do you remove plastic collar stays before washing shirts in a washing machine?

[randomtw]

are you supposed to take out the plastic collar stays in shirts before you wash them in the washing machine?

 

[gdl203]

Originally Posted by randomtw

are you supposed to take out the plastic collar stays in shirts before you wash them in the washing machine?

Yes

 

[Jovan]

Yes, always. You can screw up both the stays and the shirt collar if you don't.

 

[AskAndyAboutClothes]

randomtw:

If you don't remove them, they are easily lost in the wash and if you leave them in when you iron the shirt a shiny spot will develop on the collar.

Andy

 

[Manton]

Worst case scenario: the hot water melts them and they stick to the cotton. Then you can't iron the collar, because the iron will melt them almost instantly.

 

[CoryB]

If you don't they become curled due to heat. Also ensure you don't iron with them in.

 

[Jovan]

That's why I don't understand why so many shirts are made with paper thin stays permanently inside.

 

[Holdfast]

Originally Posted by Manton

Worst case scenario: the hot water melts them and they stick to the cotton. Then you can't iron the collar, because the iron will melt them almost instantly.

Yep, and this was a good excuse to chuck out a Tasso Elba shirt I bought in a moment of sartorial foolishness that I never quite felt comfortable in. I think I subconsciously left the stays in to provide an excuse to throw the blighted shirt away!

 

[hobo]

I don't know what you people are talking about that theyll melt if you iron the collar with the stays in. Before I started using metal stays, I ironed with the stays in and never had any melt. That's bullshit.

But yes, they can come out in the wash, and if they're low quality, thin stays, they can get bent and stuff. I only like the thicker plastic ones or metal ones

 

[Earthmover]

Originally Posted by hobo

I don't know what you people are talking about that theyll melt if you iron the collar with the stays in. Before I started using metal stays, I ironed with the stays in and never had any melt. That's bullshit.

But yes, they can come out in the wash, and if they're low quality, thin stays, they can get bent and stuff. I only like the thicker plastic ones or metal ones

I tried looking for my magnum opus on collar stays I wrote about a year ago on askandy, but alas, it seems to be lost now.

Basically, the real concern is the ugly imprint of the collar stays that gets left behind when you iron and warping due to heat. All stays can and do come out of the wash, not just thin ones (actually thin ones come out during the wash less. It's basically due to physics). I think back in the day, there were some really crappy collar stays that melted under iron, but that no longer happens.

 

[Nantucket Red]

I use only MOP collar stays and always get my shirts professionally laundered.

So I guess my answer to the original question would have to be No, since I neither use plastic collar stays nor subject my shirts to the washing machine.

 

[Manton]

Perhaps hobo is ironing the collar on the topside. If so, then the stay is protected by two layers of cloth and one layer (at least) of interlining. However, I prefer to iron collars on the underside, to spare the showing side from the eventual shininess that will show up if the topside is ironed too often. On the underside, the stay is protected only by its pocket, that is, one layer of shirt cloth. It is much more likely to melt in that case. With a commercial press, which are typically much hotter than a household iron, they would be much more likely still to melt.

 

[Holdfast]

Originally Posted by hobo

Before I started using metal stays, I ironed with the stays in and never had any melt. That's bullshit.

I'm not sure I appreciate being called a liar, but thank you for your comment.

All I can say is that I have had plastic stays soften hugely on ironing and stick to the cotton. I call that melting, but I suppose technically it doesn't become a liquid...

The reason I ended up having to iron over the stays in the collar rather than take them out was precisely because the stays were stuck in the shirt after forgetting them in on washing and tumble-drying the shirt.

FWIW, I also iron on the underside of the collar, as Manton surmises above.

 

[WN2]

Before I knew better I washed and ironed my shirts with the (plastic or other) collar stays on. I never had any problems with this. I now do remove them just to be sure, but even while ironing the collar from the underside they never melted. Maybe I just can't iron properly

 

[Jovan]

Your shirts probably had better than average collar stays. Most I've encountered are worse than what comes with Express shirts.