I order shemaghes like this all the time and sometimes they have an odd smell when you first open the package it comes in. I think that its just due to the rain we've had where I live. I always wash my shemages in icey water with a free and clear detergeant by hand to get the smell out and then air dry them. There was very little color run during the washing which is good because I didn't want to spend a half hour cleaning up dye in my bathroom. This product got here so quickly and is very big in size I wanna say at least 40x40 inches which I LOVE I love the color also and I love that I can wear the shemagh numerous ways. I highly recommend this product to anybody who likes shemaghs or is just a scarf person :)