Today we wanted to talk to you about Hannahpad from the perspective of a teenage girl. If you're not familiar with Hannahpad yet, they are an unbleached organic cotton washable sanitary pad. They are more comfortable than disposables, more absorbent than disposable and better for the planet. On the flip size, they do need to be washed instead of disposed of, and if you're out and about, you do need the ability to carry them home for washing.

For most adults, this isn't a daunting task. For a teenage girl just getting used to changes in her body, the thought of having to either was the pads themselves or have their mother wash them might be a bit much. I understand this.

Today, I was pleasantly surprised when I received an unsolicited review from a 12 year old girl about her experience with Hannahpad. The following is her review, completely unedited.

"When Mum first showed me the HannahPads I thought that they were a bit weird and gross because you had to wash them instead of just throwing them in the bin. So I kept saying no.
Then Mum convinced me to try one of the overnight ones so I agreed to try just once (just to shut her up, really!).

I put it on and it was really comfortable and didn't even feel like a pad at all. It just kinda felt like I was wearing two pairs of undies. The next morning there was no leakage (which happens at night with disposable overnight pads for me - I move around a lot when I sleep!) which was fantastic!
So - I decided to wear another one the next day and they are just as comfortable in the daytime and they really work much better than the disposable ones.

I think it is really cool how you can wear these and not only are they better and more comfortable than disposable pads but they are so much safer for the environment too. I think all young girls should try them, they will be pleasantly surprised and they will be helping to reduce waste too. Even if you only use them at night and at home (if you don't feel comfortable to use them at school) then every little bit counts. Oh, and I just put them in a bucket of cold water to soak when I take them off. Mum takes care of the washing, but it seems to be easy enough 🙂

Thank you for such a great product and for saving the planet!!!"

If you have any doubts about bringing the subject up with your teenage girl, let her read this. You or I can explain how great they are all we like, but she'll want to hear it from another teenager.

How to get your teenager to wash them out

This will be the hurdle. Getting them to wear Hannahpad won't be the issue, cleaning them will be. This month I tried a 'lazy' and 'less invasive' approach to my cleaning to see if it would work, and it did, so I'm going to share.

Personally I find doing these types of jobs in the shower is easier, but there's one small issue, hot water will set a blood stain in fabric, so here's what I did so I could still wash them in the shower and not have the stain set.

  1. Turned the shower on and used the cold water that came out at the start to do my initial rinse
  2. Squirt a little Dr Bronner's liquid castile soap on to the pad
  3. Quick hand scrub (literally 10 seconds) and then I upended it on the shower floor and left it there (do not rinse with hot water)

Obviously in a house where you're sharing with people,  you won't want to do this, you'll pop them in a small bucket with some water and allow them to soak instead of leaving them on the floor, but I wanted to see just how lazy I could be with them and still get them clean. Each morning and night, I just gave them a really quick rinse with cold water when I started the shower and then threw them back on the floor, after around 24-36 hours, they were stain free, just from sitting on the floor of my shower with a bit of liquid soap on them.

They are, of course, going in the washing machine after that for a proper clean, and they do need 2 days out on the line at this time of the year to get them completely dry, but it really was that simple. So if you tell your teenager they can quickly rinse, 10 second scrub and throw them on the floor for you to collect later, you might be in with a shot!

What I actually recommend is after the initial rinse and quick hand wash is to allow them to soak in a small container or tub. You can stick with the Dr Bronner's if you like (it was enough for mine) but if you go through our natural cleaning products, you'll find some sensitive laundry liquid and sensitive soaker from Abode Cleaning Products, and I would actually use those. I also add my favourite essential oil for cleaning, a few drops of Eucalyptus from doTERRA, but if you have a favourite brand of cleaning products or essential oils, by all means use those or something you already have, but the sodium percarbonate in the Abode soakers does the job nicely. I would stay away from commercial soakers and nappy products as they'll contain chemicals that may irritate the sensitive skin.