Tuesday, December 16, 2008

The Final Word on Bras

The whole thread was interesting reading and I learned a lot! Here's the final vote tally:

48 people voted in the mini poll.
4 (8%) of you only wear a bra once before washing it.
18 (37%) of you wear it 2-3 times between washings.
7 (14%) go 4-5 wearings.
And the winner, checking in with 21 votes (43%) was "until it smells funky!"

So now you know. I wonder if our tendency to re-wear bras is a price thing. Good bras are definitely a lot more expensive than my cotton jockey underpants, which I never re-wear between washes. I also don't re-wear t-shirts or nursing tank tops. What puts bras in a different category than other undergarments?

Wait. You don't re-wear your underwear, do you?

13 comments:

brooke said...

oh, i re-wear t-shirts, pants, bras (i prefer camisoles), church clothes (though now that i go to my little-warm-even the pastor's wife wears jeans to church sometimes- presbyterian church rather than the mormon church (where people are just as nice and warm but dresses and skirts are required) my church clothes tend to be the same as my "dressy student" clothes). i don't re-wear my underwear, but i do hand wash them.. ewww ick maybe? why? because i don't own my own washer and still have to pay to wash clothes. (ahh, the life of a former peace activist now phd student.. not exactly high-earning careers)

why the difference between bras and underwear? b/c that's what i was taught? actually, because of reasons that are way TMI for a blog. ;-)

:)

R said...

I think another poll is required!

Amanda said...

Umm. No. Underwear are worn once. Bras are more expensive and they tend to lose shape and elasticity when washed a ton. My underwear are cotton and cost maybe $10 for 3 while my bra costs around $40-$50 a piece. I can easily replace underwear when the elastic wears out.

Orange said...

Boobs don't tend to leak anything like menstrual blood, mucus, discharge, pee, or buttcrack sweat. (If your boobs are releasing these things, please see a physician promptly!) Ergo, bras don't require the same degree of washing as underwear.

Plus, more structured bras (underwire and/or padding) tend to get mashed and mangled in the washing machine, and hand-washing is a hassle. If I had an in-house laundry worker hand-washing things for me, I'd probably wash my bras much more often.

Amanda said...

I don't rewear undies or socks, but I do rewear t-shirts and just about everything else. Unless it's summer - it's too hot in Korea to rewear anything in the summer because I am far too sweaty.

Megan said...

Underwear? Who needs underwear?! LOL!

Krupskaya said...

What Orange said.

Sarahlynn said...

Brooke, I had a few TMI moments myself, where I deleted some things I'd considered including in this post!

Becca, you're probably right!

Local Amanda, that's me, too.

Orange, gross gross gross! Also, completely true.

Distant Amanda, good point about the socks!

Megan, gah! Actually . . . trying to avoid TMI here . . . various things changed about my anatomy after having kids and now I finally get how some women could go without underwear. It just wasn't a possibility before. And I still don't get the appeal, but to each her own!

Krup, that makes 3 of us!

Tracey said...

I didn't participate in the poll, but I would never finish laundry if I washed my bras after every wearing. As a 'bigger' gal, my bras are PRICEY and I don't have very many of them. As such, I have to plan when to wash them as the backups are not always so good. That being said, I have a workout bra so I don't sweat or anything unduly icky while wearing my every day bras. And no, no re-wearing of underwear! :)

Sarahlynn said...

I hate when I mess up the wash/backup cycle. There's a great pictures of me with my girls from last Christmas Eve . . . except that my bright white bra is clearly visible through my black knit dress. You totally couldn't see it in the dim light of the bedroom at my parents' house, but under flourescent lights and a camera flash . . . oops. (My black and nude were temporarily out of commission.)

Tracey said...

Oh no! Nothing like the 'wrong' bra to ruin an otherwise nice photo. At this point in my life, I think all I have are white bras! What is the world coming to? :)

Crittle said...

I don't re-wear underwear, but I do re-wear socks sometimes. Especially since I seem to wear them in the house mostly, fall asleep in them, kick them off when I'm comfy, find them on the floor or at the foot of the bed in the morning, and repeat. I don't consider that to make them dirty.

I will, though, rewear a sports bra a few times. I purchased a rack for the bathroom that I hang them on and will get a good 2-3 wears out of them now since they get to air dry before the following use.

What I want to know is: What brand is the $120 bra? I might need one of those. I have all kinds and sizes and none seem to fit these days and I just plain need help. It's hard living in a small town with no corset shop.

thistle said...

Orange is correct. But also, it is a price thing for me. I just don't have nearly enough bras to make it to the next laundry day without re-wearing. And of the ones I have, I can't rotate them equally because some of them I like more than others and some are better than others under certain shirts.