If you’ve had a mobile massage at home, there’s a good chance your towels have ended up with some oil stains on them. It comes with the territory. Most clients use their own towels to drape over themselves during the session, and massage oil — while perfectly fine for skin — does have a habit of clinging to fabric.
I hear the same thing fairly often. Usually it starts with something like “I’m not complaining, but I just can’t get the oil out of my towels.” And I get it. Oil stains are stubborn, and if you’ve tried a regular wash and not seen much improvement, it’s easy to assume the towel is just done for.
It isn’t. And I can prove it, because I’ve taken clients’ towels home and washed them myself on more than one occasion.
Here’s exactly what I do.
The thing most people are missing: oxygen-based cleaner
The key ingredient is something called sodium percarbonate. You’ll find it in products like Vanish Oxy Action, OxiClean, or most supermarket own-brand oxy cleaners. It’s widely available and not expensive. If you check the label, sodium percarbonate should be listed as one of the active ingredients.
Regular detergent on its own isn’t really designed to break down oil. It’ll shift surface dirt without much trouble, but massage oil is a different problem. Sodium percarbonate releases oxygen when it hits water, and that oxygen is what actually breaks down the oil molecules at a fibre level. It’s a more thorough clean than detergent alone.
What to do the first time
The first wash after heavy oil contact is where most people go wrong. They use a standard amount of product and expect it to do the job. For really oil-saturated towels, you need more than you’d think — roughly one to two cups of the oxy cleaner, not the usual small scoop.
Because you’re using that much, it often won’t fit in the detergent dispenser. That’s fine. Put the powder directly onto the towels before you start the wash, and loosely wrap or fold the towel around it so it stays in contact with the fabric rather than just falling to the bottom of the drum.
Load and temperature matter more than people realise
Two things people consistently get wrong with towels: overloading, and washing temperature.
On load size, your machine should be roughly half to three-quarters full of towels. Less than that and the towels just slosh around without building up enough friction to actually clean. More than that and they can’t move properly either. It sounds straightforward, but most people either pack the drum too full or throw in a single item and wonder why it hasn’t come out clean.
On temperature, 60°C is a solid starting point for oily towels. If the fabric can handle it and the staining is heavy, 90°C will do a more thorough job — but be aware that some towels will shrink at that heat, so check the care label first and make a call based on how badly stained they are.
What to expect
After that first wash, most towels will come out looking around 90% better. Often that’s enough. If there’s still a faint trace of staining, a second wash with the same approach will usually get them looking as good as new.
After that initial deep clean, you don’t need to keep using large amounts. Half a cup of oxy cleaner added to each subsequent wash is enough to keep them clean and prevent oil from building up again.
A few extra notes
It’s worth mentioning that this approach works best when you’re washing towels fairly soon after they’ve been used. The longer oil sits in fabric, the more it oxidises and sets. If you know a towel has had oil on it, don’t leave it in a pile for a week before washing.
Also, while I’ve focused on towels here, the same method works for any fabric that’s picked up oil during a massage — sheets, pillowcases, clothing. The principles are the same: oxy cleaner, right temperature, right load size.
Why am I even writing about this?
Partly because it comes up so often, and partly because I think it’s genuinely useful. A lot of my work is mobile, which means clients use their own towels. The last thing I want is for someone to end up with a stained towel they can’t wash clean and feel awkward about mentioning it.
If anything, I hope this reassures you that it’s very fixable. A bit of the right product, the right temperature, and a properly loaded machine is usually all it takes.
If you’ve got a specific question or you’ve tried this and something hasn’t quite worked, feel free to get in touch. Happy to help.
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