Post # 42!!!!

Hello,

My name is bwings and I'm a hoopy frood who always know where their towel is!

A towel, you see is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have.

"Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it around your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a bush, but very, very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough. 

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with."

Douglas Adams - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Obviously, being the 42nd entry and my being a hippie nerd I simply had to make a H2G2 reference in todays entry. What better topic than towels? I certainly know no eco-friendly space travel fuel remedies!

I am unaware of what sort of towels I have, inexpensive and in their first 6 or 8 washes they shed a lot of blue! In fact the first time Asmerus got out of the shower and dried himself he shouted out, "Can I have a different towel? Preferably one that doesn't make me look like grover!!!"  But I digress.

I'm certain we will someday replace these towels, as towels go, and when I do so I intend to make a more eco-friendly selection. Most towels are made of conventional cotton, it is this cotton that brings about 25% of the insecticide in the world. The dyes in these towels are often derived from petroleum, polluting our waters and drying our face. Organic cotton, hemp or bamboo towels with plant-based or low-impact dyes are a far more eco-friendly choice. Each has their positives and negatives that accompany them.

For instance, bamboo will grow quickly and with little maintenance. It doesn't require pesticides or fertilizers and when cut needn't be replanted as it will simply grow back. Bamboo made towels are highly absorbent and studies have proven them to be 60% more absorbent than cotton towels. Bamboo towels also have a natural silk quality to them making them comparable to cashmere and far softer than cotton towels. They also have their own unique anti-bacteria and bacteriostasic bio-agent making them naturally anti-bacterial. They are 100% biodegradable and quick drying. If used in hot climate it will keep your skin cool and in the cold will keep you warm. They have natural UV properties, anti-static properties and are odor resistant. However making them into fiber for clothing is a massive chemical bath! There are sources available that have more eco-conscious fiber production but they can involve a steeper price tag.

Organic cotton towels would maintain all the qualities of regular cotton towels except without the pesticides.

Hemp towels are durable, absorbent and will withstand far more washings than cotton. They are also far more resistant to mildew than cotton towels. Because of hemps durability the towel will hold it's shape better than other material and won't stretch out. If dyed it will retain the color a lot longer and better than most any other fabric. This is due to it's porous quality, in addition the pores will allow the hemp to breath and keep you cool in the heat while the absorptive quality will keep you warm in the cold. Unfortunately they aren't sold in standard retail stores and so might be harder to find. But with the invention of teh internetz I'm sure a quick google for a local store would turn up something in your area.

Personally I'm sold on the organic bamboo towels and given that my new bathroom lacks a fan I am often growling when I pick up a new towel and find it already stinks of musk! There is nothing I hate more, when it comes to bathing, than coming out smelling clean and drying off with a stinky towel! To me the musky odour of a dirty towel bares resemblence to cat urine and that is a disgusting thought to run through your head after getting out of the shower. I won't even put my kitty litter in the bathroom. I have always kept it tucked in the back of the storage closet and refused to ever move into an apartment that didn't have this option. So I believe I shall venture out early for a few of these bamboo towels. One or two at first to see what I think of them. If they turn out then I may donate the cotton ones to my kitties for their bedding and dry off in anti-bacterial, odor resistent material.

I didn't think I'd be switching quite so quickly but my research has changed my mind before. As Douglas would say,

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."

That is all for now, from your neighborhood hippie mom.