Weight

Deciding which towel to buy can be a technical issue. Fiber, absorbency and weight all play a role in what kind of towel you will ultimately chose. Remember this helpful trick of the trade: the more cotton in a towel the more absorbent the towel, the less cotton the lower the price.

Here’s one place to start. Embrace your inner mathematician and take a look at the numbers: GSM, or Grams per square meter, is one of our favorite cheat sheets for assessing the weight of towels quickly. GSM is simply the measurement for how much cotton is used to make a towel or the density of a particular style of towel.

The best part of the GSM numbers is that you can choose a towel based on this measurement. If you’re looking for that solid, high use towel for a crew of kids, 500g will work magic for you. However, if you want that luxury hotel decadence, 800g will be your lucky number.

However, if you don’t want to do the calculations and comparisons yourself, simply stick by the numbers here because we have already shopped the market to offer you the best possible towel in each weight category.