How to Prevent and Fix Shrinking Cashmere

garage_greg

I've recently purchased new cashmere sweaters. To my dismay, after only one or two washes, the sweaters shrunk and are now too small and no longer fit. Prevent How can I prevent cashmere sweaters from shrinking in the wash in the first place? I washed the sweaters in cold water and did not put them in the dryer, yet they still shrunk. Fix Now that I have too small sweaters, is there a way to re-stretch the sweaters and get them back to a fitting...

Originally asked by Tot Zam on Stack Exchange (lifehacks) (CC BY-SA 4.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

To prevent shrinking you need to wash it in cold water and move it as little as possible until it's completely dry. Any wool, merino or cashmere is made of animal hair. Hair is a long string of keratin that is covered by microscopic scales. In water (especially in warm water) the keratin bloats and the scales open up, making the surface of the hair rougher. If you move, wring and tumble a lot of wet hairs, their scales catch and lock together and you end up with felt. It also shrinks the fabric because the hairs pull each other closer together. So the best thing for a garment of pure cashmere is to hand wash it. Put it in a sink, big bowl or tub of cold water with some detergent. Instead of...

Full answer by Elmy: https://lifehacks.stackexchange.com/a/26454 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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