Accueil / Home

  ACTMD - Association Canadienne des thérapeutes en Médecines Douces
CATCM - Canadian Association of Therapists in Complementary Medicine

ACDM - Association Canadienne des Massothérapeutes  et Autres thérapeutes en Médecines Alternatives

Accueil / Home

 

 

 

Article du mois
Article of the month

 

 

MAINTENANCE OF MASSAGE'S SHEETS
By: Jocelyn Vincent, translated by CATCM's team

This article has for object to answer a question that is frequently sent to us by our members: " What is the most effective way to maintain massage's sheets? "

The cost of purchase of the bedding for a massage therapist is not negligible and a good maintenance of these is essential to keep them as long as possible in good condition.

You will find below some tricks and shrewdness to have cleans sheets throughout their life cycle.

The choice of the fabric
A quality sheet will last a lot longer. Repeated washings create a very big tension on the fibers of fabric and can cause tears on sheets of average quality after a few months of use.

The " cotton" should be banned, because it absorbs too easily the oil in its fibers what makes it easy to stain.

Choose a fabric that contains the most thread by inches possible. The more a tissue is weaved tightened, the more it will be resistant and the more it will keep its shape. It is easy to see in the bare eye the number of thread by inches. If you look at a fabric and that you can see small holes between every crossing fiber, it means that this tissue is of lesser quality.

Percale, 180 threads by inches (or more) is ideal. The fiber of Percale is tear and spots resistant. Furthermore, Percale's sheet will tend to keep its shape rather than to stretch everywhere

Color of sheets
Remember that dark colors let appear the oily marks more than pale colors.

It's better to favor colors as off-white or beige that are available any time.

The white should be banned, since it yellows quickly in contact with the oil.

Rotation of sheets
With the washing, the color of the sheets tans to become blurred. It can be therefore a good idea to make the rotation of your sheets to avoid having dark and pale sheets. Make sure first that they are well dry, if not, molds risk forming on your sheets. As result of small hole in sheets, as moth-eaten.

Choice of the oil
The choice of the oil is essential to preserve your sheets in good condition.

Favor hypoallergenic oil that does not stain. (You will find this information on the label of the bottle)

Warning: The almond oil is probably the one that stains most. The oily spots of almond oil are very difficult to remove and what's more they tend to give a rancid smell to your sheets.

Washing of the sheets
Always wash them in hot water. In the first place, that allows disinfecting the sheet, but more, to migrate the oil contained on the tissue in the water. Cold water, on the contrary, fixes the oil in the fiber of tissue that's when spots appears.

Rinse in warm water. Most of the washing machines do not offer the choice of wash cycle in hot water and rinse cycle in warm water. It is necessary to be attentive and to go to change the selector during the rinsing. This step is essential to allow the oil contained in the soapy water to go out of the tub. A rinsing in cold water will tend to glue the residues of oil in the fiber of sheets.

Choice of the soap
Privilege liquid soap to powder. Dissolution is complete and especially more uniform. It's better to put sheets after the soap to allow this one to well divide up in the water of the tub. You can, for example to begin filling up the washing machine, put your soap and when the tub is 1/3 full, add your sheets.

All liquid soaps can manage to clean sheets. Personally, I choose an antibacterial grease remover soap. All the soaps are grease removers, but certain products are more specific for grease.

Cost by load
The approximate cost of one wash load, including its drying is about 5$ (while considering the cost of the energy in Quebec in 2005 - 5cents/kw)

In conclusion
The purchase of qualities sheets and an adequate washing allow massage therapist to preserve its sheets a lot much longer.

Someone will may say that it is not ecological to wash in hot water, to those I say: What is the most ecological, to throw sheets in a dump because they are too stained and to buy quite new of it who had to undergo many transformations for the weaving mill and the tint without counting the petroleum to consume for its transportation and its packaging or to wash in the hot water?

On its Web site, the ACDM gives to its members a reserved section, containing a multitude of information to help them in the exercise of their profession.

Jocelyn Vincent is a massage therapist and president of the ACTMD

 

 

 

 

© Copyright ACTMD