Rayon - Pros / Cons, How-to-care - This is a must read for new owners of Rayon.

Aloha!

Welcome to the unofficial Rayon Aloha Shirt Club. If you're waiting for your first ever Rayon Aloha Shirt, we are excited for you! If you're thinking of buying a Rayon Aloha Shirt, our advice --It's a good idea. 

This is what to expect with your Rayon Aloha Shirt:

Pros:

Absolutely great color quality! Every color can really shine on Rayon. Rayon as a material simply works well with the ink and is able to truly bind with the ink without dulling or diluting the strength of colors. Expect that the colors to last longer than standard cotton.

The Rayon fabric drapes and flows in a natural way that shows beautifully on photos! 

Cons:

Wrinkles. Oh yes, those dreaded wrinkles. Iron on the lowest setting with the shirt inside out. 

Shrinkage. Rayon shrinks no matter how you wash it. NEVER wash it in hot water. High temperatures are the natural enemy of Rayon. The shrinkage mostly happens when the fabric is heated, but even in cold water, it'll shrink some. If you want to wear any of your rayon clothes more than once, never wash it hot. 

Caring for your Rayon clothes is not hard, but it requires some extra efforts. Is it worth it? Absolutely. Can you just dry clean it instead? Even better! But if you rather not make the trip to the dry cleaners, you can just follow the instructions below!

Critical Washing Instructions:

Washing:

COLD WATER ONLY and preferably on gentle. There is no in-between temperature. It is either cold, or dry clean. Anything else will probably make the garment unwearable. Want to wash to achieve a better clean? Then wash it twice, but always in cold water. No point in having clean clothes you can't wear, right? 

Handwashing is the very best as you can be extremely gentle while still achieving a high level of clean. Just don't go stretching the fabric. Luxury materials must be treated accordingly. 

Drying:

Same was washing, NEVER hot. Rayon is never supposed to go in the dryer. In additional to shrinking, it will also wrinkle the material even more than normal. If you can't hang dry somewhere outdoors or in the house, then use the tumble dry with NO HEAT. Again, I mean absolutely no heat. The low setting does not count, it is still too hot. If using a machine to dry, it's going to take a while and quite a bit of electricity. 

Recommended Wash:

Hand wash in the sink with detergent in cold water, no ice needed. Just do the basic wash, rinse it good, and hang it in the bathtub if you have no other place to hang it. Line dry or dry on a rack, please do not use clips as the weight of the fabric plus water will cause it to stretch in that one area. The way it dries is the way it wears. 

Ironing Instructions:

Flip the garment inside out, set the iron on the lowest possible setting. Irons usually have a setting for synthetic or rayon fabrics, so use that. Just an FYI, if you've ironed silk and want to use that setting, please do not. Rayon cannot handle the heat that silk can. Rayon needs a heat setting below silk's setting.  

Storage:

Please hang your now dry and ironed Rayon clothes in your closet. If you decide to fold to store your rayon clothes, just be prepared to iron it before wearing. In some cases, even if you hang it, you'll need to iron a little.