The Cult of Laundry

Mastering the Art of the White Dogi

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To all my karate friends, past, present, and future. :)

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1. Introduction

If you are reading this, then there's a good chance that you want

to know how to make your dogi bright white, and to keep it that

way. If so, then read on; the path to what you seek begins here.

Because you train hard, you know it doesn't take long for your

keikogi to become either tired and grey, or decidedly yellow-looking.

Indeed, many are happy to live with that situation, but you aren't.

To be fair, there is no shame in being content with training garb

that is not as luminous as it once was. Knowing when something is

good enough is an admirable trait. Low hanging fruit is easily had,

but obtaining that last ten percent of brilliant whiteness is

exponentially more costly in terms of time and effort. How far you

go in that quest is a choice I leave to you.

2. Proper Diagnosis

Regardless of the time you are willing to spend doing laundry, the

goal is always, "Do much with little." In other words, work to get

your dogi as bright and white as you like, but with the least amount

of effort and materials possible. When this approach is taken, it

will become clear that there is no "one size fits all" solution.

Each situation will require specific steps for cleaning, but

something that is common to all is diagnosis.

A good doctor thoroughly examines his patient before prescribing

any medicine or treatment. An astute military commander gathers

all available information on his enemy, in order to martial his

forces and gain victory. Likewise, you must determine the nature

of the dirt, before you do any washing. Is it soil? Sweat stains?

Grass stains? Blood? The latter three are notoriously more persistent

than the first, and require more steps to remove them. If you treat

them like you would regular soiling, you waste time and resources

� the stains will remain. Likewise, if you treat regular soiling

like tougher stains, you will be spending too much in the way of

time and materials, and that unnecessarily. Therefore, determine

the nature of the soiling, and wash accordingly.

3. Caveats

Before we go on to the means of whitening your dogi, it should be

noted that there are two things which are not to be done:

i. Washing with hot water

In general, the single greatest help for getting clothes clean is

the use of hot water in the wash. Sadly it is not an option to us.

It is certainly not good for cotton, and not for cotton-poly blends

either � unless, of course, you don't mind wearing attire that is

a size too small! The only exception is if you already wash your

dogi in hot (or warm) water there is no need to switch to cold

water (as it has likely shrunk as much as it ever will). In this

case there is nothing to be gained by using cold water, in terms

of shrinkage, but much to be lost in cleaning effectiveness.

ii. The application of bleach

Likewise, the use of chlorine bleach is verboten . This is because

white fabrics are often not white at all; instead, they have agents

applied to make them appear brilliant white. Using bleach will

often remove these whitening agents, leaving the more natural,

yellow fabric behind. Obviously, this is counter-productive to the

task at hand. Moreover, it is said that prolonged and repeated use

of bleach is hard on fabric, thereby shortening the lifespan of a

garment. In short, do not use it; there are better options, as will

be shown.

4. Soft Water is Essential

An important step, that should not be overlooked, is to ensure that

the water which you are using to wash is soft. Hard water contains

minerals such as calcium and magnesium. These minerals will react

with the surfactants in the laundry detergent, lessening the ability

of these surface active agents to do their job of cleaning

(surfactants help emulsify the soiling in the item being washed,

thereby allowing the dirt to be washed away with the water). In

fact, the soap can react with these minerals forming a sort of soap

scum, which will remain on your clothes. If this happens, your

garment may actually appear grimy and dull, rather than cleaner

and brighter.

While water softeners for laundry use are common, not everyone has

access to them. Here's a quick test to see if your water is soft:

Take a container of water (i.e., that goes into your washer), and

put about a dozen drops of soap in. Seal the container and shake

it well. If there are lots of suds on top of the clear liquid, then

your water is probably soft enough; you won't need to make any

change. But if the water is murky, and lacking suds, then your

water is likely too hard.

If you don't have a water softener, don't worry. For a relatively

low cost, you can soften your water in each load of wash by using

a softener powder. There are two products I use: Borax (sodium

borate), and Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (sodium carbonate).

Borax does not appear to disolve in cold water as easily as the

Arm & Hammer washing soda. Therefore I make a mixture of one part

Borax to two parts washing soda. I use about 1/2 cup per load of

wash. Readily available, you will usually find Borax and washing

soda in the laundry aisle.

5. Regular Washing

Most of the washing you do will probably fall into what I consider

a regular wash. No drastic measures will be necessary, and nothing

more is needed than cold, soft water, and some good laundry soap.

Note: Not all laundry detergents are created equal. For best results,

I recommend Tide Original Scent liquid detergent. As an alternative,

I have heard Persil ProClean Original Scent is also very good. I

tend to stay away from specialty detergents in order to reduce the

risk of unwanted, potentially dangerous, chemical reactions with

other laundry products (which are discussed below).

6. Dingy Grey Garments

If your dogi is dull-looking, you can restore the brightness by

soaking it in OxiClean White Revive for about six hours. After the

soak is done, wash it as normal.

Note: Do not perform this soak in your washing machine. I have read

reports that leaving the water in the washing machine tub for long

periods of time can allow the water to leak through the seals, and

get into the mechanical parts of the machine, thereby ruining it.

To avoid this potential trouble, I soak my garments in an

eleven-gallon waste container. With such a large container I can

easily soak two dogi tops at the same time. I add 1/2 cup of softener

powder, and the manufacturer-recommended amount of OxiClean powder.

Then I set a timer for six hours, and let it soak. The OxiClean

puts off a pretty strong smell. To combat this, I place a plastic

garbage bag over the top of the bucket. Since the bucket usually

sits in my shower when I do this, I take the shower head and give

the outside of the bucket a shot of water all the way around. Then,

when I apply the garbage bag, the water makes a seal between the

bag and the bucket. This prevents the smell from escaping.

When the soak is done, I sometimes will take the entire contents

of the bucket and dump it in the wash. I then add a bit of soap,

and let the washer do its thing. In my experience, the new high

efficiency (aka low ability to properly rinse clothes) washers will

sometimes not get all of the Oxi out. I recommend running your

garments through another rinse cycle without soap.

Note: While experimenting with various whitening products, I managed

to bleach out my dogi patches. I do not believe it was the OxiClean

soak, but rather another product, Out White Bright . I have yet to

do more tests to confirm which product caused it, but just be aware

of the possibility of your patch colour fading.

7. Yellowed Garments

The process for restoring a dogi which is yellowed from sweat stains

is similar to that described above (6. Dingy Grey Garments) but

with an extra step. The reason the sweat stains don't wash out

easily is because oil from your skin mixes with the sweat. By

itself, water is not well suited to removing oils. As discussed

earlier, you can't use hot water to help heat the oils (making them

more soluble), so instead you can use an Ammonia solution, also

known as Ammonium Hydroxide, or Ammonia.

Ammonia solution can be anywhere from 1% to 10%, the latter being

used more for janitorial or industrial type cleaning. You may find

the products on the lower end (1-3%) to be somewhat anemic. I found

this stuff at Home Hardware, a 6% solution, to be quite satisfactory.

Note: Mixing ammonia with certain chemicals will produce poisonous

gases. In particular, bleach and ammonia are NOT to be mixed

together! Always read the label of every product for directions on

how to use it, as well as any warnings about mixing it with other

products or chemicals. I highly recommend using the ammonia solution

as a standalone, or just with your laundry soap, as long as your

laundry soap doesn�t have bleach in it. Additionally, the ammonia

solution gives off a very strong odor. I suggest using it in a

well-ventilated area, but at the very least care should be taken

to measure the ammonia out without spilling so as to keep the fumes

down.

My process for restoring a yellowed dogi would be to add 1/2 cup

of the 6% ammonia solution to the wash water (again, if you don't

have a water softener, use softener powder). Typically I will put

my softener powder in the bottom of the machine, place the dogi in

next, and let the water start to fill. Then, when the water has

filled, I add the ammonia (carefully poured into a half-cup measuring

cup) straight into the wash. For a front-load washer, the process

is almost the same: put in the softener powder, put in the garments,

and then pour the ammonia onto the top of the fabric, close the

door, and start the machine.

After the machine has run its cycle, treat the gi as you would for

greying (i.e., section 6. Dingy Grey Garments ), then wash again.

8. Grass Stains / Blood

For removing grass or blood stains, I recommend a mixture of one

third water, one third dish soap, and one third ammonia solution.

This can be put into a plastic spray bottle and then sprayed directly

on to the stained areas. During this procedure the ammonia smell

is intense. You will want to do this outside in the open. I always

wear a pair of rubber gloves to keep the ammonia off my hands as

well. When dealing with heavy soiling, I use a dish-scrubbing brush

to scrub the solution into the stained area after I have applied

the spray solution.

Once the solution is applied, and the scrubbing is done, put the

clothes straight into the wash. You will want to follow the procedure

for yellowed garments (see section 7), followed by an Oxi soak (see

section 6) and one more wash, as described above. I also recommend

you have everything ready to go (as much as you can � borax and

ammonia measured out, etc.) before you apply the spray-on solution.

That way, you can just stick the stinky mess right into the washing

machine without delay.

Note: A combination of sweat and deodorant (or antiperspirant) can

be difficult to remove. However, this spot treatment method can be

used as a stand-alone stain reducer for the armpit area. If you

only want to diminish the stain, but not go through the process of

the six-hour soak, a local application of the three-part solution

is somewhat effective.

9. Laundry Bluing

By applying laundry bluing, you can counteract any yellow tint in

your garment, thereby making it appear more white. This is the last

step in any of the above laundry processes. I blue garments in my

top loading washing machine, but if you have a front load washer

it can be done in a large container.

Note: Extra care must be taken when using laundry bluing. The bluing

dye comes in a highly concentrated form. A few drops are all it

takes. Any dye, undiluted, that gets on any surface or garment,

will most certainly stain it, so take care.

I use Mrs. Stewart's Concentrated Liquid Bluing .

The directions for use are: 1. Shake well before using 2. Always

dilute bluing with water in a separate container before adding to

a wash load.

The second rule is key � dilute! (Refer to the directions for how

much dye to use per amount of water).

i. Bluing with a top load washer

I have an old two gallon jug which I fill with water followed by

laundry bluing. Afterwards I stir the water in the jug to mix the

dye well. When the washing machine has finished filling for the

rinse cycle, I move the garments to the side, and then carefully

pour the bluing solution into the water. It is important to not

pour any dye solution directly on the garments themselves. Then

I close the lid, and let the washer finish as normal.

ii. Bluing with a front load washer

If you have a front load washer, it is not feasible to add bluing

into the washing machine. Instead, you can apply the dye by

repurposing the large container used for an oxi soak (as described

above). I put about nine gallons of water into my laundry barrel,

add the necessary bluing, and then stir it around. Don't get your

bare skin in the water, especially when you first add the drops of

dye � unless you want to look like a Smurf! Essentially, before

you add any clothing to the mix, you want the bluing to be evenly

dispersed in the water; it should be a light blue colour. Once it

is ready, add the clothes. I just dunk the dogi up and down in the

barrel. (In a top load washer, you would just let it agitate, then

run through a rinse/spin cycle). You can either wring the dogi out

by hand, or pop it in the washer and run it through a spin cycle.

10. Maintenance

If your dogi got yellowed from sweat, you might consider using a

half-cup of ammonia solution in the wash each time. This will allow

the soap and water to remove the oils from your sweat so that it

does not build up and become noticeable again. For maintenance,

you should not need to do the Oxi soak; just soft water, soap, and

the ammonia solution should be sufficient. In my experience, it

takes much less effort to maintain than to restore.

11. Conclusion

Restoring a dingy, yellowed dogi, as described here, is somewhat

of an extreme process; it's not for the faint of heart. However,

a dazzling, refulgent, white dogi is reward enough, and if you find

yourself satisfied with nothing less, you just might be a member

of The Cult of Laundry.