How to Wash Merino Wool (Or Rather: How to Mostly Not)
G'day. I've just landed back in Austin after fourteen days in Italy and Ireland with one carry-on bag and three shirts, and the question I get asked more than any other isn't about colour, or fit, or price. It's this: how do you actually wash the stuff?
Fair question. And the honest answer is the one nobody selling clothes wants to give you, because it's bad for business: mostly, you don't. Or at least, not nearly as often as you think.
Why Merino doesn't need washing the way cotton does
Cotton and synthetics hold onto odour because the fibre itself doesn't do anything to the bacteria that cause it — it's just a passive surface. Merino is different. The fibre has a natural, waxy coating and a structure that resists the bacteria that make you smell in the first place. That's not a marketing line, it's the same reason a Merino sheep can stand out in a paddock in Boorowa through all weather without smelling of anything but grass. We've bred for it since 1880, though not on purpose — the sheep just needed a coat that worked in every condition, and it turns out that's also exactly what you want in a shirt.
So when you wear a Bruce to dinner and hang it up afterwards, it isn't sitting there quietly building up odour the way a cotton shirt would. Give it a night on a hanger, ideally somewhere with a bit of airflow, and it resets. I proved this the hard way this July — two Bruces and a Cassius tee, fourteen days, zero washes, and I stood next to my own family at a wedding in a 700-year-old castle in Kilkea smelling like nothing more offensive than airport coffee. I wrote the whole account up here if you want the details.
So when do you actually wash it?
When it's visibly dirty, or when you can genuinely smell something after a good airing. That's it. For most people wearing a shirt in normal rotation — a few times a week, not back-to-back in a hot kitchen — that works out to something like every 4 to 6 wears rather than every single one. Everyone's chemistry and climate is different, so treat that as a guide, not a rule.
When you do wash it, here's how
Merino is a durable fibre, but it's a natural protein fibre, and it doesn't love heat or agitation. A few rules:
Cold water, always. Hot water and Merino is how you end up with a shirt built for a smaller man. Cold protects the fibre structure.
Machine wash on delicate, or hand wash. Either is fine. If you're using a machine, put it on the gentlest cycle available and consider a mesh bag if you're washing it with anything that has zips or buttons that could snag the fibre.
A wool-specific detergent, or none at all. Regular detergent is often built to strip oils out of synthetic fabric, which is the opposite of what you want on wool. A dedicated wool wash, or even just cold water on its own, does the job.
Never wring it. Press the water out gently instead. Wringing distorts the fibre and you'll lose the shape you paid for.
Lay flat to dry. Don't hang a wet Merino shirt on a hanger — the weight of the water will stretch it out of shape at the shoulders. Lay it on a towel, roll the towel up to draw out the excess water, then lay it flat somewhere out of direct sun until it's dry.
Skip the dryer and the iron. Heat is the enemy here. If you need to freshen a shirt up, a light steam or just hanging it in a steamy bathroom does more good than an iron ever will.
The bit people don't expect
The thing that surprises people most isn't the washing instructions, it's how little they end up using them. I've had customers write in a few months after their first order, slightly bemused, to say they've washed the shirt twice since buying it and it still looks and smells the way it did on day one. That's not a fluke. It's the fibre doing exactly what it was bred to do, a long way from any paddock.
If you want the fuller story on why the fibre behaves this way — not just how to wash it, but what's actually happening at a structural level — I've put together a short Field Guide that covers it in four short chapters. Worth a read if you're the type who likes to know why something works, not just that it does.
Warm regards, and safe travels with whatever you're packing next.
— Jock Merriman, Founder · 5th generation
