Do You Need to Wash New Clothes Before Wearing Them?

Do you need to wash new clothes before wearing them? Washing is a sensible, cheap precaution, and dermatologists recommend it as a default, but the scary claims online rest on thin evidence. The real, documented concerns are small: some people get a skin reaction to the chemical finishes on fabric, and bright dyes can bleed onto skin and other clothes. The germ-and-lice horror stories are mostly unproven. Here's what the sources actually support, item by item.

What's on new clothes

1. Formaldehyde finishes

Formaldehyde-based resins have been used to make fabric wrinkle-resistant since the 1920s, according to a 2010 review in the journal Dermatitis (Reich and Warshaw, abstract only). They can cause allergic skin reactions in some people. The US Government Accountability Office (GAO-10-875, 2010) found there's no federal limit on formaldehyde in clothing and labels don't disclose it. In its test of 180 mostly clothing items, most fell below the strictest foreign limits, and levels have fallen since the 1980s. It said washing before wearing often lowers formaldehyde, but not always. Cotton Incorporated's 2007 technical bulletin, which is industry-sourced and possibly outdated, says mills often finish to the strictest buyer's specification.

2. Dyes

Cleveland Clinic dermatologist Shilpi Khetarpal, MD (March 2026) says bright dyes can bleed onto skin and other fabrics, and recommends washing everything new on a gentle cycle with fragrance-free detergent. That's expert opinion, not a study. Dyes are the most practical reason to wash: a new dark or saturated piece can stain a light one (see do black clothes fade faster).

3. Germs from the store

A 2010 ABC Good Morning America segment had NYU microbiologist Philip Tierno test 14 new items from three chains and report some skin, respiratory and fecal bacteria. That was a TV segment with a tiny sample, not a peer-reviewed study. A 2012 study in the American Journal of Infection Control found new scrubs had significantly fewer bacteria than unwashed or home-laundered scrubs, which shows new fabric isn't sterile but is cleaner than worn fabric (it tested scrubs, not store clothes). We found no peer-reviewed study of illness actually caused by wearing unwashed store clothes. That gap is real.

4. Lice and scabies

The CDC says scabies spreads mainly by prolonged skin-to-skin contact, and less commonly through shared clothing, towels or bedding; mites generally do not survive more than two to three days off the skin. For head lice, head-to-head contact is the most common route, hats and coats are “not as common,” and lice die within two days off the head. So catching either from a fitting room is theoretically possible but very unlikely, and no CDC statement we read called store try-ons a notable route.

Which items matter most

No study ranks them, so this is our synthesis, not a finding:

• Highest priority: underwear, socks, anything worn against skin, and baby clothes (though we found no source quantifying a specific infant risk).
• Dark or saturated dyes: bleeding is the practical concern.
• Towels and bedding: dye bleed and loose fibers.
• Low priority: outerwear you wear over other layers, and dry-clean-only pieces (see washing dry-clean-only clothes).

How to do it

1. Wash before first wear, especially anything against skin.
2. Use a gentle or normal cycle with fragrance-free detergent, and wash dark and bright items separately the first time. See which wash temperature to use.
3. If you tried something on in a store, wash it before wearing it next to skin. It's a low-cost habit, not a necessity.
4. If you get a rash after wearing something, see a dermatologist for patch testing.

A bit of history: the detachable collar

Troy, New York, credits Hannah Montague (1827), who was tired of washing a whole shirt when only the collar was dirty, with the detachable collar. Ebenezer Brown commercialized it and Troy became “Collar City.” Collars could be starched hard. That comes from Wikipedia's summary, a weaker source, so treat it as a fun lead rather than a settled fact. We found no sourced history of why new shirts come with sizing, starch or pins.

New clothes myths, graded

• “New clothes are loaded with toxic formaldehyde.” Mostly false. GAO found most test items below strict foreign limits. The real risk is an allergic skin reaction in sensitive people.
• “Washing removes all formaldehyde.” False or unproven. GAO says often, but not always.
• “You can catch lice or scabies from try-ons.” Unlikely, and essentially unproven per CDC.
• “Fecal bacteria on new clothes will make you sick.” Unproven. The only source is a 2010 TV test.
• “Everyone must wash everything.” Dermatologists lean yes, but that's opinion, not evidence.

Sources & further reading

• GAO-10-875 (2010), Formaldehyde in textiles
• Reich and Warshaw, Dermatitis (2010)
• Cotton Incorporated (2007), Formaldehyde in textiles (industry)
• Cleveland Clinic (2026), Should you wash new clothes
• Nordstrom, Reynolds and Gerba (2012), Am J Infect Control
• ABC News (2010), GMA new clothes test
• CDC, Scabies and CDC, Head lice
• Wikipedia, Detachable collar (weaker source)