Understanding GSM in towels: Your Guide to Buying the Best Bath Towel

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Shopping for Bath Towels? Stay tuned to learn what GSM means and why it should matter to you when shopping for new towels.
If you’ve ever shopped for towels, you’ve likely seen the term G-S-M. Today we’re going to discuss what G-S-M means and why it’s important when choosing among different brands and towel styles.
Shopping online is the norm, and it certainly is convenient. But good customer service is increasingly rare. That’s why our clients have counted on Fine Linen and Bath since 2004. With complimentary swatches, personalized product recommendations, and expert guidance, we deliver concierge service in an online environment.
We often find ourselves educating our clients about the linen industry. This helps them make the best buying decisions. Today we’re going to be discussing one of the most important factors to consider when shopping for bath and beach towels: grams per square meter, or GSM.
GSM is used as a measure of weight for both cotton and bamboo fabric. The typical GSM range for cotton towels is 300 to 900 GSM. Higher GSM towels are heavier, softer, and more absorbent. In this way, GSM is directly aligned with a towel’s quality, feel, and performance.
Luxury spa and hotel towels, for example, are often made from the highest GSM cotton fabric. These towels are incredibly thick and soft. But they can be challenging to wash at home because they are so heavy.
Understanding the various qualities and benefits of different GSM weights is important. You can then choose a towel that feels great and performs well while being easy to care for.
Let’s take a moment to offer some reference points to help you understand GSM. Think about a lightweight cotton shirt or summer dress. These items would have a GSM in the low to mid-100s. Denim fabric has a GSM somewhere around 400. A heavyweight wool coat or blanket would measure about 700 GSM.
Cotton fabric with higher GSM is denser and has a greater concentration of fibers. This makes it softer and more absorbent. High GSM directly correlates with quality and luxury for bath towels. A high GSM towel will be fluffy, soft, absorbent, and heavy.
A general guideline to GSM ranges in cotton towels breaks down as follows. A 300 to 400 GSM fabric will be lightweight, thinner and coarser like a cotton dish towel.
Here at Fine Linen and Bath, we typically recommend choosing a cotton bath towel of 400 GSM and above. A towel in the 400 to 600 GSM range is considered mid-weight, but still of high quality. These towels offer consistent performance and a wonderful feel at an attractive price. They are soft and absorbent without being too heavy. This means they can air dry relatively quickly, and can easily be washed and dried in a regular load.
A towel of 700 GSM and above is considered a heavy weight. These towels have a sumptuous, extravagant, soft towel feel. They are an investment. A high GSM towel is hefty, highly absorbent, and rich in depth and feel. Because of their weight, towels with high GSM take longer to air dry. They usually require washing in smaller loads or in a load by themselves.
High GSM towels offer another interesting benefit. Their heavy weight makes them better at absorbing dyes during the manufacturing process. This means they can be offered in a wider choice of colors that you won’t find in lighter weight towels. Many clients love incorporating the deep, rich tones as a design element in their bathrooms.
There is no one perfect weight towel for everyone. It all comes down to personal preference. We want you to be absolutely thrilled with the towels you buy from Fine Linen and Bath. That’s why we’ll ask you a series of very specific questions. Along with your towel weight preferences, we inquire about other essential opinions like towel size, feel, color preferences, and price range.
This will help us deliver specific recommendations of which towel manufacturers and styles would be best for you. We’ll even send complementary swatch samples cut from actual towels to help you narrow your choices.
Fine Linen and Bath welcomes you to browse all our luxury towel offerings by visiting our website at flandb.com. Also check out our video on understanding towel sizes, which explains the purpose of various bathroom towels.