Should jeans be washed? Student wears unwashed denim for 15 months to answer the ultimate question

How long have you worn a pair of jeans without washing them? A week? A month? Maybe a few months if you really stretched it? For Josh Le, a student at the University of Alberta, the answer was an astonishing 15 months, and his story had everyone talking. After wearing the same pair of raw denim jeans every day for over a year, he had them tested for bacteria. The results shocked even him. "You break it in, and it becomes a second skin. There's no other pair like it in the world. You wear it like a canvas and paint it with your life," Le explained, as per ABC News. 

It all started in September 2009 when Le invested $165 in a pair of raw denim Nudie Jeans: a completely untreated type of denim designed to mold to the wearer over time. While sitting in a textiles class, Le’s curiosity was piqued when his professor, Rachel McQueen, mentioned her research on textiles and bacteria, as per the Toronto Star. That's when he decided to hold off on washing them, wearing them daily until December 2010. "I half-jokingly said we should do a bacterial analysis on them, and that's where it sort of started," he said. Over the course of 15 months, the jeans evolved alongside Le’s daily routine.

The once-dark denim lightened, creases formed and holes emerged near the pockets. "Wearing a pair of jeans every day, for one thing, it takes away the stress of what to wear in the morning. Sometimes I even slept in them to help accelerate the fading process," Le admitted. He also documented the entire process via a YouTube video, showcasing the unique wear patterns forming on his jeans. But maintaining a laundry-free lifestyle wasn’t always easy. He carried paper towels to dab out stains. "One time I was eating grapefruit, I'd finished the meaty part and was drinking juice and spilled it on my jeans," Le recalled. "My heart stopped for a second."

Despite these close calls, he managed to keep odors at bay, or so he thought. After seven months, he noticed a stench and found a strange solution. "I threw it in the freezer, and magically when it came out, it was odourless," he said. Eventually, Le’s professor, McQueen, conducted a bacteria analysis on the jeans before they were finally washed. She found high counts of five different bacteria types, with the highest concentrations in the crotch area, 10,000 units per square centimeter. However, she emphasized that the bacteria were normal skin microbes and did not pose a health risk. "I was blown away. I thought there would be a lot more bacteria than was present," Le admitted. "It sort of shows that it is OK to not wash jeans."

A second test after just 13 days of wear post-wash showed nearly identical bacteria levels, suggesting that frequent washing might not be as necessary as people think. McQueen, while fascinated by the findings, still recommended a more conventional laundry schedule for most people. "I would suggest washing your jeans more frequently. But that is more for control over the odor," she noted. "If people are just being lazy, perhaps odor could become a problem, and they may lose friends rather than gain friends." For Le, the experience was a social experiment, too. "Some people really liked it, but some people were completely grossed out by it,” he admitted. "I was able to meet a lot more people and have a lot of good conversations. It was like, 'Hey, nice jeans.'"