Male No. I know that the clothes may be impregnated with all kinds of deadly substances but figure they are no worse than those I face daily. So I don’t bother except for the folded, pinned shirts that require washing and ironing to avoid looking like a homeless guy dressed for his court appearance.
Male, yes.
I seem to remember a story from when I was a kid (may or may not have been an urban legend) about a shipment of blue jeans making people sick because they had pesticide spilled on them at some point in the manufacture/shipping process.
Always wash. There’s weird, scratchy stuff on most clothes that ought to be washed off.
To return crispness to shirts, one need only starch and iron them. Plus, fresh starch smells way better than the stuff they use at the factory.
House had an episode about this.
I wash underwear before wearing, as well as any other garment that looks or smells suspicious (which generally isn’t many).
I wash everything before wearing except socks. Why not socks? I have no idea.
Agree with this. I do buy quite some dry clean only and yep, I get those cleaned too.
Female, no.
Not an urban legend. Here is one story.
Guy. Yes I’ll wash pants and shirts before wearing them, generally to loosen them up and get them feeling the same as the rest of my clothes, but I don’t bother with packaged stuff like socks and underwear.
I always wash new clothes to remove excess lint and dye.
This exactly.
Female, sorta mysophobic, so yes.
Male, no. Just wouldn’t occur to me.
Male. Always wash before wear. For many reasons, but mainly to clear out the wrinkles and the smell. I never thought about the chemicals, but I guess the smell should have been a giveaway.
yes yes yes. My mother-in-law is still getting over a bad rash from clothes she didn’t wash after buying. It looked more like multiple insect bites than an allergic rash though.
Girl. No, I rarely wash clothes I purchased prior to wearing.
Male, yes. A lot of new clothes have a strange odor, plus you never know what else they’ve been in contact with.
Ever since a sighting of a woman who looked and smelled like she took “water is for frogs” too literally coming out of the try-on area, yes. Although not socks…
Male, and I always have to wash anything before wearing it. Maybe it’s psychological, but it feels itchy if I don’t.
Girl. I don’t wash new clothes before wearing, unless it’s underwear. I would definitely wash new bed linens before putting them on my bed.