Why do people get smelly clothes from smoking?

Answer 1

Smoking depends upon incomplete combustion. Cigarettes, cigars and pipes are all designed to restrict the amount of available oxygen, so that a maximum amount of combustion by-products are produced. Some of the chemicals are the aromatic hydrocarbons that deliver the flavors and effects desired by the smoker. A lot of the particles and droplets in smoke are too tiny to be visible; what we see as smoke is mostly the larger particles.

The particles in smoke not only contain many odor-producing chemicals, they also carry inorganic salts that tend to produce surface charges on the particles. These charges can help to attract and make the particles cling to anything with a large surface area, such as fabric or hair. Many of the particles are oily droplets that do not fall off or evaporate easily, so the fabric (or hair) continues to slowly shed particles that are detectable as odors until the surface is washed with a surfactant that can loosen them.