How to Wash Your Underwire Bras

Busty ladies, I've got bad news and good news.

The bad news is, you really, really need to be hand washing your underwired bras.

I hear you saying, but I use a bra bag! And tragically, that's not good enough to protect the longevity of your bra. The purpose of a bra bag is to prevent the bra's straps and hooks from getting snagged or tangled in your other clothes. What it can't do, is prevent damage inflicted on the bra just from being flung around a metal drum for an hour. The centrifugal force of your washing machine (even on a "delicate" cycle) is more than enough to twist or damage the underwires, and will lead to underwires poking through sooner than later. Save your delicates bags for your lace underwear.

The good news is, hand washing is not nearly as hard as you think!

The next day you're puttering around doing your weekly refresh chores, take a few minutes and follow these steps to give your bras a refresher:

1. Fill your sink with cool water and throw in your bras. It should feel too chilly to take a bath in, but won't make your fingers numb if your hands are in there for a few minutes.

Pro tip: If you were very proactive and cleaned your sink right before your bras to make sure there isn't any toothpaste or anything in there, make sure you've rinsed off all of the cleaning chemicals! We don't want to accidentally bleach our bras.

2. Add a little bit of a gentle detergent. Just a dollop is all you need. A dedicated lingerie or delicate wash is ideal, but plain ol' detergent works just fine. Just make sure your detergent doesn't contain bleach or fabric softener - whatever you use to do your regular colour washing should be just fine.

Use your hand to stir the detergent into the water, and ensure your bras are fully soaked.

3. Go do something else for 15-20 minutes. Maybe a celebratory glass of wine for finally getting around to washing your bras?

4. Go back to your bras and marvel at how gross the sink water has become. Goodbye, sweaty ickiness!

Optional upgrade: With a tiny drop of detergent on your finger, gently rub along the inside of the underwires, where they touch your body. No need to use your fingernail or anything, you're just trying to gently loosen up any last ickiness embedded in the underwire casing. Careful not to twist the underwire casing or get too aggressive here.

5. Thoroughly rinse each bra. Your goal is to get 100% of the detergent out of the bra. Careful not to scrunch or twist your bra as you rinse - you're basically just holding it under the water and rotating it around until there's no more detergent coming out.

Optional upgrade: Repeat all of the previous steps again to make sure you've gotten all the ickiness out. This is really only beneficial if your bra has been worn many, many times since its last wash (we're not judging). 

6. Gently squeeze or press out excess water from the band. The key here is to avoid squeezing or twisting the underwires. I like to hold the bra folded in half by the cups and squeeze only the band with a towel to remove some of the water.

6. Hang or lay flat to dry.

Best practice is to lay out a towel and dry your bra flat. That's the best way to guarantee you aren't at risk of misshaping your bra.

However, if you don't have the space, you can just throw your bra over your shower curtain rod or clothes line and call it a day. As long as the position you leave your bra in isn't holding tension that pulls the bra in a weird shape, you're in the clear. The great thing about soft cup bras is that you don't have to worry about the cups becoming a wonky shape if they aren't dried in the exact right position - they're soft, they'll be fine!

Wherever you leave them to dry, it's always best to make sure they're out of direct sunlight. 

Your bras are going to need at least five-ish hours to dry, so it's easiest to leave them overnight. You can speed up the process a little bit by hanging your bra upside down by the underwires (see above).

This is not a process you should be doing right before the date you want to wear the bra on. However rushed you are, do not whip out the hair dryer and try to encourage them to dry faster!

And voila, clean bras!

Not including the soaking time, this whole process takes about 10 minutes, depending on how many bras you're washing.

Your bra supports you all day - this is a great way to show some love in return!