How Often Do You Wash Your Bra?
A woman’s bra is a very personal thing.
The only gossip I’m interested in is things from the Weekly World News — ‘Woman’s bra bursts, 11 injured’. That kind of thing. ~Johnny Depp
I don’t normally think about or talk about bras, but a few events happened over the past few months that put bras on my radar.
The first event was a three week house sitting gig I undertook for some friends. They have one cat, one kitten and one dog and a big house on an acreage.
One of the things that happens when you house sit is that you become very familiar with the owners simply because you are living in their space and using their things. You are entrusted with taking care of their home.
I knew they had a water tank leak the previous year, so I asked for a tour of, and instructions on the appliances in their furnace room. I got a brief lesson on the high tech washing machine, drier and gas stove. Every evening before I went to bed, I did a quick tour of the house … peeking into rooms to make sure all was as it should be.
Two weeks in … the precocious kitten I had come to love, disappeared.
I started looking in all her usual hidey-holes getting more and more frantic with each passing minute. Did I accidentally let her out when I took the dog for a walk?
I was starting to panic so I decided to do a methodical search of the house. In doing so I had to go into the master bedroom. From the bedroom I went into the master bath … and from there into a big walk-in closet.
There was kitty … sleeping on top of a PILE of bras.
I mean a PILE! There had to be one hundred or more bras in every color known to man and dozens of animal skin patterns.
I grabbed the cat, smiling to myself. Some women like shoes … my friend obviously loved bras.
I was the first woman to burn my bra — it took the fire department four days to put it out. ~Dolly Parton
My next Bra Event came about when I was having coffee with a friend. She had recently come back from her daughter’s wedding and was giving me the details. I have NO idea how the conversation went from her mother-of-the-bride outfit, to her bra.
Honest … bras are not usually on my mind and I normally don’t have conversations about them!
My friend told me about going for a bra fitting where she ended up . . .
purchasing a $350 bra!
I almost chocked but winced instead. The most I ever paid for one bra is $50.
She smiled and told me that the day after she bought the bra she felt so dang guilty, she was going to return it. But life got in the way, and she didn’t have time to return it AND find another new bra.
As she was telling me this, she made all sorts of face-putty grimaces and rolled her eyes, so I knew she was still pretty disgusted with herself.
I asked if she was wearing THE BRA now? NO
I asked if it was worth $350 and did it make a difference in her boob profile? Worth it? Probably not.
Did it change her boob profile? Definitely YES. Definitely very NICE.
I asked how often she wore it? Well, so far, only to the wedding.
Since she had been back a few weeks, I asked why she didn’t wear it more often? Her answer was that it was so expensive and she didn’t want to ruin it.
A quick bop back in time to when I was briefly considering a career as a fashion designer. The BEST thing I learned was the concept of
Calculating “cost per wear” BEFORE making any clothing purchase.
You know your former favorite T-shirt? The one you wore every second or third day for a year? Then you got another favorite, but still wore the old one regularly? Then you relegated it to a night shirt? Yes, THAT T-shirt.
The cost per wear of that $29.95 T-shirt was likely down to 1 cent BEFORE you started using it as a night shirt.
Now think about a wedding gown. Most of the time it gets worn ONCE. It costs anywhere from $500 to hundreds of thousands. The cost per wear is astronomical.
I know there are no men reading this article, but the men’s equivalent is a Tuxedo, which for many men might get 1 or 2 wearings per decade.
So I told my friend about the “cost per wear,” formula and said that if she liked how she looked in the bra, AND if it was comfortable, she should wear it way way more often. She should try to reduce the cost per wear to $1.00 and then if the bra was still in good condition wear it even MORE often.
Bras should be comfortable. I hate when you have all those bras with all that wiring that poke into your ribs, and you take it off at the end of the day, and it feels good. It shouldn’t feel good to take off your bra at the end of the day. It should be something that feels good throughout the day. ~Jazz Jennings
One of the really COOL things about being a writer, is that you can ask practically any question you want and get an answer.
My curiosity about bras was now on HIGH. So I started asking some of my other friends about their bras. When I told them I was doing research … all of them had something to say.
One friend told me about her one year hiking trip around Europe. ONE bra washed every three days … IF water and a place to hang it was available.
Several of my friends bought their bras from Amazon or the Shopping Channel … these were the almost one-size pull on bras.
A couple of my friends mentioned that boobs were no longer one of the important things in life.
If boobs are no longer important, then why do we need so many different kinds of boob holders?
I went to a department store to buy a bra, just so I could ask the bra-fitter a pile of questions. Turns out $60 is the average price of that store’s bras.
Apparently, many women hate buying bras and do the same type of batch buying I do.
The fitter also told me that many of the expensive bras (over $200) were actually better built, sturdier and would last a lot longer than cheaper bras.
I decided that the next bra I purchase will be one of those expensive bras. It would have to be:
- beige
- really comfortable
- make a BIG difference to my boob profile … otherwise there was no point in spending the $$$
- look nice, so I can admire myself in a mirror
- not too much lace because I think that would “go” first, reducing my cost per wear results.
- did I mention, REALLY comfortable? At my age, comfort is a priority in both shoes and bras.
So what about YOU?
Have you ever had a bra fitting? It is weird, but helpful. How much do you usually pay for a bra? Are boobs still important in your life?
And of course … how often do you wash your bra? AND, did you know there are special (aka EXPENSIVE) soaps just for washing your bra?
