How many times do you wear a dress shirt before it goes to the cleaners?? - Page 3

Wow, I'm impressed.

The dry cleaner drives me crazy for a number of reasons. Now that I finally have some shirts that I am really protective of I may give this a shot. If you don't mind, when you have a few minutes could you give me a brief description of the process? I'm handy with an iron but I'm really curious on your procedure for washing and then prepping for ironing. Thanks!

This is one of those threads that we are fated to relive every six months or so.

The next manouche should take note -- this is a good subject for trolling up debate.

e.g.

"Do you, feel like a poor when ,you wear soiled clothing?"

"My brother is ,a poor, he does, not,,, launder a shirt, after a wearing."

+100 - amazes me that this Q comes up

once

however if you are a type that wears an undershirt ( i personally won't ) I could understand a shirt perhaps getting a second wear

Once and with my ironing skills they never look the same again...

Laundering your shirts is quite simple - I plan on doing just this in the next few hours. First, inspect the shirt for any stains or spots. Scrub the area with a bit of gentle detergent or apply a spray cleaner (Shout, etc) to any spots and the collar and cuffs. Unless you are paying big bucks per shirt no dry cleaner is going to do this step. Set the washing machine to warm or cold water and one of the gentler cycles or permanent press which is usually the medium cycle. I use unscented and hypoallergenic detergent to wash everything which leaves my clothes clean but not perfumed. After the wash is done you can use a machine dryer on the lowest heat setting for a short time (10-20 minutes) or hang them up for a few hours. For the best pressing the shirt should be slightly damp but not soaked. There are pressing tutorials online including a slightly obsessive one from the world's most expensive shirt maker.

twice or thrice, unless i've worn it for a whole day (10+ hrs), then it's once. usually i don't get yellow collar rings, and shout! usually takes it out pretty easily.

I tried Fletcher's honestly is it worth the extra $5 over a regular cleaner?

Good topic, well worth a read. I washed my dress shirts with my regular clothes, and they quickly faded and became terrible looking. Next time I will be sure to use cold water and a gentle cycle, and usually I use a home drycleaning kit like dryel every other week instead of the washing machine.

I've made this same comment numerous times on similar threads, but it takes me at least 20 minutes to iron each shirt to get it to look anything close to one the laundry folks achieve.

For those that iron their own, does it take this long too? I know people who wear jackets all the time mention ironing short cuts - spending more time on pressing the cuffs, collar and front of the shirt while doing a quick pass on everything else.

Once.

I manage about 5 or 6 shirts an hour. I have to admit that the Brooks Brothers non-iron shirts make up a good portion of my business casual rotation. I can have a week or two ready just by taking them out of the dryer.

Once and done.

I launder my own shirts too in the machine (some get hand washed) and drip dry. Every weekend I iron enough to get me through the week. It takes me about 10 minutes per shirt to iron.