A quality swimsuit - whether it's a performance one-piece, a structured bikini top, or men's swim trunks built for actual swimming - is not a small investment and most people unknowingly destroy in the laundry. Chlorine, saltwater, sunscreen, and the wrong detergent are a four-part recipe for faded color, stretched elastic, and fabric that pills and loses its shape well before its time.

The good news: washing swimsuits the right way is simple. It just requires knowing what not to do - and using a formula built for the job.

Step One: Rinse Immediately After Wearing

This is the single most impactful thing you can do for swimsuit longevity, and most people skip it. Chlorine from pools and salt from the ocean both degrade spandex and elastane fibers - the materials that give swimwear its stretch, shape retention, and performance fit - at the molecular level. The longer they sit in contact with the fabric, the more damage compounds.

Rinse your suit in cool, clean water immediately after leaving the pool or ocean. This takes thirty seconds and removes the majority of chlorine and salt before they can set into the fiber. Don't wait until you get home. Don't leave a wet suit balled up in a bag for hours. Rinse it now.

Cold water only:  Warm or hot water accelerates the breakdown of elastane and causes color fading. Swimwear should never see warm water at any stage - rinsing, washing, or otherwise.

How to Properly Wash a Swimsuit

Hand washing is always the preferred method for swimwear - it's gentler on performance fabrics than even the most delicate machine cycle, and it takes less than five minutes.

1. Fill a basin or sink with cold water. Never warm, never hot.
2.  Add a small amount - about a teaspoon - of Lindry Lab's Delicates Wash. A little goes a long way; over-sudsing is hard to rinse out of tight-knit performance fabrics.
3. Submerge the suit and gently work it through the water for 1–2 minutes. No scrubbing, no wringing - just gentle movement.
4. Rinse thoroughly in cold water until the water runs clear and no suds remain. Detergent residue left in the fabric can break down elastane over time.
5. Press out excess water gently between your palms. Never wring a swimsuit - twisting the fabric stresses the fibers and distorts the shape.

If you do use a washing machine, use the delicate cycle with cold water only, and place the suit in a mesh laundry bag to prevent snagging and stretching against the drum.

Why Regular Detergent Is Wrong for Swimwear

Swimsuit fabrics — typically a blend of nylon or polyester with spandex or elastane - are performance materials engineered for stretch, recovery, and resistance to chlorine and UV. Standard laundry detergents aren't formulated with these fabrics in mind:

• Harsh sulfates (SLS/SLES) strip the fibers' protective coating, accelerating color fade and causing the fabric to lose its recovery — the snap-back quality that keeps a suit fitting the way it did when you bought it.
• Optical brighteners bond to fabric and react to UV light, which actively works against the UV-resistant properties built into most quality swimwear.
• Heavy enzymes in standard formulas are designed to break down proteins and oils in everyday fabrics — but at concentrations that are too aggressive for the fine synthetic fibers in swimwear, causing premature pilling and texture breakdown.
• Warm water + standard detergent is the fastest way to destroy elastane. Heat loosens fiber bonds; harsh detergent degrades them further. The combination is what turns a well-fitting suit saggy after a single season.

Lindry Lab's Delicates Wash is a pH-neutral, bio-based formula free of sulfates, optical brighteners, parabens, and ethoxylates - built specifically for the fabrics that need gentle, effective cleaning without the chemical load that degrades performance materials over time. It cleans thoroughly without stripping what makes swimwear actually work.

Always Line Dry — Never the Dryer

The dryer is non-negotiable: never put a swimsuit in one. Dryer heat is the single fastest way to destroy elastane permanently- one cycle at high heat can take a suit from fitted to stretched-out and unwearable. Even low heat degrades the fiber over repeated exposure.

Line dry or lay flat in a shaded spot. Direct sunlight will fade color faster than almost anything else, even after a great wash. A shaded outdoor line or a towel laid flat indoors works perfectly. Reshape the suit by hand while it's damp - this is when the fabric is most cooperative - and let it air dry fully before storing.

Never hang by the straps:  Hanging a wet suit from its straps stretches them out of shape under the weight of the wet fabric. Lay flat or use a towel draped over a rod so the weight is distributed evenly.

Swimwear that's rinsed immediately, washed cold with the right formula, and air dried flat lasts significantly longer - seasons longer - than suits that go through a standard laundry cycle. The care routine is simple; the formula just has to be the right one.

Shop Lindry Lab's Delicates Wash — plant-based, pH-neutral, and built for the fabrics that deserve better than a generic detergent.