that they accumulate dirt in the form of dead skin cells from our own bodies. Over a 24-hour period, we lose almost a million skin cells. Humans shed and replace their entire outer skin layer every few weeks.

And where do these dead cells go?

They stick to our underclothes, fall off our body and so on. They are the silvery dust that accumulates in our homes never mind how much we seal ourselves from the outside dust. These dead cells also carry traces of oil and cholesterol, thus making them heavy enough to float downwards, and sticky enough to stick to the inside of our bras.

You wouldn’t wear a bra coated with your own dead skin, would you?

Some pointers to keep your bras smiling:

1.Always wash in cold water. Soaking them reduces their life so beware. If at all you have to soak your bra then do so in cold water for a longer period, than in hot water for a quicker wash.

2.Hand-rub to take the dirt off. Machine washes are suicide missions for bras. It is absolutely no exaggeration that machine washing cuts short a bra’s life by half.

3.If at all you must throw that bra in a machine, use a cold water gentle wash cycle, but more importantly, put your bra in a small pouch/pillow case to ensure it’s not flailing about in the wash. If nothing else is available then use a clean net bag used for fridge storage. Ensure this bra-cover does not run colour or everything in there shall be ruined.

4.Some parts of our bras accumulate more dirt than the rest. Rub the insides of the hooks and eyes at the back, the edges of the cups and the waistband elastic region too.

5. Underwire bras de-shape in washing. Gently twist the wires back in shape.

6. Bras hate heat. Dry them in shade.

Tips:

• Use a salad spinner/tosser to wash your bra. Soak it in soapy water, hand spin a few times and see the dirt float out. Rinse in clean water.
• Add a little vinegar to the final rinse to freshen your dull whites.
• Else, soak the bra for a bit in cold water to which some baking soda has been added.

Whichever way you wash them, wash them you must. After every wear in #coronatimes.

The columnist is the founder-CEO of Necessity-SwatiGautam, a customised brand of brassieres. Contact: necessityswatigautam@gmail.com