We're sorry to break it to you, but if you (like many of us) have never washed your hair scrunchies [1], you might want to add that to your To-Do list ASAP. As '90s babies who are very on board with the comeback of the decade's biggest style trends, some of us have made scrunchies our go-to hair accessory again. You can wear them on your wrist, in your hair, with cute sun dresses [2], when you're working out, and even to bed. So if you've been wearing your scrunchies for a few months weeks, maybe considered washing them. (They probably need it.)

While regular elastic hair ties collect sweat, the extra fabric around scrunchies (aka the scrunchie part) makes for an even greater surface area for sweat and dirt to collect. Needless to say, the leftover water from handwashing your scrunchies might not exactly turn out clear . . .

Just like shirts and pants, the fabric your scrunchies are made of determines how you should wash them. Fabrics like cotton, nylon, spandex, and polyester can all be thrown in the washing machine and washed on the delicate or normal setting with the rest of your clothes. Other fabrics like linen, rayon, and silk should only be hand washed. For the safety of our scrunchies, we decided to handwash them, and the process was so much easier than we'd originally thought it would be.

How to Handwash Your Scrunchies:

1. Fill a large bowl or bucket with warm water and add a few drops of fabric softener or shampoo.
2. Scrub and soak your scrunchies a few times gently by hand.
3. Rinse off your scrunchies in fresh water.
4. Squeeze any excess water out of your scrunchies and lay (or hang) them to dry in a warm, sunny spot like a windowsill for a day.

Now, go forth with all of your '90s chic outfits [3] and the cute (and clean!) scrunchies to match.