We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.
Yoga towels are designed to provide you with a better and more comfortable grip while also protecting your mat from sweat during your yoga practice. In this article, our team here at Charmed Yoga shares the best yoga towels available and we’ve broken our recommended yoga towels into premium, value, and economy choices so you can get the best yoga towel for you and your budget.
If you want to learn more about yoga towels and their uses, you should jump over to our main yoga towel article.
Later in this article, we’re going to review yoga towels and recommend the best yoga towels for every budget, but first, let’s go over what you should be looking for when choosing a yoga towel.
If you don’t want to wait for the recommended yoga towels, just jump to the yoga towel recommendations.
Qualities Of A Good Yoga Towel
Many companies make yoga towels and the quality of those towels varies greatly. When reviewing yoga towels, we started with a list of desirable yoga towel features to help us make sure that we were giving each yoga towel a fair review.
Below we’re sharing the qualities we valued when reviewing yoga towels.
1. Surface Grip
One of the main advantages of using yoga towels is that it increases traction and grip lending to better balance and stability during your practice. Therefore, a quality yoga towel must also be made of materials/fabric that provides great traction.
2. Underside Grip
Quality yoga towels should not move or bunch up during practice. For this purpose, good-quality yoga towels have a grippy underside that will temporarily stick to whatever it’s laying on, be that your yoga mat, living room floor, or even a bit of flat ground at the beach.
Look for yoga mats that have silicon undersides or silicon grips.
3. Absorbancy
A quality yoga towel must be very absorbant but should not get waterlogged easily. It needs to be absorbent so that if you are sweating during your practice, you don’t end up standing in puddles of your own sweat.
Most quality yoga towels make use of microfiber as fabric. Microfibers are highly absorbent and can stay dry for the duration of entire yoga sessions.
4. Comfortable Fabric
There is no reason to do yoga on an uncomfortable surface when you have a yoga towel. A quality yoga towel will be comfortable on your bare skin.
Microfibre fabrics are soft and are good quality fabrics that are also very soft to the touch. Therefore, they are comfortable to use. It might be hard to check the softness of a yoga towel fabric if you’re buying online so make sure to check out the reviews for user feedback.
When buying in stores, you are more able to scrutinize the softness of the fabric as you are allowed to touch it. Try smoothing your hands over the yoga towel if possible and opt for the fabric that feels more comfortable for you.
5. Durability
While yoga towels are not terribly expensive, there is no reason to buy one that isn’t going to last.
Yoga towels are made from a wide array of materials including mundane cotton, rayon, polyester, and nylon, and more exotic materials like recycled plastic bottles and bamboo.
Most of these materials can be durable if the processing is high-quality to make a thick and dense material that will stand up to years of yoga.
6. Washable
One of the greatest advantages of using a yoga towel is the fact that you can easily wash them (compared to washing a yoga mat). Since yoga towels are placed over a mat, instead of having to wash your yoga mat frequently, you only need to run your yoga towel in clothes washing machine.
Most yoga towels are washable. However, double-check the label to get the right washing instructions. Some yoga towels might be recommended to be washed by hand. The team here at Charmed Yoga unanimously prefers machine-wash yoga towels
7. Dries Quickly
Quick-drying yoga towels are a must. First, you don’t want your yoga towel to be waterlogged during your practice and if you’re the type to practice yoga every day you would want your towel to dry quickly for your next session.
8. Reinforced Stitching
Fraying yoga towels are also a big no-no. Before buying your yoga towel inspect if they have smooth edges or if the edges of the towel come with reinforced stitching. Yoga towels with fraying edges mean that it is reaching the end of their usable life already and wouldn’t be value for money.
9. Sanitary
Did you know that some yoga towels come with antibacterial properties?
Yes, that’s right yoga towels provide sanitary practices and you don’t have to worry about bacteria and skin infections. Antibacterial yoga towels also do not smell as bad when sweat has dried on them.
Materials used for yoga towels with antibacterial properties are bamboo charcoal. Charcoal is known for absorbing bacteria and dirt and thus keeps your yoga towel fresh and clean.
10. Appropriate Size
Yoga towels come in different sizes. Some are longer than others. The perfect yoga towel mat is one that is the same size as their yoga mat. Regular yoga mats are 68 inches. Therefore, most towels are of this size as well.
However, there are longer towels for longer yoga mats that are from 72 inches to 85 inches long.
11. Beautiful Design
Yoga towels came in numerous colors and designs. Some even come with inspiring quotes to keep you going as you work through power flows or harder sessions.
Remember though, to find the balance between balance and design and to not compromise one for the other.
12. Right thickness
Choosing the right thickness of yoga towels is crucial. Some yogis prefer thicker yoga towels for increased padding as additional protection for their joints. However, some find they have more stability and balance with lesser padding.
Best Yoga Towels In 2022
Our team has tried and gone through numerous yoga towels. We’ve had pretty expensive ones and have tried affordable options too. Here we present to you the best yoga towels available in 2022 for different price ranges that fit your budget.
Best Premium Yoga Towel In 2022 – Yogitoes Manduka Yoga Towel
The Yogitoes Manduka Yoga Towel has its own cult following. In fact, the praises sang for the Yogitoes Manduka Yoga Towel never seem to end, it is just that good!
The Yogitoes Manduka Yoga Towel is also one of our favorite yoga towels. It is functional, versatile, and extremely durable. It also checks all the good quality factors in my list. This yoga towel from Manduka can be used in any kind of yoga session.
You can use it for Bikram Yoga or Vinyasa yoga. The Yogitoes are also includes sustainable materials, at least four reused plastic bottles. It also comes equipped with a patented skid-less technology that ensures great traction and stability.
The Yogitoes Manduka Yoga towel is made up of 50% recycled polyester, 40% Polyester, and 10% nylon. Thus providing a non-slip, ultra-absorbent surface that keeps you dry all throughout the sweatiest yoga sessions.
The underside of the mat is made up of silicone nibs that always keep it in place so it doesn’t tend to move, bunch, or slip during yoga sessions. The Yogitoes also come in 12 gorgeous styles and are multi-sized.
However, the Yogitoes is on the more premium and expensive side of the spectrum. A Yogitoes Manduka Yoga Towel inexpensive, but we believe it is worth every penny if it fits within your budget.
Best Midrange Yoga Towel in 2022 – Gaiam No-Slip Yoga Towel
A lot of people are also crazy about the Giam No-Slip Yoga Towel. As its name suggests this mid-range option for yoga towels provides yogis with great traction and grip often lauded for being “absolutely super sticky”.
The Gaiam No-Slip Yoga Towel is made of microfiber fabric that is highly absorbent and ensures that you’ll stay dry all through your sweatiness yoga sessions. It also offers the versatility of use because it can be used for other types of yoga as well as for other excerise routines.
The underside of the Gaiam Yoga towel is made up of rubber that effectively sticks to the mat/floor and does not move, slide or bunch during practice. This yoga towel is also very lightweight as it is only 1.5 mm thick. Therefore, it is easy to wash, quick-drying, and easy to pack for travel.
The Giam No-Slip Yoga Towel comes in five two-tone colors and just one size (68 inches). The Gaiam No-Slip Yoga towel falls in the best yoga towel for price and quality, and it cost about half of the premium yoga towel above.
Best Inexpensive Yoga Towel in 2022 – Youphoria Yoga towel
Finally, Youphoria Non-Slip Yoga Towel is a budget yoga towel that does not scrimp (much) on the quality. The Youphoria yoga towel is made of microfiber fabric that is highly absorbent and can absorb 7x its weight in water. This yoga towel is also washable and washing machine friendly.
The Youphoria Yoga towel grips best when wet and therefore needs to be sprayed with water to activate its grip before practice. This yoga towel comes in various solid colors that to fit your personal style and esthetics.
However, it only comes in the regular 68″ size.
Because of its lightweight nature, it can be folded easily and packed for travel.
Most importantly, the Youphoria Yoga Towel is a good-quality towel that does not break the bank. It costs about half of the midrange yoga towel above and absolutely provides great value for your money.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Choosing The Best Yoga Towel
The three yoga towels we listed above were chosen by our team of yoga practitioners as the best yoga towels available for all budgets. If you decide to choose a yoga towel not on this list, we strongly encourage you to think about our list of good yoga towel features before you part with your hard earned money.
And also be careful what brands and stores you’re considering purchasing from. Because poor quality yoga towels can be made relatively inexpensively, there are folks in this world that are selling some real crap and some even sell conterfits of well known brands.
Do you have a favorite yoga towel that you use? Share it in our comment box below!