Why do colours run in the wash

For example, deep reds have a chemical construction that does make them harder to fix. Whether colours run in the wash all depends on how well the garment was dyed. And indigo, the dye used for our jeans, is actually intended to fade, although washing jeans inside out will keep them darker for longer and help protect anything else in the wash.

If in doubt about how colourfast a new garment is — that is, whether the colour is likely to stay on the fabric when it goes in the wash — you should try our colourfast test on an inconspicuous part of the item the back of a hem or an inside seam for example before you wash it. First dampen a small patch, place something absorbent like a white cotton handkerchief or piece of kitchen paper on top, then iron it.

If the handkerchief or paper soaks up the colour, then your garment is not colourfast. So next time you hesitate to buy that patterned top your daughter would adore, or worry about a red and white striped scarf ending up as a pinkish one, remember that no colour is necessarily a worse colour-run culprit than another.

Iron over the top. Type keyword s to search. Today's Top Stories. The most stylish autumn boots on the high street. New beauty buys to treat yourself to this month. If it's too late for prevention, here's the cure. Knowing how to remove colour run from white or multicoloured clothes means there'll be no need to stress out even when you've turned a set of cricket whites into cricket pinks.

The high heat of a tumble dryer will set any colour run stains from the laundry cycle. It'll be so much easier to figure out how to get colour run out of clothes if you've managed to spot colour run before popping them in the dryer Skip to step 3.

If your clothing has been stained heavily, your best bet is to soak the item in a colour run remover that is suitable for the fabric, before attempting to wash it again. If you don't have a good colour run remover, a home remedy can also work well for shifting stubborn colour stains. Try adding a cup of distilled white vinegar to a bowl of cold water and soaking the stained area.

Then wash again as normal. If you prefer, you could also swap the white vinegar here for lemon juice, still patch testing on the fabric first. Once you're satisfied with the results of your colour run treatment, put the clothes back in the machine for another wash. Check if the stains have completely gone and then and only then , hang them up to dry or pop them in the tumble dryer. You've hopefully managed to lift the stains with your colour run remover or home remedy treatment, but you probably aren't in a hurry to do the whole thing again after your next laundry load.