Many Americans Are Ditching Their Fabric Softener – And Experts Warn You May Want To As Well

Image: Lewis Hine

At the beginning of the 20th century, textile manufacturers had a problem – the pigments they employed to color cotton gave the resulting fabrics a rough texture. To fix this, they washed their products in a mixture of soap, water and oil made from olive, tallow or corn. That blend would subsequently inspire scientists to produce formulas that would work as softeners.

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