I was just talking to Sabrina about her wash instructions for these pants as I've had a few questions along those lines so here are the answers for you. The pants are preshrunk and yes they really can be both machine washed and dried. Sabrina actually recommends putting them in the dryer for twenty minutes even if you hang dry them just to get out wrinkles and get them back to size (as they do stretch out a bit with wear). So yes - wash them, dry them, live in them!