How to Care For Your Aso-oke

There are so many myths surrounding the use of the Aso-oke fabric. Many even deliberately spread untrue views about this ancient cultural fabric.

Below, I will share with you a few tips on how to care for and maintain your Aso-oke. But before I delved fully into that, let me mention that original Aso-oke fabrics have the capacity to last year if properly maintained.

I therefore implore you to be deliberate with how you maintain your Aso-oke.

1.  Never bleach your Aso-oke, especially the white-colored Aso-oke fabrics. If you’re tempted to remove a stain, just soak in a bowl of warm water with a mild detergent or liquid washing soap for 30 minutes and brush the stain with a soft brush or toothbrush till stains remove completely, dip in cold water to rinse and hang to dry; do not wring.

To clean embellished geles and ipeles, do the same, while focusing on the edges only and gently brushing stains in other parts, minding the embellishments.

2. Original Aso-oke will not bleach when washed so do not dye after washing.

3.  Machine-washing of Aso-oke is not advisable as this tends to cause threads to pull out and alters the nature, especially if it is embellished.

4. To clean fashion pieces like purses, bags, belts, sneakers, slippers and the likes made with Aso-oke, clean with a soft brush dipped in soapy water, after removing dirt and stains, clean with a soft cloth dipped in clean water.

5. To clean clothing items like gowns, agbada, skirts, dresses made with Aso-oke, soak in a tub of warm soapy water (it is advised to use non-bleaching soap such as liquid soap as some detergents contain bleaching agents) for 30 minutes and wash afterwards with bar soap, dip in clean cold water to rinse and hang to dry.

6. After each use of Aso-oke pieces like geles (head-ties), ipeles, filas (caps), leave to dry in a cool dry place, especially if you will not clean after that use. This is in order to eliminate odours caused by sweats.

7. It is advisable to clean Aso-oke pieces almost immediately after stains and dirt get to them as leaving them to stay for a long time before cleaning will cause absorption and cleaning may take more time and energy.

With these pieces of information, you can be sure you will have more use and years before it wears. It is important we according this special fabric the place it deserves in our wardrobes or boxes of clothe because this is how we can get the best of it.