There may be times you need to remove your retainer for washing, storing, or other reasons. Gently slip the sleeves off the edge of your stems, carefully rolling them if they’re reluctant to budge. You can try adding some soap to the stems to help them slip, then rinse it off the fabric later. Some customers use petroleum jelly, but we don’t recommend this plan. Since it’s petroleum based, it’s challenging to wash off without extremely hot water, which can cause cotton retainers to shrink. Further,;petroleum jelly can make it hard to get the retainer sleeves back on when you want to use it again.