How to remove hair dye stains

A bit of a different type of post today, but since I have been dying my hair unnatural colours for a few years now. I thought I'd share my tips on what to do if you've spilled hair dye, or if it's got somewhere it shouldn't.


The first thing I want to mention is that prevention is better than cure. so make sure you put old towels down and wear an old shirt when you're dying hair. In general. you need to act fast- if you wipe up quickly, the dye won't stain as much. Also worth noting is that it is waay easier to remove stains from semi permanent or vegetable dyes like directions, compared to a more chemical permanent dye, like something in a box from the drugstore.

Removing stains from your skin//

Your first port of call is a strong eye makeup remover- a micellar water like bioderma should do the trick.If that doesn't work, try using nail varnish remover- but only do this on less sensitive parts of your skin like your arms

Stained hair//

If it is a warm colour like pink- silver shampoo or just a shampoo with sulphates in it should do the trick. I actually wrote a whole post on how I got my hair from pink to silver (how to fade out pink hair with minimal damage) last year.

Where it gets slightly trickier is if it is a cool colour like blue, green or purple, these tend to cling on to your hair for dear life. I've heard good things about mixing things like crushed vitamin c tablets, baking soda, dandruff shampoo and fairy liquid. You could also try those colour removing products from the drugstore.

Another thing which will help your hair fade, but which is probably less damaging than straight up washing up liquid is to use shampoo with sulphates and deep cleansing shampoos.

If you've tried all the above sometimes all you can do is a bleach bath or a full on bleach. When I was fading out my blue ends, I bleached my roots, and then run the leftover bleach through the ends. It's definitely a last resort though, as obviously it will damage your hair more.

Unfortunately, sometimes there is nothing you can do but wait for it to fade.

On surfaces or household objects// 

Unfortunately, I have way too many experiences of getting hair dye on carpets, sinks, even on my denim jacket! But that does mean that I now have a patented method for getting the stains off :)

Nail varnish remover is my go- to- I've used it to get dye out of carpets, off bookshelves, you name it. However, when I was trying to get my friend's black hair dye off the kitchen table, nail varnish remover alone didn't quite cut it, so I used cif (a kitchen cleaner which contains bleach) and the dye faded quite a bit :)

These tips are just things I've tried over the years, but I'd love to know you guys' secrets too~
Thanks for reading!
-Amy xoxo

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