Hair dyes were once the preserve of the professional hair dresser but now supermarket shelves are stacked full of different makes of hair dye or all colours. There are though issues from making use of hair dyes at home; not least of all is the fact that hair dye has a habit of going everywhere covering walls and fabrics alike.
If hair dye does find its way onto any fabric it is important that work on the stain is started immediately. The method of operation though does depend upon the type of fabric being used. For fabrics made from linen or cotton, then some rubbing spirit or turpentine should be applied to a white cloth.
The white cloth should then be used to dab and blot away at the white cloth. This action should hopefully remove most of the hair dye. For fabric made from synthetic materials like polyester, then hydrogen peroxide should be used rather than rubbing alcohol.
Once the hair dye has been blotted the fabric should then be rinsed in cold water and washing soda. If necessary the stain can then be rubbed again with turpentine. The fabric can then be washed in washing machine with a biological detergent.
There are many other solutions to removing hair dyes from fabrics, especially home remedies. The use of hair dye is an especially favoured one, and if the stain from the hair dye is immediately noticed, then the hair dye can be used to saturate the stain. The fabric can then be washed as normal, with the result that the mark of the hair dye is gone.
Another home remedy is to create a paste of lemon juice and cream of tartar which can then be applied to the stain with a toothbrush, before a liquid laundry detergent is added to the stain. Again the fabric can be washed as normal.
There are other solutions though to removing hair dye from fabrics, although they are not as safe as previous methods, and are reserved for stubborn stains. The first of these methods involves the use of bleach on the affected area. Bleach though is rarely used directly on fabrics, and should be first tested on an unseen area of the fabric, and it may result in the need to use colour-fast bleach.
There are, in addition, a number of colour removing solutions now available to buy, and will remove any colouring caused by the hair dye. The issue though is that if the fabric is itself coloured then these colour removes may also remove this colour.