The Ultimate Washing Guide for Juniper's Silk Pillowcases
Short answer: wash your Juniper silk pillowcase about every two weeks, either by hand in a fabric bag or in the machine on a gentle cycle with no spin, always separately from other laundry. Skip the tumble dryer entirely, and iron on low heat if you want that crisp, hotel-fresh finish.
How often to wash it
Washing silk too often actually works against you: it wears down the fibres and reduces the softness you bought it for. Every two weeks is the right rhythm for a pillowcase in normal nightly use.
Machine or hand wash
Both work, as long as you're gentle about it. In the machine, wash it separately from other laundry and make sure there's enough room for it to move freely, never crammed in with a full load. By hand, wash it inside a fabric bag and avoid the spin cycle altogether, since that's where most of the wear happens.
Either way, use a mild detergent made for delicates rather than your everyday one, and skip the bleach and fabric softener: silk doesn't need softening, and bleach damages the fibres outright.
Drying
Never tumble dry a silk pillowcase, it damages the fabric. Let it air dry instead, away from direct sun or a radiator, both of which weaken silk over time.
For that hotel finish
Once it's dry, iron on a low heat setting. It's a small step, but it's what gives silk that crisp, just-checked-into-a-hotel look rather than a slightly rumpled one.
Our pillowcases are Grade 6A mulberry silk at 28 momme, made in Portugal, so a little care goes a long way toward keeping them feeling the way they did on day one.