GSM, or grams per square meter, is the measure of the fabric’s weight and directly relates to how soft and absorbent a towel is. GSM is one of the main specifications you’ll see in a towel’s product description and you can think of it like a sheet’s thread count, though not all manufacturers will list it. GSM typically ranges from 300 to 900, and generally speaking, the higher the GSM, the plusher, thirstier and more luxurious the towel will feel.
GSM is to towels what thread count is to sheets
GSM is a little more straightforward than a sheet’s thread count, as you’ll actually be able to immediately feel the difference between a towel with a low GSM and one with a high GSM. “I think bigger is better,” says Deborah Young, assistant chair of textile science at Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles. “It just feels more luxurious. We’ve all felt a cheap towel that we didn’t want to use. It’s practically going bald.” For instance, Brooklinen’s Super-Plush towels, the top pick in my best-in-class towel roundup, has a GSM of 820 and is the thickest and heaviest towel on that list. It’s super-absorbent, too, but because of its density, it takes a little more time to dry than a towel with a lower GSM. But one with a lower GSM can be just as soft and absorbent. Matouk’s Milagro towel has a GSM of 550 and feels incredibly luxurious and thirsty, even though it’s not as thick as the Brooklinen. It dries faster, too.
Although GSM is usually associated with terry-style towels, waffle-weave towels can also list that number. Woven with a raised honeycomb pattern, waffle-weave towels are thinner and faster-drying than terry towels, and those features are reflected in the GSM. Take Hawkins’s waffle-weave towel. It has a GSM of 370, the lowest GSM of the nine out of 18 that list them in my roundup — for comparison, the terry towels have GSMs ranging from 550 to 820 — but thanks to its weave, it’s highly absorbent.
If there’s no GSM, look at the towel’s material
If a towel doesn’t list GSM, take a look at what it’s made of. Just as in sheeting, the fiber used in a towel will also matter. As Preeti Arya, assistant professor of textile development and marketing at Fashion Institute of Technology, points out, “absorbency is the property of the fiber.” When it comes to towels, Arya says that cellulosic fibers like cotton, linen, and hemp will be the most absorbent, and out of all of them, “cotton is the king of absorbency.”
Looking for long-staple cotton, which I recommend you do when choosing bed sheets, is also a good idea when shopping for towels, as it will be more durable and softer than regular cotton varieties. Many of the picks in my round-up of the best towels are made from Egyptian, Turkish, or Supima cotton, all superior options that promise a soft hand feel and great absorbency.
… or for terms like “zero-twist” or “low-twist”
You might also come across the terms “zero-twist” and “low-twist” loops in the descriptions of more high-end towels. Twist refers to how the fibers are made into yarns — short-staple cotton requires more twisting than long-staple cotton, resulting in a rougher feel — but it can also refer to how the yarns are woven into the base of the towel. In a zero-twist towel, long-staple cotton yarns are woven through the base of the towel into loops (like the pile on a carpet), which have more surface area and therefore contribute to how plush, fluffy, and absorbent the towel will be. In high-twist towels, which are typically made with short-staple cotton, the yarns are twisted out from the base, resulting in twists that are stubbier. High-twist towels tend to shed more, too, due to the inferior nature of the cotton fibers. But if a towel doesn’t tell you how it’s made and instead lists its GSM, the GSM will be enough for you to judge its quality.
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