Knowing the dos and don’ts of washing your clothes can be a difficult affair when looking at the tag, especially when it comes to shrinking.

But what is it exactly about different materials that make some safe to wash at home and others dry-clean only?

When you get down to it folks, this is a quick lesson in material chemistry - one that will give you the scientific-know-how to stop yourself from destroying your favorite ensemble.

First you need to understand the materials that your clothes are made out of.

We can break clothing fibers down into three categories - synthetic, plant based, and animal based.

Each of these types of fibers have a chemical makeup that will respond to cleaning methods differently and many clothing garments can be made out of a mix, so knowing how they interact with water is key here folks.

Synthetic fibers are polymer chains built out of small units, or monomers, that are usually derived from petroleum.

These include materials like polyester, nylon, polypropylene and many more.

Most synthetic fibers are hydrophobic, or water-hating, which is why they’re often used as outerwear to shed water, or underwear to breathe and let moisture escape from the skin.

For the most part, these types of materials have no issue with water and don’t really shrink when machine washed.

Second, we have plant-derived materials like cotton, linen, and hemp that have fibers with chemical structures made of cellulose, which are long polymers of glucose molecules.

These types of materials are perfectly fine to clean in your washer at home because the cellulose fibers are polar, and therefore hydrophilic, or water loving.

This quality allows these types of materials to absorb and release water without any lasting effect on their structure.

Be careful though because high temperatures both with washing and drying can potentially warp these materials, but for this reason many clothing manufacturers pre-shrink thread so you don’t have to worry about it.

Protein based fibers like silk and wool are a totally different story.

These materials have polar and nonpolar sections arranged in tube-like structures which make the inside hydrophilic, but the outside hydrophobic.

These exteriors are excellent for light exposure to water like when it rains because it rolls right off.

But when things really get wet your garment is in big trouble, because water can eventually break through into the hydrophilic interior, where it sticks around.

This is why wool takes so long to dry once it gets fully soaked.

These water molecules cause the interior of the fiber structure to swell.

And to accommodate that swelling, the exterior of the fiber has to contract lengthwise.

When the water eventually evaporates, the fibers remain in this shortened configuration—and your favorite sweater is now misshapen or way too small.

There are a couple ways to get around this.

You can buy specially treated wool or wool blended with synthetic fibers specifically designed to withstand cleaning in a washer.

However, if you do have untreated wool, wash it by hand with wool friendly detergent.

Regular detergent interacts with the hydrophobic surface, helping transport water into it, causing damage to its structure.

A low temperature, short wash time, and mild detergent all help to reduce stress on fibers to limit damage.

Just make sure to reshape your clothes when you lay them to dry or the wool may dry misshapen.

And then, there’s dry cleaning, which saves your clothes from any contact with water.

When looking at the label, if you read “dry clean”, it’s actually more of a recommendation than a necessity.

It’s when it says “dry-clean only”, that you should do so because these are the clothes that prone to shrinkage.

Contrary to what you might think dry cleaning isn’t dry at all.

Instead of using water, this method of cleaning relies on chemicals like perchloroethylene, or “perc” for short.

This chlorinated molecule can’t penetrate protein based fibers, so it doesn’t cause any shrinkage.

When you bring your clothes to the cleaners, they’re cleaned with a mixture of perc and detergent, both of which have specific purposes.

Perc is an oil loving, nonpolar solvent so it does a great job of lifting non-polar stains from fabric, like that sweat ring around your collar, or that greasy spill from lunch.

The detergent on the other hand, helps lift any water soluble stains that the perc can’t interact with.

After a final perc rinse, the laundry gets spun and tumbled dried, all within the same machine.

But a word of caution: Some synthetic fibers can actually dissolve in dry cleaning solvents, so if you see this symbol, believe it!

By keeping your eyes on the materials that your clothes are made of, you’re also keeping an eye on their unique chemical interactions.

Plants and synthetics are good to go in water.

But protein based, animal fibers will always need some special attention and maybe even