Any therapist has to love sheets that feel like silk, breathe so they are not too hot, not too cold, happily opaque and are so light it takes 10 sets to fill a washing machine. Yes, they are wonderful. A therapist’s sheet dream.
I purchased my first four sets of bamboo sheets recently and fell in awe. These are the massage sheets I always wanted. Finally, a set that didn’t weigh too much, didn’t wrinkle too much and did the job! The added green factors – renewable resource, less damaging to farmsoils and naturally anti-microbial are a huge plus!
And I got a deal. Normally about $50 for a set including bottom sheet, top sheet and face cover, I found some on clearance for half that. Awesome. Later, I would find out why they were on clearance.
But the moment I took them out of the package, the honeymoon began. Clients loved them. Silky, lightweight, warming but not too heavy, the utmost everything one would want upon a massage table. As much as clients love flannels, these sheets starting getting requests!
Then, came the rub. After two, maybe three washings, tiny little pinholes popped out of the fabric. Enough to make me wonder if I had dropped a safety pin in the wash. I started flipping sheets one end to the other, trying to avoid the little pinholes revealing the table warmer pad underneath. Clients tend to be picky about details, figuring that the devil is in them. If a therapist has pinhole sheets, what else is not worth caring about? Washing hands?
I sighed, a long deep, zen-breath sigh. These little darlings were way too fragile for my practice. I have some flannel sheets that have lasted more than 5 years – I keep them in the back of the linen closet because the elastic is gone, but I can use them without fear if I run out of the newer ones. Sturdy and very comfy, flannels are the bomb.
These 100-percent bamboo sheets were headed for the recycle bin. I used a few of them for quick sports massages at the Orange County AIDS Walk, where folks didn’t seem to mind, but after that the bamboo sheets were retired.
Yet, I would love to get them back. Have any therapists tried bamboo blends? Different thread counts? Found a solution to the pinholes? Please let me know!
Figure bamboo is here to stay, despite its eccentricities. Some new tastes are too hard to give up.
I really liked this article. Massage supplies are often so expensive that any “buyer beware” information is very much appreciated! I especially loved the part about the “Devil in the details” and fears about “what else” you might/might not be doing in view of the ghetto/pinhole sheets
Lynna: Yes, it makes sense for us’ns’to let each other know when something is not the great solution we might think it is. Well, I bit the credit card and ordered half-cotton and half-bamboo yarn sheets. They just don’t have the luxe thing, though….
Great information, I to am looking for the luxurious long life sheets for my practice.Thanks for the trial and results information.I would like to hear more on where to buy the best practice sheets.
To Update, I am now trying half-cotton, half-bamboo sheets. They seem superior in feel to all-cotton, b8ut not as sillky as 100% bamboo…Now to see if they can survive the ewashing machine…