Towels are pretty practical things, and it’s hard to imagine life without them. But once upon a time, people did — using random pieces of fabric or air-drying tactics after their rare contact with water. Record show that the first towels as we know and love them today date back to Turkey in the 1600s — specifically the city of Bursa — where baths played an important role in celebrating life’s important events. In fact, there were bathing rituals for almost every occasion, from ceremonial baths that brides took on the morning of their wedding days, to babies first baths, and even special baths for those in mourning.
Most of those early towels had elaborate designs and were hand-woven, so were only on the shopping lists of the well to do. But with industrialisation, towels were soon streaming off the production lines at a cost more within the reach of the masses. Today, we spend billions of dollars a year worldwide on home textiles, AKA manchester, and no bathroom is complete without a set of towels. Or two. Or three.
Towel sizes explained
There are four standard sizes of towels, these being wash cloth (or face cloth), hand towel, bath towel and bath sheet.
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Wash cloths are 33cm x 33cm and used for face washing, but are also handy to make hot or cold compresses for boo boos and other aches and pains.
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Hand towels are 45cm x 65cm and the right size to hang next to the basin.
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Bath towels are 70cm x 140cm. These are the standard towel size for baths, showers and wrapping around your head when you wash your hair.
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Bath sheets are a more generous serve at 90cm x 160cm. In the great bath towel vs bath sheet debate, that’s purely a matter of personal choice. Do you like to be fully wrapped? This could be a good idea if you’re going to be traipsing through communal areas, or if you just like a good swaddle. Otherwise, a standard bath towel should be sufficient.
You may find other rogue sizes of bath towels if you look hard enough. These include fingertip towels which measure smaller than a hand towel but larger than a washcloth, and queen towels that slide in somewhere between a bath towel and a bath sheet. A standard bath towel set generally includes wash cloth, hand towel and bath towel, often in multiples. Bath sheets aren’t in the set as a rule, so if you like a lot of towel, you’ll have to add that one in yourself.
How to choose towels
The softest and most absorbent towels are 100 per cent cotton. Premium cottons such as Egyptian are considered top-notch. Cotton/polyester blends are less expensive and quicker to dry, so are a good option for gym bags and swim lessons. Bamboo bath towels, sometimes call bamboo cotton bath towels, are an eco-friendly option to cotton. Bamboo yarn blended with organic cotton is soft and gentle on skin, and towels are absorbent and quick-dry.
Towel weight is measured in gsm (grams per square meter) and as a rule of thumb, the heavier they are, the more absorbent and luxurious it will be. At the lightweight end of the scale is 300gsm, and the heavy hitters are up to 900gsm, which is a pretty awesome towel but you might struggle to fit it in your overnight bag.
To keep your new towels fluffier for longer, go easy on the detergent as this can build up in the fibres. Swap the fabric softener out for a cup of white vinegar every so often to remove any soapy residue. Tumble on a low heat or line dry, and give them a good shake before folding.
Personalised towels
Personalised towels make a great gift for a friend, family member or loved one. They're beautiful, practical and extremely usable. A great way to make the gift of a towel extra special is by personalising it to the giftee. Gift personalisation is simple at Hardtofind, and it’s never been easier to make your gift of a towel or towel set one of a kind. You can have the towel embroidered with a name, date or initials — his and hers towels make the perfect present for newlyweds. When searching for your personalised towels at Hardtofind, check the ‘Can be personalised’ box in Special features.
National Towel Day
Do you know that May 25 is celebrated across the universe as National Towel day? And it’s all thanks to Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, who described the towel as the “most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have”. We’ll leave you with his thoughts.
“You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon. You can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.”
So now you’re ready to choose your new towels! Browse these pages and you’ll find a selection of the best bath towels, including patterned bath towels, personalised bath towels, Turkish bath towels and quick-dry bath towels Australia-wide. At Hardtofind you’ll also discover a wide range of other things to make your house or apartment at great place to come home to, such as homewares, home fragrance and a huge range of gifts.
