Early jeans were not washed, sold directly after production, and were "shrunk" (shrink-to-fit), in which they were soaked in hot water to gradually shrink to the size of the body. In the 1970s and 1980s, some began to wash jeans before selling them to reduce the discomfort of heavy and stiff denim. At the same time, some producers add stones to the washing process to help the jeans soften faster, increasing production efficiency.

The first company to wash with volcanic pumice was a Japanese company. Floice stone is a lightweight, stone with a porous structure capable of floating in water.pumice makes better contact with denim and causes friction than conventional stones, while reducing damage to the washing machine, which makes pumice the mainstream material in the washing industry. However, a significant problem with pumice is that it produces large amounts of residue that pollutes the environment. For this reason, in the mid-1990s, the emergence of "biological pumice" —— enzyme, it is not only environmental friendly, easy to degrade, less use, and more sustainable, but the cost is higher and the effect is slow, usually need to be used in combination with pumice.

In 1986, an Italian washing water company first combined sodium hypochlorite bleaching agent with pumice friction, successfully creating a contrasting washing effect, and in the same year, it cooperated with an Italian brand to bring this technology to the international denim market for the first time. Soon, research found that potassium permanganate was superior in control and oxidation, it was able to decolinate the surface of denim through simple immersion treatment, presenting a light effect similar to navy blue.

Since then, the additives, materials and manual methods of jeans washing have been constantly innovated, and the effects have been varied. It can be said that the widespread popularity of jeans today is inseparable from the important role of the washing technology in the denim manufacturing industry. Common jeans washing methods include: washing enzyme washing, stone washing, a variety of oxidation rinsing methods (such as sodium hypochlorite, hydrogen peroxide, potassium permanganate, etc.), sand washing, garment dyeing and coating dyeing.