Making a bath towel had been on our minds for a while, because we couldn't find many that met our four key requirements:

A little over a year ago, we decided to get started. To figure out what our towel should look like, we created a survey with one central question: “What’s the problem with your towels in general? Why do you end up stopping using them or throwing them away?”

After combing through your hundreds of responses, we realized the towel of your dreams was…

1. soft: 50% of you complained about towels that are too scratchy
2. durable: 20% of you mentioned holes or fabric that wears out too quickly
3. absorbent: 20% of you told us about towels that don't dry you off well enough

All of that means that what you really wanted was one thing above all else…

A nice, thick towel

That’s right, it’s the thickness that allows it to:

1. provide that plush, cozy feel
2. slow down the appearance of holes or fabric wear
3. absorb water better

We therefore chose to manufacture a towel with a high weight of 700 g/m2, which looks exactly like this:

In the industry, it is generally considered that an entry-level towel has a weight of 200 to 400 g/m2, mid-range goes from 400 to 600, and high-end starts at 600. According to hotel linen suppliers, 700 g/m2 is actually “luxury hotel” quality:

But density isn't everything; there are other factors that go into making a quality towel:

• To ensure it’s soft, we chose combedcotton, meaning we kept only the long, well-aligned fibers (much like well-combed hair).
• For absorbency, we opted for fairly large loops, 4.7mm high. That’s right: loops increase the surface area between the cotton and the water, allowing it to absorb moisture much faster.
• We pre-washed our towels at the factory so you can use them right away (and to ensure they don't shrink in the first wash).
• Finally, we chose to use organic cotton (not to be confused with the Oeko-Tex label, which only guarantees that pesticide residues have been removed from the final product).

And all of this…. Made in Portugal.

As we explained earlier, we wanted our production to be as local as possible. But there was one thing we couldn't manage: manufacturing this towel in France. You might be thinking that’s a shame, since there are still home linen manufacturers in France... Surely companies like Lin Vosges, Blanc des Vosges, or Garnier Thiébault know how to make terry towels, right?

That’s what we thought too, but after looking into it, we quickly realized otherwise.

Why there are no more made-in-France towels

In reality, French manufacturers (including those mentioned above) primarily produce bed linen (sheets, essentially), not bath linen. To quote Blanc des Vosges: “We prioritize carrying out every stage of our products' manufacturing in the Vosges whenever possible [...]. Unfortunately, the expertise for manufacturing terry cloth barely exists in France anymore.”

That’s right: making terry towels requires a very specific machine to weave the small loops—a loom with two beams (one for the base of the fabric, one for the loops).

For this reason, towels sold in France come from countries that have developed or maintained this expertise (unlike France) and possess these machines, such as Pakistan, Turkey, or India:

Yet, not so long ago, France still had a major terry towel industry. We even had the largest manufacturer in all of Europe: Jalla. It seems it even became a household name, like Kleenex or Frigidaire… Back then, people would “dry off with a Jalla.”

The Jalla factory was an industrial empire, known for its large company town… which today looks like this:

In short, the classic story: starting in the 70s and 80s, the opening of the textile market to global competition proved fatal for terry towel manufacturers. Today, only a few factories remain in France (such as Yves Delorme’s) that produce very specific towels: those with complex patterns, which require weaving on a _"Jacquard"loom.

Some brands (like Embrin for example) still manage to have linen towels manufactured in France by using a “honeycomb” weave that can be produced on a standard loom. If you aren't concerned about fluffiness and Made in France is important to you, linen towels are an excellent alternative to cotton ones in terms of quality.

Will we ever be able to manufacture our Loom cotton towels in France? We would love to, because in theory, we could release them at a reasonable cost: compared to a shirt or a pair of pants that require dozens of minutes of manual sewing, a towel takes very little time to make. In other words, the share of labor costs in manufacturing is quite low compared to machine or energy costs, which makes this product a good candidate for production in France (to learn more about this, we wrote an entire article here). So, we’re putting a message in a bottle: is there a French textile factory planning to reinvest in looms for terry towels? (Otherwise, who knows, maybe one day, at Loom, _{we will set up our own factory} ?).

But in the meantime, our thick, organic cotton towel, made in Portugal, is available in 3 colors on this page.

The 50x100 cm is €20 and the 70x140 cm is €30. Prices that aren't too high because, as usual, we keep our margins small (if you want to know why, read this page).

But before we go, we wanted to tell you one thing. If 50% of you find your towels a bit scratchy, it doesn't necessarily mean they are worn out or poor quality: it might just be because not many people know how to wash them properly. We’re going to take a few minutes to explain how to care for them so they stay nice and fluffy.

How to keep your towels fluffy

For several years now, we’ve been helping customers who complain to Loom’s customer service that their clothes have become scratchy over time. By looking into this issue, we’ve learned a few things that apply even more to the world of bath towels.

Fabrics can become scratchy due to two things:

1/ Washing

Successive washes cause a buildup of detergent, fabric softener, or limescale residues on the fibers. So, to keep your towel fluffy, you need to get rid of these residues. To do this, you must:

• not use too much detergent
• NEVER add fabric softener (yes, it’s quite counter-intuitive, but fabric softener coats the cotton fibers and makes them lose their absorbency).
• But above all, there is a magic solution to get rid of these residues:

Yes, white vinegar. When you run a load of laundry, pour a glass of white vinegar into the fabric softener compartment: it will dissolve limescale and detergent buildup (if you’ve ever cleaned a kettle with white vinegar, you know it’s magic against limescale).

2/ (Most importantly) drying

Actually, it’s during the drying process that your towel is most likely to become scratchy. And that comes down to chemistry.

As water evaporates, the cellulose molecules (which make up cotton) rearrange themselves to form longer molecules, which creates stiffness. This is exactly the same phenomenon that causes wrinkles in cotton fabrics.

So, to keep your towels fluffy, you need as much movement as possible to prevent these rigid chains from forming while they dry. The more movement, the better. Here are all the drying methods rated on our Fluffiness Scale ©:

• Very scratchy (sandpaper level) : you dry your towel on a drying rack, a clothesline, or a towel warmer without shaking it out before or after
• A bit scratchy but okay : same as above, but you shake it out well before and after
• Fairly soft : you dry it on a drying rack outdoors and a light breeze keeps the towel moving
• Fluffy: you dry it in the tumble dryer
• Ultra-fluffy (kitten-soft level): You dry it in the tumble dryer with dryer balls, which toss the towel around even more

Of course, tumble dryers consume a lot of energy, so they aren't great for the planet. We'll leave it to you to decide between your comfort, your environmental conscience, and your electricity bill ;-)

One last tip for the road

As is often the case, we learned a lot while developing this product: about what makes a quality towel, about French industrial history, and about care methods. We hope you’ll go to bed a little smarter tonight, too.

But after reading your survey responses, we realized there was one last thing we could teach you: how to tie your towel around your body so it doesn't fall off.

Dear François, successfully tying a towel around your body isn't about the towel, it's about the technique. To do it, wrap the towel around your waist and then fold the top edge down. If you missed that viral TikTok video, here is how to do it on video.

Enjoy your shower and see you next time!