What to Do When Your Clothes Leave Dye on Skin

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Some clothes can leave a dye stain on your skin. Very dark blue jeans, dark red or blue clothing, and fabrics that you have dyed yourself can leave stain marks. These stain marks can be difficult to remove but not impossible.

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Getting the Dye Off Your Skin

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Scrub your hands (or whatever part of your body has been stained) with hand soap, warm water and an abrasion scrubbing pad. This will remove as much dye as possible.

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Use a lye soap to wash the remaining stains. Lye soap work well on stains because it has a high pH or acidity. Purchase a lye soap at any dye shop or crafts store. Wash skin under warm water using the lye soap and a scrubbing pad.

Make a scrub using the juice from a whole lemon and baking soda (use just enough baking soda to make a paste). Both the baking soda and the lemon work to "bleach" the dye, scrubbing away the color without being too harsh to your skin.

Taking Precautions

Always wash your new clothes before wearing them. Many clothes come with a warning that the color of the clothing can transfer to other clothing or to the skin. Dark indigo jeans, dark colored clothing or anything that you've had personally dyed need to be washed to prevent the colors from bleeding. These items might even need to be washed several times until the water that drains from the washing machine runs clear.

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When you wash the clothes again, wash them separately with like colors only. This will prevent the color from bleeding onto your other clothes.

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