Here's a story about my pants

When I was home a month ago, I bought a new pair of black jeans from Macy's. I don't do any clothes shopping during the school year because 1) selection here is limited to JC Penny, a place called Younkers, and Target, and 2) taking time to go shopping, even once every few months, feels like an indulgence. (Ain't nobody got time fo' dat is basically my mantra in med school).

Anyways, before I wore the jeans, I washed them. But here's my mistake: I accidentally dumped them in with my other black clothes. When I took everything out of the dryer, there was a weird, sulfurous, acrid smell. I had my roommate sniff a shirt and from a foot away, she recoiled in horror. The entire load of laundry smelled nostril-burning awful.

My roommate suggested that I accidentally got some chemical on my clothes while in lab (I had done lots of slide staining that week). It was a possibility (could hematoxylin/eosin really smell THAT bad?) I thought back to my black cloth handbag that I threw in. Maybe it wasn't meant to be washed.

I sniffed through all of my clothes and found the smell especially strong emanating from my black jeans. A google search told me that the dyes used in processing the dark wash often lends a strong smell that persists through washes.  Bingo.

So I soaked the jeans in my sink in a mixture of laundry detergent and baking soda overnight. I handwashed them the next day. Sniff test: still bad, but not disgustingly so. Another overnight soak, but this time with vinegar, plus a machine wash. Sniff test: faintly smelly, but now more chemical than sulfurous. Wearable, but only for short amounts of time. God forbid I wear them on a road trip or otherwise confined space.

I had to wash my other clothes three times in the washing machine before I could even bear to pull one of the shirts over my head. They're pretty faded and beat up at this point, but my determination to rid the stench was too strong. I still smell the lingering smell of chemicals mingled with Tide sometimes (just randomly--in my room, at school), and it makes me sort of sick.

Lesson learned: when you buy new black jeans, always wash them separately. Or better yet, do the baking soda/vinegar pre-treatment first.