Sure denim heads suggest wearing your denim for 6 months at least so that they mould to your body and develop natural wear and fading just by differential rubbing off of the indigo.
But most people are not interested in sick fades and comparing and contrasting how your wallet or mobile phone creates an imprint in your pockets.
Besides, you are not going to get sick fades with most pre-washed denim because the jeans were not created by some reclusive Japanese denim wizard who lives in a cave and builds 3 pairs of jeans per week from Okayama-loomed denim made from a mix of Zimbabwe-American cotton mixed with sugar cane woven on the turn of the century narrow shuttle looms and indigo rope dyes, dipped in the Sea of Japan and left to dry on a rock.
Most people are happy to preserve the dark colour of their denim as long as possible.
So from a practical sense, you should wash your denim.
Have you ever worn anything for 6 months without washing?
How often do you wash your underwear? Kinda regularly, right? Why? Sure, for cleanliness reasons. What does your denim cover? Yes, your legs but more importantly YOUR ASS. So you change your underwear because of your ass and crotch sweat but you don’t think that this might affect your denim? Think again.
Another key point, wearing denim (especially raw denim) accounts for more colour loss than washing. Just look at where you leave raw indigo stains everywhere you sit and on the leather of your boots if you don’t believe me.
Dirt, dead skin, sweat and body oils can degrade the fibres too. So you have to balance wearing and washing.
So to create a balance between preserving the pristineness of your denim, preserve the integrity of the fabric, allow for some differential fading and to not cause people to pass from the stank of a pair of denim worn continuously for 6 months, here is a practical plan:
Wash your denim every 4 to 6 weeks or more frequently if they get quite dirty or smelly.
If you can do it, avoid using a washing machine at all.
Hand wash your denim in lukewarm water using Woolite or another hand wash, gentle care detergent that is designed for fine washables and for preserving colours. Woolite Extra Dark. There you go. That is all you need. Or Dr Bronner’s.
Turn your denim inside out, soak in the water then add the detergent. Agitate your denim in the water. You can add some vinegar and salt on the first wash to help set and preserve the colour. Leave them to soak for between 20 to 60 minutes. Don’t squeeze the excess water out of them. Hang/air dry them. You may even want to throw them on when they are still damp to get them to mould to you and make it easier to stretch them out a bit. Pre-washed/sanforized denim won’t shrink but a tiny bit and when you wear them they will stretch out again.
You can use this method after your initial soaking and shrinking of raw denim too.
Ok, so you are not that dedicated to handwash your denim. No problem, you can still use a washing machine without killing them. AVOID THE DRYER
You can use a washing machine every 4 to 6 weeks without fear.
Like handwashing, turn them inside out. The indigo dye is on the outer fibres so this helps preserve colour.
Wash them on a cold cycle. Use the fine washable or gentlest cycle. Use Woolite or Dr Bronners as indicated above in the handwashing instructions.
If you want to, just let them go through a bit of the spin cycle and pull them out before it is done.
Hang dry as per above.
Too much spinning in other cycles can lead to strange crease lines going down the leg of the denim and then that gets set in by the hot wash temp and hot drying cycle.
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