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Comment by dubswithus | Hacker News Reader

I love merino wool shirts -- even dress shirts like those by Wool and Prince. But the dress shirts I only dry clean and the t-shirts I have some special things I do to keep them in good shape. I just wear athletic gear most of the time because I'm in a hot climate and sweat through everything immediately. It's just not worth it for me at this point.

I really like having a fancy side-loading washing machine because I can run long cycles and use strong detergents that definitely ensure the shirt doesn't smell the next time I wear it. Ideally Persil but sometimes that isn't available. Top loaders have destroyed clothes many times.

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Merino wool garments? Oh dear - I tried them but against the skin they are, for me, a huge no-no due to irritation / rash. I am unbelievable allergic to merino wool.

(The following is meant to be humorous, JIC). So I bought a herd of sheep that grow polyester wool and it has worked out brilliantly. I don't break out in a rash, I don't smell and my sweat gets wicked to a galaxy far, far away.

>But the dress shirts I only dry clean

Yeah, I bought one and it didn't really hold up very well. Having to dry clean sort of defeats the purpose of having a travel shirt.

In general, I really like merino wool but it's expensive and fairly fragile even if I avoid putting it in a dryer.

I rarely have to dry clean the dress shirts under normal wear conditions. I'm guessing it depends on the GSM of the shirt.

I don't know if I would agree dry leaning defeats the purpose. Most cities have a dry cleaner and dropping it a dry cleaner is going to be faster than washing, drying, and ironing it yourself. At least it is for me. Plus, you would need to find the right kind of detergent without enzymes or whatever while traveling.

Are you saying it fell apart?

It's still perfectly functional. There's just some pilling and lack of color homogeneity and certainly doesn't look new. I'll still wear it so long as I don't really need to be dressed up which I rarely am these days. (Like almost never.)

You're right that it wouldn't need to be dry cleaned after each use under minimally sweaty conditions. That said, while I have occasionally had laundry done in the middle of an extended trip, by and large I don't want to be dealing with laundry and dry cleaning if I don't need to.

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