After I get out of the bath, the first thing I do is press my whole face into the towel and take two or three deep breaths.
Then I lift my face and dry my body from the top down.
The towel is IKEUCHI ORGANIC’s Organic Air Premium Bath Towel, an Imabari towel made in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture.
The first time I used it, the deep breath was deliberate. I wanted to take in the feel and scent of a new towel. Since then, breathing into it has become natural. Now I repeat the gesture almost without thinking.
Drying myself after a bath used to be one of those routine tasks that held little meaning for me. Drying my hair was the same. A towel was simply a tool for taking water off my body, and I rarely gave it any more attention than that.
That purpose has not changed. Nor are there fewer things to do after a bath.
What changed was not the length of the time, but where my attention went.
When I press the towel to my face, I find myself breathing deeply. As I pay attention to its texture, the tension held in my shoulders from work eases, and I feel my body gently loosen. For a moment I am not thinking about anything else. I simply let out a breath.
It is a small response I notice in my own body when I use this particular towel.
I do not think the way I dry myself has changed dramatically. But with my previous towels, the motion felt more like wiping. With this one, I naturally pat the fabric lightly against my skin.
I never set out to change the way I used a towel. Still, as I kept using it, the movement serving the same purpose shifted slightly.
When I use another bath towel, I notice not only the texture but also the difference in weight. Before, it would not have occurred to me to compare the weight of one towel with another.
Several years have passed since I began using this bath towel.
It feels softer than it did at first. Rather than retaining the firmness of something new, it has relaxed into a slightly limp, gauze-like softness.
Its absorbency feels unchanged to me. When I press it against my body after a bath, it still draws the water away readily.
After washing it, I hold the towel by one end and shake it up and down several times before hanging it to dry. The loops of the pile stand more fully, and once the towel is dry, it feels softer to the touch. This is a gesture that settled into my routine as I continued using the same towel.
The texture has changed, but the habit of pressing my face into it and breathing deeply has not.
IKEUCHI ORGANIC, the maker of this towel, was founded in 1953 and is an Imabari towel manufacturer headquartered in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture. Guided by the philosophy of “maximum safety and minimum environmental impact,” the company plans, manufactures, and sells organic textiles.
IKEUCHI ORGANIC sets three conditions for the cotton it defines as organic: organic cultivation, non-genetically modified seeds, and fair trade. Its approach to towel making considers not only the finished material, but also where that material comes from.
Through a green power certification system, the electricity used by its weaving factory is matched indirectly with 100 percent wind-generated power. This is why IKEUCHI ORGANIC’s towels are referred to as “Towels Woven by the Wind.”
The company is not concerned only with how a towel feels to the touch. Minimizing the environmental impact of making it is also part of its guiding philosophy.
Living with this towel has not changed my life as a whole. I do not think it has changed the way I see my other belongings, either.
What changed was one brief part of the time after a bath.
In the middle of an action that once held no meaning for me, there is now a moment when I notice texture and take a breath. That small difference is what living with this towel has come to mean to me.
There is no need to buy something new to try this. With a towel already at hand, notice the first moment it touches your skin: what it feels like, and how your hand moves.
Tomorrow, when I step out of the bath, I will press my whole face into the towel again. I will take two or three deep breaths, then begin drying myself as usual.