This Self-Cleaning Towel Is the Best $50 You'll Ever Spend
I have an extensive collection of what I call “non-skin-care skin-care products”—things that support my skin without actually being absorbed into my skin. (I’m super sensitive, so my working theory is: The less product in my pores, the better.) This collection includes gua sha stones, ingestible supplements, and my new favorite: a face towel threaded with antimicrobial silver that eliminates acne-causing bacteria as I pat dry. Yes, it exists.
The latter admittedly sounds like new-age nonsense, so when I first came across the Silvon Bath Towel Set, I asked dermatologists to check the science behind it. Surprisingly, they're on board.
“I do think there is merit here,” Adarsh Vijay Mudgil, M.D., founder of Mudgil Dermatology, says. Traditional washcloths are a breeding ground for bacteria (think: damp and most likely not cleaned as often as they should be, no judgement). This is concerning, considering washcloths are meant for, uh, washing. “Having a fiber built-in like silver, which has been used for antimicrobial purposes, is a really smart concept,” he says. Antimicrobial means the silver threads kill bacteria, fungi, and viruses that may want to take up residence on your terrycloth (and subsequently, your face).
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Silver has been used to sterilize wounds throughout history, but Silvon's metal-infused towels offer a modern update on that concept. "Our towels have been tested and proven to eliminate 99 percent of p.acnes, a leading strain of acne-causing bacteria,” says founder Alex Szapkowski. I’m prone to acne, too sensitive for salicylic acid, and lazy about laundry, so this towel pretty much sounded like it was made for me.
My Silvon towel set came with three super-soft towels: bath, hand, and face. The base is high-end, organic Supima cotton (it feels as luxurious as it sounds), which Silvon then embeds with thin silver threads. "When people hear about silver-woven towels, they tend to think we’re sewing chainlinks into our fabrics,” Szapkowski says. That's what I originally thought too, but rest assured, you won't feel them.
My other concern was whether the towels’ antimicrobial power would be too strong for my skin. While I want to keep acne-causing bacteria at bay, I was worried about damaging my microbiome (i.e., the good bacteria on your skin). When I brought this up, Szapkowski explained that the technology only exists within the fabric itself, “so the antimicrobial properties of the silver never transfer from the fabric to your skin.” In practical terms, it also means that you shouldn't expect the towels to affect existing acne (like a topical treatment would). Instead, they're meant to keep future, towel-fueled breakouts from forming.
Using a Silvon towel is basically the same as using a regular towel, so I won't go too much into the specifics. (It absorbs water! It keeps you warm after a winter shower! It’s the perfect thing to wear while sitting on the edge of the bed and staring into your closet for 45 minutes!) There’s only one major difference: The antimicrobial fabric basically washes itself by killing off all manner of microorganisms. I reused the same towel twice daily for a week straight—once after showering in the morning and again after washing my face at night—and had zero issues in the musty smell department.
During that time, I didn’t see any significant changes in my skin, but I didn't notice any new breakouts either, so who knows how many zits my towels prevented? With that in mind, I've decided to exclusively use silver-threaded towels from this moment on. Anything else suddenly feels like I’m willingly wiping bacteria on my face (and not the nice probiotic kind). Welcome to the non-skin-care skin-care club, Silvon.
Silvon Bath Towel
$50.00, Silvon Bath Towel Set
Silvon Bath Towel Set
$50.00, Silvon Bath Towel Set
Jessica L. Yarbrough is a freelance beauty journalist in Savannah, Georgia. Follow her @jessicalyarbrough_.
Originally Appeared on Glamour
