Every couple of days? Once a week? Every other week? How often you wash your bras is always a hot topic, but what we don’t discuss is what can happen to your bra if you actually don’t wash it at all. You may consider the number of times you wash your bra pretty normal because you don’t necessarily sweat excessively day to day. But sweat isn’t the only contributing factor to all of the nasties that can build up in there if you don’t wash your bra regularly. We thought it’d be interesting to do some investigating into this and of course share it with you. Detective hats on, we’re going in…

Whether you think you sweat or not, oils and bacteria can build up on your skin throughout the day and thus transfer into your bra. I don’t think we need to paint a picture of what can happen if this builds up over weeks – ew. That’s enough in itself to make us want to wash the contents of our underwear draw even if they’re already clean. This can also lead to some funky smells – and no one wants smelly boobs or this smell to rub off onto the rest of their clothes!

We all wear deodorant on a daily basis. It’s one of the nearest things to your pits along with your bra so it’s normal for transfer to occur, especially if sweating. This being said, it can cause some discolouration – which is another reason why you should pop that sucker in the wash at least once a week. Your white or light coloured bras are of course more susceptible so this.

Boob spots? Never! Well, the constant wear of an unwashed bra, with the build-up of skin cells, bacteria and oils could clod your pores across your boobs. This can be a particular problem with sports bras because of the excessive sweat. We’d suggest washing your sports bra after each use to keep those red bumps at bay. Sweat paired with bouncing boobs on material can also lead to nipple chaffing. We wouldn’t wish that on our worst enemy, ouch. There’s only one way to avoid it yes, you guessed it, washing your bra regularly. Even the smallest amount of moisture that gets trapped between dirty fabrics and skin is asking for trouble and if you can prevent it why wouldn’t you?

boob breast pain discomfort

We hope we haven’t grossed you all out too much, I think we’ve even scared ourselves a little bit. All of the above can be prevented by of course making sure your wash your bra often as I’m sure the majority of you do. Are there any other things that can happen that we haven’t mentioned? Pop it in the comments below!

Grace x

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