How to remove dye transfer stains from colored clothes

When any non-colourfast items are washed at temperatures that are too high, the dye bleeds out of the fabric. This happens most commonly with newer items on their first few washes.

You might think that certain colours tend to run more than others – we’ve all heard the tale of the red sock that ruins a white wash – but it actually depends on how well the colour pigments in the dye bind to the fabric of the clothes.

If they have a fixer or mordant, that binds them the less likely they are to run.

One common method of dyeing fabric is ‘salting out’.

When the clothes are dyed, salt is added to the water which encourages the dye into the fabric. But if the dye isn’t fixed to the fabric using a fixer or mordant it runs straight back out when you wash your clothes.

Clothes that are made with synthetic fibres where the colour was added at the same stage the fibres were being created, are the least likely to run.