Profiting from shirt services

The first step to avoiding problems with a shirt service is to look at the types of soiling that are commonly found on these garments.

Some parts of a shirt will always be in direct contact with the wearer’s skin – certainly at collar and cuffs, but often across the whole upper torso too.

The shirt collar and cuffs will always have high levels of fatty acid, skin tissue and sometimes blood from shaving.

The level and type of soiling varies considerably and depends on the wearer, the time of year, the area where the wearer lives and works, the type of work they do and how frequently they change shirts.

The soiling on an office worker’s shirt is likely to be different from that on an engineer’s or mechanic’s shirt. A city dweller’s shirt will have a much higher level of oily soiling than that belonging to a country person.

Shirts collect perspiration stains and the underarms will have anti-perspirant residues, which are difficult, sometimes impossible to remove. The shirt front may have food and drink stains.

The wash process must be able to remove all these types of soiling effectively, without affecting the colour or fabric of the shirt.

The choice of detergent can be critical. Thirty to forty years ago most shirts were white, or had a blue or red stripe, and were usually made from 100% cotton.

Modern shirts are often more colourful and will also be made from a wide range of fibres, especially polyester.

White 100% cotton shirts respond well to a high alkalinity detergent that has a good optical brightening agent (OBA), but OBAs will cause many coloured shirts to lose their colour, and look prematurely old and faded.

A high temperature wash risks damage to the collar and cuffs. These are usually stiffened by bonding several layers of fabric and these layers, known as interfacing – will be a lot stiffer and thicker than the body of the shirt.

All textiles undergo a level of relaxation shrinkage when thoroughly wetted. There will often be further shrinkage during the wash, due to the temperature and mechanical action. This shrinkage can cause serious problems that are seldom predictable. For example, if the interfacing used in the collar and cuffs has a different shrinkage potential from the shirt fabric, the joint between fabric and interfacing will be sheared, which can lead to bubbling or creasing that cannot be removed by pressing. If the shirt manufacturer has used the wrong adhesive or has not used enough adhesive, or has not allowed enough dwell time at the right temperature and pressure, the joint between the shirt fabric and the interfacing may quickly disintegrate over several washes causing the bubbling.

In such cases, customers often find it difficult to understand why the bubbling suddenly appears, when the shirt has already been laundered successfully several times. Usually the only solution is a full replacement of the affected collar or cuffs.

To cope both with the risk of disintegrating collars/cuffs and to deal with high soiling levels, many launderers will use a low temperature wash (50C or lower) and a medium alkali detergent that is OBA -free but does have enzymes that will help break down greasy, fatty soiling.

The development and application of enzymes has progressed greatly in recent years. Many of them work very well on this type of soiling, especially lipilase and protease. However, most enzymes need time to work effectively and so process times need to be extended.

Longer process times can be helpful as they may reduce re-wash levels and ensure ingrained fats and oils are removed from collar and cuffs. However, they will also increase the risk of mechanical and chemical damage to the shirt material. It is worthwhile putting delicate shirts, especially those made from open weave fabrics into a net bag for processing.

Some staining can be difficult to remove, especially from coloured or pastel shirts, as the dyes are frequently affected by proprietary stain removal agents. Rust from old blood is readily treated.

However, stains such as curry or spiced sauces only respond to bleaching and this will often affect pastels. Many launderers achieve good results by using sodium percarbonate or sodium perborate in the main wash, even at 45 – 50C.

Both are excellent on protein and vegetable stains but have little effect on textile dyes though it is worth testing the treatment on a hidden part of the garment.

Colour loss – especially under the arms – is often caused by perspiration, it may even extend to the chest or lower back.

Unfortunately such problems cannot be prevented, even by close inspection at the counter and it is only when the damaged dyes are flushed out in the wash that the problem is revealed, as paler patches are noticed.

All in the finish

Many launderers use standard shirt cabinet presses. These normally have a body and also a separate hot-head scissor press for the collars and cuffs. The shirt is clamped to the body before it enters the cabinet to be “sandwiched” between two hot heads while hot air is blown down the sleeves to dry them.

The cabinet/body pressing element is mostly trouble-free, and the main problems usually occur on the collar and cuff press. If the press is operated at 10bar steam pressure the head of the press often reaches 180C, well in excess of the temperature used to heat-seal the adhesive and interlining in the shirt collar and cuffs.

The best method is to press the collar on the reverse side for 3 – 4 seconds, then turn the collar/cuffs face-up and press for 5-6 seconds (depending on whether the shirt is 100% cotton or a polyester blend.) Pressing for any longer will over-dry the collar and cause the adhesive to melt and penetrate the collar outer material, leading to grey marks on the collar face. Then replacing the collar is the only solution.