Yes, if the problem is a musty towel. We bought an Onsen bath towel ourselves in October 2018, about $50, because our terry towels went musty in a dry Colorado house when they did not dry all the way. Chip notices that smell immediately, and a clean person plus a musty towel is a bad start to the day. The Onsen is a thin Supima cotton waffle. It dried faster than our terry, it soaked up more water than we expected, and the musty smell did not come back. Buy a terry towel if you want something thick and plush.
Quick Comparison
| Product | Price | Best For | Buy Link |
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| Featured Product | Check Site | Best Overall |
TL;DR — We spent $50 on the Onsen Towel to test whether the waffle weave lives up to the hype — it does. The 100% SUPIMA cotton outabsorbs a standard terry cloth and dries fast enough that musty smell never sets in. We’d buy it again.
Do you hate when you get out of the shower and use your towel and it stinks? Me, too. It's one of my biggest pet peeves. The musty smell did not come back.
Do you hate when you get out of the shower and use your towel and it stinks? Me, too. It's one of my biggest pet peeves. The musty smell did not come back.
Quick Note: We bought the Onsen Bath Towel in October 2018, before we even started writing reviews. We noticed that we hadn’t written an Onsen Bath Towel review and decided we needed to fix that ASAP. We were not provided this towel for free to review, we actually bought this towel in hopes that it would get rid of the musty smell.
Are Onsen towels worth it?
Onsen towels are worth it if your main problem is the musty smell, not softness. We bought the $50 waffle-weave bath towel ourselves (not a freebie) hoping it would finally beat the musty stink our terry towels picked up, and it did. The waffle weave dries fast, so it doesn’t sit damp and turn musty between uses.
It’s also surprisingly absorbent — we’d say more so than a terry towel — and the SUPIMA cotton holds up over time. The honest trade-off: if you want the world’s softest, plushest towel, this isn’t it. If you want a towel that stays fresh, it’s a yes.
Onsen Towel Review: What is it?
Well, besides a $50 cotton bath towel, here’s what Onsen says about their towel (from their founder, Shane):
“I used to hate getting out of the shower and using a towel I didn’t like. I founded Onsen to make a towel that was stronger, softer, and dried faster than any other towel I’ve ever used. And now I can’t wait to reach for it every day after a shower (or bath). My terry towels weren’t doing their job anymore. When I reached for them after a shower they were either still wet, smelled musty, or a terrible combination of the two. Inspired by the lighter, thinner, quick-drying towels popular in Japan, I asked myself what the sole job of a towel was, and how I could improve it.”
Shane (Onsen Towel Founder)
In short, they are towels that are supposed to do a better job of drying themselves than other towels. They are supposed to not get as musty as easily.
The thin waffle
The Onsen is a thin waffle. That is the part we actually noticed. It dried faster than our terry towels.
You can see light through the weave if you hold it up. It is less plush than terry. That thinness is why the musty smell did not come back.
What we were looking for in our Onsen Towel Review
Even though we live in Colorado, where it is very dry, we would occasionally get the musty towel smell. Chip is super sensitive to smells (he can smell what chapstick someone is putting on 10 feet away) and he HATES the musty smell.
Even worse, if you just get out of the shower and you clean yourself with a musty towel, you smell musty and dirty. If you don’t have time to take another shower, then you go around all day smelling like that. That’s terrible!
In short: we were looking for a towel that would finally eliminate the musty smell if it wasn’t hung just right or didn’t fully dry from one use to another.
Stop reading this Onsen Towel Review before you understand this:
If you are looking for the world’s softest towel, this isn’t it. However, if you are looking for a towel that doesn’t smell musty, this might be the towel for you. Keep reading to learn more in our Onsen Towel Review.
Onsen Towel Review: What makes the Onsen Towel Different
Before we embarked on this journey to give you the Onsen Towel Review, we had no idea there was anything different. We had no idea there were different ways to make a towel. We just thought you bought the softest ones you could touch at Target. But that’s not the case.
Onsen Towel says that their unique cotton waffle weave on the bath towel makes it super-lightweight but still absorbs water.
It’s just not AS soft as something like a terry towel.
A terry towel is softer (it’s also made from cotton), but it also takes a TON of time to dry. That’s what leads a terry towel to be mustier.
The towel is 100% Supima cotton. It is a thin waffle, it dried faster than our terry, the musty smell did not come back, and it is less plush.
100% Supima cotton
100% Supima cotton. That is the whole materials list.
Compared with our terry towels
Terry is plusher. It also took longer to dry, and that is what went musty on us.
Pros and Cons of Waffle Weave Towels
The waffle dried faster than our terry, so it did not sit damp and turn musty. It is less plush than terry. That thinness is the trade-off.
What the waffle did at our house
The waffle is thin, so it dried faster in our house. The musty smell did not come back, even when it was not hung perfectly.
Is it really absorbent?
It is SUPER absorbent. I know it’s hard to think this waffle weave design could work, but it does.
I would say that it’s even more absorbent than a terry towel.
What is the Onsen Bath Towel made from?
This is really, super easy: 100% SUPIMA COTTON
Extra-long fibers. That is the whole materials list. It is less plush than terry. The thin waffle is what dried faster.
Do you hate when you get out of the shower and use your towel and it stinks? Me, too. It's one of my biggest pet peeves. The musty smell did not come back.
Yes, the Onsen Towel is very lightweight. Even on their website, Onsen says that you can see through the “airy weave if you hold it up to the light.”
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Frequently Asked Questions
Are Onsen towels worth it?
Worth it for the smell, which is why we bought one with our own money in 2018. We paid about $50 then. It is the wrong towel if you want the softest, thickest bath towel in the house.
Do Onsen towels get musty?
Ours did not. Terry took long enough to dry that it smelled when it stayed damp. This weave dries fast enough that the smell never got started, even when the towel was not hung perfectly.
Are Onsen towels absorbent?
Yes. A waffle towel looks like it should just smear water around. This one soaked up more than our terry towels.
Are Onsen towels soft?
Less plush than terry. You can see light through the weave if you hold it up. That thinness is the reason it dries. Terry feels softer, and terry is also what went musty on us.
What are Onsen towels made of?
100% Supima cotton, the extra-long-fiber kind. That is the whole materials list.
Hello! I want to get the white onsen towels but I was wondering if the hand towels stay bright white especially with all the traffic hand towels get in these pandemic times with avid hand washing. I saw you said you only used bleach a couple time on accident. Do you use oxiclean? How do you keep them bright white? Thanks!
I just checked with my wife and she still uses bleach and Dawn dish soap to keep all the whites white – even our onsen towels. I know they don’t recommend it, but we’ve had them for several years without a problem at all. Hope that helps!
This is so helpful! Thank ou!