Everyone likes the crispy looks of a well ironed starched shirt. When heavily starched, a shirt can even be made to stand up by itself. But have you considered whether it is right for you to starch your shirts after laundry?
In this article, we consider what starching does to a shirt and whether you should starch your shirt?
There are broadly two types of starches used on shirts: natural and artificial. Natural starches are generally made up of corn, wheat, cassava, or rice. These are naturally extracted from plants. Artificial starches normally called sizing are made of Polyvinyl Accetate (PVA). This is a resin to give body to the material.
Starches work best on cotton while sizing work much better on polyester. With an increase in polyester material in shirts, the use of sizing as the preferred means to give your shirt stiffness has increased. Besides, when natural starch is used, the shirt must be completely soaked in the starch solution and allowed to dry before ironing while sizing can be used a portion at a time.
At the laundry, the starch options offered are No starch, Regular starch, and Heavy starch. It is difficult to standardize the concentrations and so each laundry has its own formulation for these three options.
Among the benefits of starching your shirts are the following:
- Your shirts come out more crispy
- Your shirts show more resistance to wrinkle
- Stains are easily cleaned as the starch acts as a barrier
- Ironing of a starched shirt is easier
A few disadvantages with starching are as follows:
- The shirt may come out too stiff and create discomfort for the one wearing it
- Starched shirts have a shorter life span
- The starch or sizing residue may stain your other clothes through the iron used to finish it.
One effect of using PVA or starch on your clothes is that you can never fully wash it out the first time. While on the first wash about 30% of starch is washed out only 17% of sizing is washed out on the first wash. This means that it will take multiple washing for your cleaner to take out the effects of starch or sizing.
In addition, browning may occur when ironing starched items as incomplete solubilization may lead to the starch powder being directly heated. In the case of sizing, shiny surfaces which flake may result with incomplete solubilization.
Having considered the effect of starching on your shirts, would you want your shirts starched. Our recommendation is that if you choose to starch, you do it in moderation and not after every wash.
If you need your shirts starched, Smile Laundry will be happy to serve you.
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