Ironing dress shirts.  It’s a guy’s retort to “child birth” in the competitive gender-based onesupmanship of Who Has It Worse (ok, maybe not).  Still, ironing your shirts is a pervasive fact of life.  Even those formaldehyde-soaked death shrouds we warned you about – despite the “non-iron” label - need pretty regular touching up.

But ironing does not have to be a total chore, and no, you do not have to suck at it.

For the perfectionists, I present this magnum opus, translated into French, Russian, and English and more elaborate than a Japanese tea ceremony.  I actually followed these instructions to the letter once.  My shirts came out great, but the process was too labor intensive.  Since then, I’ve kept the parts that worked and discarded the extraneous bits (i.e, wrapping your freshly washed shirts in plastic bags and letting them ferment overnight).  Now I will share my hard earned wisdom with you.

But first, some tips from Hugh & Crye founder Pranav:

• A spray bottle with water works wonders.
• Spend a disproportionate amount of time on the collar – it’s the part of the shirt closest to your face, and thus people are most likely to notice it.
• Starch is your frenemy (we wrote about this once before).  A little can go a long way, but too much can shorten your shirt’s lifespan.  Caveat emptor.

I agree with two out of three of these – I don’t use starch, for the reason Pranav mentioned, but also I just hate the feel of a starched shirt.  It’s really a matter of personal preference.

If I could only leave you with one word about ironing, it would be steam.  It’s what the professionals use to press your clothes.  Six months ago I bought this iron from Italian appliance maker DeLonghi, and while I hesitate to apply the term “life-changing” to an iron, suffice to say it’s incredible, and more than justifies its hefty price tag.

Once it warms up, this beast pumps out a powerful, continuous blast of steam from its pressurized boiler, effectively cutting my ironing time in half.  It doesn’t have a misting function, so that spray bottle Pranav recommends does come in handy.

I try to wear a shirt a couple of times in between washes, and to avoid having to iron after every wearing, I use another steaming device – a Jiffy Garment Steamer.  Unlike the iron, this steamer heats up in a matter of seconds, and so after I get home I just hang up my shirt and steam away the creases and wrinkles that accumulated throughout the day.  It’s a quick and easy way to get an extra wear out of a shirt without hauling out the old ironing board.

There two types of ironers.  I like to iron all my shirts for the week on a Sunday afternoon, so even though it takes 10 minutes for the DeLonghi to produce that steam, I knock out 5 shirts in an hour.  H&C’s Customer Experience guru Philip takes the opposite tact.  He incorporates ironing into his morning routine: “Ironing is my 10 minute meditation for the day.  I used to rush ironing in between tying my shoes and running out the door.  I hated it.  I’ve since embraced ironing, dedicated time to it, and have lived a less-anxious life ever since.”  Peace of mind through daily ironing – who knew?

Whatever hardware you use and whenever you choose to iron, a couple more tips will serve you well:

• Stitching puckers in the wash.  Stretching the seams at the collar, cuffs, sleeves, sides, and front placket will help restore your shirt’s proportions before ironing.
• Iron your shirts when damp, but not soaked.  Either let them hang dry for awhile after washing or let them spend 10 minutes tumbling in the dryer on low heat.  Or, if they’re dry, get out the spray bottle.
• Press the collar & cuffs from the ends toward the middle, first from the underside and then flip over to iron the outsides.
• I find the following order reduces do-overs to an absolute minimum: collar, yoke (the fabric covering your shoulders), back, left cuff & sleeve (front then back), right cuff & sleeve, left shirt front, right shirt front (left or right is inconsequential – the trick is to alternate sleeves and then fronts).
• Letting your shirt rest on a hanger for 30 minutes before wearing will help keep the shirt from wrinkling as soon as you put it on.  The fabric needs to rest.
• For ironed shirts I don’t plan to wear, I hang and button the top, middle, and bottom buttons.  Good hangers help.  I use these wooden ones from Ikea.

Now that I’ve exposed myself as having borderline obsessive-compulsive disorder, I leave you to your laundry.