1. Disposable face towel is really more healthy and safe than Plain Towels.
Now more and more people use disposable face towel to replace towels to wash their faces, is this a "consumerism trap" or really effective?
disposable face towel
As a textile chemical engineer, I highly recommend using disposable washcloths to wash your face, as they are more hygienic and convenient than towels.
Towels are wet after each use, mixed with attached sebum dander and placed in the dark, unventilated bathroom, it is transformed into bacteria, mites, the best petri dish.
Mites on towels
For those whose facial skin is sensitive and prone to occlusion, the use of washcloths will indeed bring a better experience. Carrying is also very convenient, business trips, travel hand on a packet can be stuffed into the bag, do not have to worry about hotel towels communal not disinfected clean trouble.
However, there is also a great deal of care in the purchase of "disposable face towel".
Not only because of the use of a piece of use "fast consumption", the price of face clean towels to consider, there are a lot of "parameter indicators" we need to pay attention to.
This article I will teach you how to buy a good, safe and affordable disposable face towel.
2. Disposable face towel is how to produce.
The scientific name of the disposable face towel is actually called soft towel, belonging to the "non-woven" of a kind. (Nonwoven)
disposable face towel and the clothes we wear on our bodies are textiles, but they are not made of yarns woven into each other like traditional fabrics.
Woven Fabric
Instead, a needle or a high-pressure stream of water is used to repeatedly puncture the loose fibers like a cotton quilt, which then becomes the disposable face towel we now have.
disposable face towel production process
Because the fibers are three-dimensional interlaced together, with a lot of fine pores, which is "soft towel" moisture absorption, soft than the fundamental reason for towels.
disposable face towel nonwoven fabric has a lot of tiny pores
3. Choice of material
disposable face towel material is mainly divided into 3 categories, 100% cotton, 100% viscose, viscose + polyester fiber blend. Because the material is different so they have different advantages and disadvantages.
1) 100% cotton
Cotton is familiar to everyone can not be familiar with the material, its advantage is that moisture absorption is very good, the nominal moisture return rate of 8.5%.
Cotton has the structure of curly cell cavity
And cotton fibers have hollow cavity structure, there is a good capillary effect, so the water absorption is very good.
However
In the traditional concept of perfect cotton also has a disadvantage
That is, "pesticides and other chemical residues" and "uneven fiber length growth".
Cotton to control bollworm and other microorganisms, cotton farmers will be in the growth process of spraying pesticides, so that the surface of the cotton will be stained with some pesticide residues.
Caterpillar-like "bollworm" eating cotton buds
Traditional cotton because it is woven into a tight flat textile cloth, so you can "pre-treatment" of this process, with surfactants, caustic soda, sodium sulfite, together with the cotton fiber pesticides, cotton wax, cottonseed hulls of these impurities washed away, and then bleached by hydrogen peroxide into the cotton we wear after the white T.
Cotton "pretreatment" washing
But this processing method can not be set on the "disposable face towel", because the texture of the disposable face towel was originally loose, in the process will be washed out, stretching, deformation is not in the soft simply can not be used.
So "disposable face towel" in most of the removal of impurities into the cloth before the cotton loose fibers will be pressed into the cotton cake, and then use the chemical substances mentioned above to wash away impurities. Cleaning agent are from the surface to the internal penetration, but because the cotton cake is loose on the outside and tight on the inside, making it difficult to clean the center part of the cotton.
This also leads to the fact that cotton nonwoven fabrics that are not processed properly are prone to pesticide residues.
Standard 100 by OEKO-TEX, the International Eco-Textile Directive, lists a number of requirements for the restriction of pesticides, herbicides and other hazardous substances on textiles.
Restrictions on "pesticide residues" in the international eco-textile regulations
Processing is not in place "disposable face towel" is more harmful, especially for small children are developing, these pesticide residues extremely affect the health of the development, do not want to buy cheap face clean towel inferior.
Secondly, "disposable face towel" is not suitable for respiratory tract sensitivity or easy to have closed mouth people.
The reason is "linting".
This is because cotton is naturally grown, so the length of cotton is normally distributed.
Uneven distribution of cotton length
Long will have short will also have, traditional cotton because it is made of yarn, so there will be to combing process like combing hair, the short hair combed off, if it is not yet possible to add a combing process, two combing is what we often hear "combed cotton"!
"Combed cotton" process
The short hairs combed away, leaving a more slender and neat good cotton, which is combed cotton.
But the combing of cotton nonwoven fabric is much rougher, combing in a large needle plate like a wolfsbane, short, poor quality cotton fiber is difficult to remove. This opportunity to mix into the good nonwoven fabric, it is easy to lose hair.
"Wolfsbane" combing nonwoven fabrics
In fact, good cotton is first to do high-end home textiles, shirts, and then go to do towels.
Can turn to do "disposable face towel" nonwoven fabrics are low-end cotton, because nonwoven fabrics do not need to consider spinning into yarn, too short cotton fibers can not weave, but nonwoven fabrics do not have to worry about.
These cotton fluff will be used when shedding hair, stained face clogged pores to form a closed mouth, or floating into the nasal cavity to stimulate the respiratory tract.
These are some of the reasons why there is a minefield of disposable face towel on the market.
If you are a "die-hard fan of disposable face towel", the only advice I can give is to buy the most expensive ones. Cotton raw material itself is expensive, the processing technology in addition to miscellaneous and complex, resulting in a good "disposable face towel" price can not be cheap and affordable.
2) 100% viscose
Viscose fiber is actually the dominant category nowadays. It's a regenerated cellulose fiber, and the production process is interesting.
As mentioned earlier, the cotton that is not well developed and not long enough to make "disposable face towel" will easily lose its hair, so a special spinning process is used to dissolve the cotton and then re-spin it.
"Viscose fiber" production process
Viscose fiber is called viscose, is because the dissolved cotton is a sticky liquid, so it is called viscose.
In fact, viscose fiber and cotton chemical fiber composition is exactly the same are cellulose. But the viscose fiber production process to the arrangement of cellulose structure re-breaking up, so that the molecular structure is particularly loose, water molecules are more easily absorbed by the diffusion, excellent water absorption.
As mentioned earlier, the nominal moisture regain rate of cotton is 8.5%, and viscose fiber is as high as 13%, which is 50% higher than that of cotton.
Typical moisture retention of various fibers
Viscose fibers have the advantage of being uniform in length while being highly absorbent. Because it is then spun out, so the length is machine cut, are 40mm in length (long-staple cotton is only 36mm), there will not be like poor quality cotton towel lint trouble.
Viscose fiber because of excellent moisture absorption, a standard length, but also do not have to worry about pesticide residues (in the process of dissolution in addition to), so is now the mainstream nonwoven components of the broad categories.
Of course, viscose fiber also has a unique disadvantage
Is encountered in hot water after the "sulfur soap" taste, this is because the viscose fiber in the production process to use sulfide to dissolve the taste left behind.
Although not toxic, the smell is not pleasant.
Therefore, it is very simple to smell "Viscose disposable face towel" by soaking in hot water. （Hot water.)
The goodness of "Viscose disposable face towel" depends on whether there is a sophisticated washing process to remove the sulfur odor from the viscose.
Trivia: In fact, "viscose disposable face towel" in Europe and the United States have been used for decades have not found this shortcoming, but a promotion to East Asia on the odor problems, at first thought that the production is unqualified and finally a research only to find that Europe and the United States like to wash their faces in cold water, China, Japan and South Korea like hot water to wash their faces.
3) Viscose fiber + polyester blend
This composition is different from the just mentioned 100% pure "viscose soft towel" but in which added about 30% of polyester fiber components.
Polyester fiber hydrophilicity is very poor, the nominal moisture retention rate of 0.4%, only 1/20 of cotton.
However, "viscose + polyester" component of the nonwoven fabric moisture absorption diffusion is the best, than cotton, pure viscose, but also better, this is to benefit from the "non-absorbent" polyester fiber.
Love sports friends are moisture wicking "quick dry clothes" is not strange, its fabric composition is not the traditional impression of moisture absorption and breathable cotton, but the use of non-absorbent polyester fiber do.
"Quick-drying clothes" fiber structure
Strenuous exercise will produce a lot of sweat, can be in the polyester fiber under the excellent capillary effect, along the surface of the guide dispersal, the formation of a larger evaporation area so as to achieve quick-drying.
"Viscose + polyester disposable face towel" moisture absorption and diffusion of good, is also the use of polyester fiber "moisture". Because the viscose fiber itself is already too much moisture absorption, so the need to mix polyester fiber to improve the diffusion area of moisture absorption.
At the same time, the polyester fibers added to the disposable face towel are shaped like springs (PET/PTT two-component), which plays the role of "disposable face towel" skeleton support, so that the disposable face towel more fluffy and soft.
Ordinary cotton, viscose disposable face towel is only so thin, add polyester fiber disposable face towel can be so thick, in the skeleton support disposable face towel fluffy and soft will not be soft and collapsible, wet wipe is not easy to go away from the shape is not easy to break.
Various types of material endurance test
(The endurance of each type of material: "Cotton" 34.84N, "Viscose + Polyester" 123.47N, "Viscose" 84.34N)
The disadvantage of Viscose+Polyester also lies in the "sulfur soap" smell of the viscose itself, but since the proportion of viscose has been reduced from 100% to 70%, the odor problem is less pronounced.
If you like thick, soft texture of thedisposable face towel, I recommend "viscose + polyester" blended material.
4. Safety of face clean towels
In addition to the choice of ingredients, we also need to pay attention to whether there are preservatives CIT, MIT added.
Nonwoven "hydroentanglement process"
"disposable face towel" in the production process to use "high-pressure spunlace" process, the water will contain many bacteria microbial residues in the "disposable face towel", and somedisposable face towel itself is a "wet towel". "Wet wipes" are more likely to harbor bacteria.
So many disposable face towel manufacturers will be added to the CIT, MIT such preservatives.
MIT is the abbreviation of Methylisothiazolinone, a highly effective preservative widely used in the cosmetics industry.
CIT is the short for methylchloroisothiazolinone, is often used in combination with MIT, and this MIT/CIT mixture is often called kasone.
Although it is less prone to bacterial growth, it introduces a new problem, that is, "allergenicity".
The European Cosmetic and Personal Care Association (ECPA) has carefully evaluated the available data and research findings and concluded that there is sufficient evidence of an association between the use of MIT-containing leave-on cosmetic products (including make-up wipes) and contact allergy and atopic contact dermatitis, and that a ban on the use of the preservative MIT in leave-on cosmetic products (including make-up wipes) is necessary in order to minimize the incidence of contact allergy induced by MIT. It is considered necessary to ban the use of MIT in resident cosmetics (including makeup wipes) to reduce the incidence of contact allergy.
In fact, Europe and the United States have come to talk about MIT, CIT color change, our Internet on this type of preservative science is too little, resulting in many manufacturers still use this cheap and good but allergenic preservatives.
If it is for the children, alcohol-containing wipes are not recommended, just wipe is wet, but after wiping in the volatile effect of alcohol will take away more water, exacerbating the dryness of the skin on the face.
5. The texture of the disposable face towel
"Disposable face towel texture" is also a need to pay attention to the details of the point, there are mainly flat texture, bumpy texture two kinds.
Plain grain: is also the most common, wipe up friction small smooth, but also makes the cleaning power is not enough to remove makeup or keratin thick parts of the wipe is not clean, more suitable for friends with sensitive skin.
Convex pattern: this pattern improves the friction, cleaning power is much stronger, this is suitable for the skin to tolerate better friends!