White socks are not only notoriously easy to stain, they also tend to take on a greyish tinge with each wash. Prevention is the best cure, laundry pros say. – Photo: Patrick Pleul/dpa
For a long time, white socks were THE trademark of fashion dyslexics - think old German tourists sporting them in sandals on the beach.
Now they're back, with many Gen Zs deliberately pairing them with not only running shoes, but even the likes of Birkenstocks and – deep breaths – Crocs.
Of course, if you feel youthful enough, on the inside or out, to join this post-Millenial, anti-ankle-sock trend, then not any old pair will do. To hop on the white socks bandwagon, you'll need them to be so glaringly bright that they scream: "Yeah, I'm wearing white socks. Fight me."
Not an easy hue to maintain if you don't want to keep buying new pairs. Tennis socks are not only notoriously easy to stain, they also tend to take on a greyish tinge with each wash.
Prevention is the best cure, says Bernd Glassl from the German Cosmetic, Toiletry, Perfumery and Detergent Association (IKW). He recommends only washing whites with whites to keep their brightness.
Use a heavy-duty or universal detergent and make sure that the amount you use is appropriate for the hardness of your water and the amount of laundry.
If your white socks have already taken on a greyish hue, you might be tempted to try some of the many home remedies circulating online.
Testers from Germany's Stiftung Warentest consumer organization however found that many of them don't really work.
Neither adding a bag of lemon slices in the washing machine nor soaking the socks for one hour in citric acid and water at 60 degrees Celsius turned the socks white again. Adding two packets of backing soda to the machine wash also didn't help.
Commercial laundry whiteners, on the other hand, did the trick, making white socks appear brighter even after the first wash, the testers found. However, they warned that the dirt still remains in the fibres.
And the more dirt particles settle below the optical brighteners in the fabric, the less laundry whiteners can achieve in the long term, they said.
Your best bet, the laundry testers say, is a decent heavy-duty washing powder which will help to keep your whites bright more effectively in the long term.
The surfactants contained in a heavy-duty powder dissolve dust, grease and sweat and keep the dirt in the wash water until the machine pumps it out.
Incidentally, if your socks have coloured stains you should first pre-treat the stain with a stain remover spray, Glassl recommends.
After that, the socks can be put in the washing machine with other white textiles and a heavy-duty or all-in-one detergent in powder, granulate or tablet form.
Only non-liquid heavy-duty detergent such as powder contains bleach, which is very effective against fruit stains for example, Glassl says. – dpa
