[Answered] How often should you wash your swimsuit? (2023)

Home » Blog » How often should you wash your swimsuit?

Table of Contents

The question of how often you should wash your swimsuit is tricky. You can be sure that you’ll get very different answers from different people.

Some people will wash their swimsuits after almost every use, while others seem to never wash their swimsuits at all. As you might understand, the truth lies somewhere between these two extremes.

In this post, we will sort out all the details in this post and help you answer the question of how often you need to wash your swimsuit.

Turtle Swimsuit
$49

Select options

How often do you need to wash your swimsuit?

As an average and in general terms, you should aim to wash your swimsuit after 3-6 uses.

This is just an average and might work well at times. However, there is so much more to it than that. It all depends on how you use your swimsuit, how you wash it, and how you treat it in general.

Let’s dive a little deeper into the topic to see how often you need to wash your swimsuit!

Swimsuits rarely get dirty or stained, that’s not the reason we wash them. So what are the reasons we wash our swimsuits then? The main reason is to get salt, chlorine, sweat, or other chemicals out of it.

Washing your swimsuit also has its downsides. Swimsuits are delicate and washing them, even handwashing will wear on the elasticity and fabric. That’s why we don’t want to wash them excessively.

When rinsing a swimsuit after use we often manage to remove most of the unwanted chemicals and sweat, but not all. And over time this will start to build. This is not something we want.

Blue Lagoon 2-Pack Swim Shorts
$80

Select options
Lounge Pack
$160

Select options

Striped Turtle Swim Shorts
~~$60~~
$36

Select options
Dots Swim Shorts
Rated 5.00 out of 5
$60

Select options

When does it need a proper wash?

A proper wash is when you either hand-wash or machine-wash your swimsuit. After enough times of just rinsing your suit after having swum, it’s time for a proper wash.

A proper wash will remove all of the salt, chlorine, sweat, and other chemicals that have built up over time.

How often you need to wash your swimsuit also depends on how well you take care of it when not in use. If you leave it to soak in the sun all day it will definitely need a wash more often than if you hang it up to dry in the shade.

After about 3-6 uses we recommend that you give your swimsuit a proper wash, even if you’ve rinsed it after every wash. The better you rinse it, the longer it can go without being washed.

Do you have to wash your swimsuit after every use?

This is a question that we get asked a lot. And I’ve you’ve read the post from the beginning you now know that the answer is; no you do not need to wash your swimsuit after every use but you should always rinse it after having used it!

Washing your swimsuit after every use will damage it and severely shorten its life. If you take care of it and only wash it when necessary it can last for years and years.

What are the consequences of not washing your swimsuit regularly?

If you don’t wash your swimsuit regularly, it will start to smell bad. And not just a little bit, but a lot. This is because the sweat and chemicals will start to mix and create an unpleasant odor.

It can even start to build up mold or mildew if you leave it damp for too long.

It’s important to remember that you most likely are not washing your swimsuit because it’s dirty, but rather because of the chemicals, bacteria, and salt that builds up over time. How dirty your swimsuit is will therefore not be a good sign of if it needs to be washed or not. Instead, you should think about how many times you’ve used your swimsuit since the last time.

Over time, not washing your swimsuit will also cause it to fade and eventually tear. This is because all of the dirt, sweat, and chemicals will build up and start to break down the fabric.