Yes, this is true. Towels come out hard and "crunchy" when you dry them outside on the line.

When we moved across to the States into a house with a dryer, my kids missed the "rough" air-dried towels, and thought the softer dryer-dried towels weren't nearly as good after a shower.

LOL! yeah good for exfoliating! I was back a few weeks ago with temps up in the 30's. So well and truly baked, was like drying myself with sand paper

Sandpaper is right! Sometimes I could barely fold those towels, they were stiff as boards.

LOL yeah and jeans you could stand up!

For soft towels use fabric conditioner.

Made no difference when I put them out to air dry, still would end up rock hard and rough as houses.

I love rough sandpaper towels fabric softener makes them less absorbent.

Obviously you need better fabric conditioner or a better washing machine. Or maybe it is the detergent you are using.

Have the same problem in East Anglia. The water is very hard, apparently. Use Persil, Calgon water softeners and Comfort. I like the smell and feel of everything dried on the line, even if the towels are a bit crunchy

You use rough towels? Here in Scotland we use actual sandpaper to dry us off. You're lucky!

Dunroving, you are turning into a proper Glaswegian. On the more refined side of the country we just air dry ourselves with the "gentle" east coast breeze.

Dunroving is an English softie who has a bath once a year - even when he does not need it.

Oh I am finding this thread very funny I forgot about drying clothes since being in Canada and I must confess I use a tumble dryer (the very large one) most days but then I run a B&B! People expect soft towels. In UK I used to put my washing out on my "clothes horse" on Sat when I did the washing and it usually dried. I did have a combo washer/dryer but only ever used it to first tumble clothes before putting them on the dryer, to avoid ironing, or to finish off towels. The radiators came in very handy overnight in winter but if you suddenly got a visitor you were rushing around taking "nickers" off! My UK dryer is still in my laundry room here propped up against the wall and is only used to hang shirts which are in hangers to avoid ironing them! That dryer will be the first thing packed now that I see how much they are costing at Lakeland!