The amount of water content is a determining factor for energy consumption used for drying textiles. In this study, surface chemistry approaches are used to increase textile dehydration efficiency, leading to fast drying and energy savings. Reducing liquid surface tension is an effective way to reduce water content of textiles from dehydration processes such as centrifugation. However, the surface energy of textiles in water also plays an important role in dehydration efficiency. The residual moisture content (RMC) of textiles can be reduced via adding specialty surfactants. In-situ fabric surface energy was evaluated by using a captive bubble method. It was found that cationic surfactant systems created the lowest RMC and highest drying energy saving by effectively reducing both liquid surface tension and textile surface energy.