Qualities of a good terry towel

There are several things that make a good terry towel.    First of all the towel needs to absorb.  As long as the Terry loops are 100% cotton there is not a tremendous difference in the performance of higher end yarns and lower end yarns.  While a towel with a very low pile may not absorb as well as a thicker pile towel the trade off is that the lower pile towel will last longer.  A quality terry towel is also sewn well. Either the towel has a nice thick fast selvage along the sides or good folded hem with lock stitched sewing.  The other day a customer called to say they were only getting about a year and a half out of their cotton towels.  Don't we wish we were all that lucky.