Why You Should Wash Your New Clothes

Lice Clinics of America Connecticut Lice Treatment

Shopping, the great American pastime. If you’re a careful shopper, you’ll try all your options before making a final decision. The bad news is, most likely, so did countless other people before you. What lies within the weaves can be transmitted from host to host. Lice, while they can’t live long without an organic host, can attach to the natural fibers and be passed to you. Gasp! Are you bringing home an unwanted guest with those new jeans?

As Donald Belsito, a professor of dermatology at Columbia University Medical Center in New York told the WSJ, dressing rooms are breeding grounds for bacteria, lice and fungus. “I have seen cases of lice that were possibly transmitted from trying on in the store, and there are certain infectious diseases that can be passed on through clothing,” he tells the WSJ. There is no way to know who has been in those clothes before you, and further, where the clothes themselves come from. So once you’ve made your purchase, be sure to wash it well in warm or hot water to ensure that’s all you bring home!