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Where did you buy your bamboo bath towels? I'd like to check some out. Thank you!

Here you go.

http://www.cb2.com/search.aspx?query=towels

Thanks!

Thanks, Doug! Miss Sassy, you can also follow the link in the first sentence to find the towels.

Are you sure these towels are as soft, thick, and durable as the probable gold standard, Restoration Hardware bath towels? Those towels are a hard act to follow especially with a non-cotton fiber.

I find the Restoration Hardware bath towels to be terrible!!! We bought $300 worth of them (as someone gave us a gift certificate) and they felt great, soft and thick. I was in dismay when after the first use, the first one was all stained. I was upset at my wife, thinking she got some makeup crap on it, only to find out that mine suffered the same fate after my first shower. We also got a floor mat from the same collection and it has also stained from water and regular hand soap drops.

I have some Nicole Miller towels that I really like and don't discolor like this Restoration Hardware crap.

I have Ralph Lauren towels that are about 15 years old and in nearly perfect condition. Mind you, I use a towel a few times before washing it and I don't have kids, pets or a wife (thank Heavens.) I bought the towels at TJMaxx at a very fair price. You can still find them there.

To find a good, long lasting towel, just touch it. The more you handle textiles, the faster you will be able to tell the good from the bad. It has also been my experience that the very best towels are American made.

Restoration Hardware has great towels and they STILL don't tell their customers how to launder them. There are so many complaints about the stains and discoloration after washing them. The towels have to be laundered with a certain type of detergent. Only then will they keep their original color. I don't know why RH won't make a special effort not to tell customers this instead of dealing with returns,

BTW, you can return any purchase to RH, no questions asked, no matter how long ago you purchased. My advice it to take the towels back and if you don't have the receipt you get a store credit.

thanks anne. I'll look into it. However at first we followed the washing instruction (didn't mention a special detergent, which wouldn't be a big selling point for them) and still they lost their color. They still feel good (though the Nicole Miller Penthouse towels absorb better than the RH ones) but they are embarrassing rags to look at.

Since you had such a poor experience with the RH towels, I would follow Anne's advice and return them. I have had the towels for at least 8 years and have never had a discoloration or any other problem with them. I don't know about the detergents, but I have been using "All", perhaps that's on their approved list anyway.

Anne, do you know what detergent to use?
We just bought several towels from RH and I love them. The dry so well and are soft enough. I've had softer but they would be drenched before I was anywhere near dry.
FWIW, we washed them before using them with Tide Free and they seem fine.

Love the weight and heft of the RH towels, but have had the exact same problem with color loss! I was disappointed to send in a complaint email and receive absolutely no response. Thanks for the tip on their return policy -- I will certainly be taking advantage of that.

some interesting info on bamboo:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/05/garden/05garden.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Even an eco-friendly material can still be turned into a non-eco-friendly product. I love bamboo fabrics, but I'd like to see some kind of certification label to show that the manufacturer hasn't processed their raw materials in a wasteful or polluting way.

I think the greenest towels are the ones made domestically- the U.S. for most of us. That's why I only buy Ralph Lauren towels. Plus, as mentioned before, they last FOREVER. My current bath towels, which I use daily, are still perfect after 10 years.

I have some RL bath mats and they have lasted at least 6 or 7 years with regular washing. I'll have to get some towels!

I've been using the CB2 bamboo bath towels for about three months now. Although they are amazingly soft (which isn't all positive - a little texture is great), I find that they have continued to give off smalls tufts of lint that get stuck in my beard among other places. I'm assuming that after I've washed them 15 times this won't be a problem, but I'm pretty annoyed right now. Absorbency is also definitely lower than cotton, (and consequently) it takes a bit longer to dry, meaning it sometimes gets musty.

A big positive is that the CB2 rusty brown color is stunning. I've never seen a more beautiful towel and the color is lasting well, if not improving.

I'm still deciding, but so far it's a bit of a mixed bag...

"among other places", hee hee

Has anyone thought of LLBean towels? They have great home products (just bought a great comforter for a great price!). I have towels from there I bought before my freshman year in college, and that was 10 years ago and I still use them and they look great... made it through 4 years of college, 3 city moves and I love them. I have always washed & dried them like normal.

heads up on RH's new return policy, they'll only give store credit or exchange for anything purchased/used for longer than 90 days.. i mean.. you can still get your towels exchanged for new ones if you'd like.. but don't abuse the policy. they used to have a no holds barred policy like nordstroms, and people kept abusing it -- "upgrading" their towels and sheets and whatnot.. so now it's 90 days. do it enough and you'll be banned from ever shopping/returning at RH ever again.