Day 19 | Keeping fresh

I've been trying to find out more on how to keep my jeans fresh for longer, without having to wash them. I mean the goal is to wear the jeans for six months without having to wash them, because the raw denim needs good wear first, before it shrinks with the first wash. According toDr.Denim you need to rest your jeans in a plastic bag in the freezer every now and then. This, I've heard, does work to keep the jeansfresh", but not long term.

According to howstuffwork.com: "You are constantly sweating, even though you may not notice it. There are two kinds of sweat glands all over your body -- eccrine and apocrine. The sweat from apocrine glands contains proteins and fatty acids, which make it thick and give it a milky or yellowish colour. This is why underarm stains in clothing appear yellowish. It turns out that sweat itself has no odour. Then why, you may ask, is a sweaty person so smelly? When the bacteria on your skin and hair metabolize the proteins and fatty acids, they produce an unpleasant odour."

That's why I think, it's important to let your jeans get as much "air" as possible when you're not wearing them. The sweat in the denim needs to dry properly every day, otherwise the smell will start. When your jeans have started to become smelly and you're forced to "freeze" them overnight, the sub zero (Celsius) temperatures will not kill the bacteria, but cause them to hibernate. The bacteria will hibernate for some time after you've taken your jeans from the freezer. This "time" allows you to get your jeans dry again, so that when the bacteria "wakes up" from their hibernation, they have nothing to do and the smell should be gone, for a little while longer.