The Jean-Stretching Hack That Sounds So Wild It's Actually Genius

A good pair of jeans is so hard to find. According to Hawthorn, the classic staple first emerged in the late 19th century, however, the fashion statement wouldn't start to pick up steam until the 1930s in the American west. Over the years, jeans started to gain traction due to their stiffness and hue. Before long, it wasn't just for the farmers and cowboys, but a style for everybody. In the last hundred years, there have been plenty of denim trends that anyone would want to rock, but finding the right fit still seems to be a universal problem.

One reason people still seem to run into issues is that they don't know how to buy the highest quality jeans. Most sizing problems with jeans have to do with how they were constructed. The stiffness that the pants were originally praised for could lead to them being uncomfortable and tugging the skin. And when your jeans are almost perfect, you might find it impossible to throw them out because they're too tight. With one simple tip, you can stretch out your too-small jeans so you can have the pair you always wanted.

A warm bath might be the easiest way to loosen out your jeans. While it may sound odd, it will definitely do the trick. The idea is to wear your jeans before heading into the bath and then let the water work its magic to stretch the jeans.

Vintage reseller and social media star Lily Schoknecht revealed in a viral TikTok video that her grandmother urged her not to throw away jeans that were too small, and shower in them instead to achieve the same expanding effect. Whether you shower or bathe in your jeans, the key is not to put them in the dryer afterwards to avoid them shrinking back to their original size. 

Levi's denim expert Paul O'Neill also co-signs the hack for breaking in jeans. He told GQ that he used the method as well after wearing the jeans for a few days, and soaked with them in the bath for 20 minutes. He recommended only drying the jeans in the sun to shrink them. "I tend to check them when nearly dry and put them back on and stretch the waist out by squatting in them if needed," he told the publication.

For those who are not a fan of taking a bath in your jeans, there are other options. According to Tips Bulletin, instead of putting on the jeans, lay them out on the floor. Take lukewarm water and put it in a spray bottle and begin to spray the areas you would like to be looser. While spraying the jeans, it's important to make sure the sections are just damp, since this method doesn't require them to be soaked like the bathtub method. 

Once the jeans are covered with water, stand on the hip of the jeans and hold the hem of each pant leg. Pull the jeans toward your body, physically stretching the denim to its full capacity. From there, switch positions, stand on the pant leg, and stretch the jeans again. Afterward, you reverse the pants and repeat step one for the perfect pair of jeans. This is typically done to lengthen your jeans rather than loosen them, but you can still stretch them out this way by pulling the waist. Whatever you're trying to achieve, the fibers of the denim are more malleable when they're wet.