Often many brand owners ask us if our t shirts are biowashed. Many t shirt manufacturers may tell you that the tees are bio washed, But do you really know what that means?

So in this post we will discuss – What is Biowash, Brief Process of Biowash, Importance of Bio wash, How it is important for your business, How to identify Biowash.

What is Bio Wash

Bio-Wash is a finishing process that enhances fabric quality by decreasing the pilling tendency and fuzziness of (cellulose) knitted fabrics. This finishing process applied to cellulose textiles that produces permanent effects by the use of enzymes. This process removes protruding fibres & slubs from knitted fabrics, significantly reduces pilling, softens fabric hand and provides a smooth fabric appearance .

About the Process : 

The biowash process targets the removal of the small fiber ends protruding from the yarn surface and thereby reduces the hairiness or fuzz of the fabrics. The hydrolysis action of the enzyme weakens the protruding fibers to the extent that a small physical abrasion force is sufficient to break and remove them. Bio wash can be accomplished at any time during wet processing but is most convenient performed after bleaching.

It can be done in both continuous or batch processes. However, continuous processes require some incubation time for enzymatic degradation to take place. Removing the fuzz makes the color brighter, the fabric texture more obvious, and reduces pilling. Smoother yarns also increase the fabric softness, appearance and feel. Since it is an additional process, the bio-polished garments may cost slightly more. Next time you buy apparel, look for the label “Biowashed”

Importance of Bio Wash

1. To removes Hairiness, fluffs and pills .
2. To Prevent material sticking .
3. To soften fabric hand & improved handle .
4. To achievement of surface smoothness and a clear structural appearance & improved luster .
5. To improved material texture relaxation & increased flexibility.
6. To improved sew-ability & Fast to washing, low pilling tendency, no napping in use, or during care operation.
7. To Converted fabrics from Poor quality, uneven, napped, knoppy material surface to lustrous, soft, elegant,top quality with a fine, high quality surface appearance.

How Bio Wash is important for your business?

As a business owner you would obviously want the best quality for your brand. However, Biowash does not necessarily mean best quality as such. It is essentially a process that helps to remove stray fibres from t-shirts.

This process has its merits and demerits.

As such it is good for the life of t-shirts but the fabric may feel thinner after the process as the extra protruding fibres will be gone. Biowash is also a very necessary process if you wish to do DTG prints on your tees as the smooth service provides an excellent canvas for the print heads to work on. Biowash also prevents pilling of fabric.

However many brand owners decide to go for non biowashed as they like the lusture and feel of non-biowash more than biowashed garmets. And Biowash costs slightly more too.

Ultimately its up to you to decide whether you want biowashed or non biowashed. Our opinion is that what feels good to you is the best.

I hope taking all above factors into account, you can come to a conclusion as to what would be best for your brand

How to Identify Bio Wash

This bring us to a very important section of this post. How not to get duped buy paying for Biowash and receiving Non-Biowashed.

As mentioned earlier, Bio wash ensures that stray fibres are removed and a smooth surface is left. Such a change is visible easily to the naked eye but takes some practice. You would need to see a few pieces of Authentic Biowash fabric and learn to see the difference biowash makes.

To make this easier, let me attach a picture of 2 of our t shirts.

As you can see above, my phones camera was able to beautifully spot the difference between biowash(lower) and non-biowash(upper). I hope you can see the stray fibres in the non biowashed variety and also compare it with the smooth surface of the bio wash variety. Feel free to zoom in to get a proper look.

After seeing and comparing a few sample pieces, you will get the hang of it and can simply tell by looking at the fabric.

I hope this post was helpful and should you need any more help, You can email us at contact@blisswear.in or even visit our store in Adalaj. We would be more than happy to be of any help.

See you in the next post… Stay Tuned..

Signing off, Parth, Blisswear.