Yellowing on white clothes is the result of our body oils and sweat drying onto fabric – but there is one simple thing you can do to prevent and fix the damage going forward.
You might have spotted peculiar yellow marks on your clothes, especially on white or light-coloured items. If you’ve given them a good wash and the stains persist, don’t lose hope.
There are a few simple steps to follow to restore your whites to their original brilliance. But how does it work, and what do you need?
Yellow marks and stains on clothing are caused by our body oil oxidising over time. This is why you might notice it more on white hats or bedsheets, or on the armpit or neck area of clothing items. A dry cleaning expert, known on TikTok as Clean Freakz, informed followers that there are “two important steps to remove the yellowing”.
He clarified that first, you will need to eliminate the cause of the stain – the body oil – with a bit of washing-up liquid or an all-purpose stain remover. After letting that sit for an hour, you should wash the item as recommended, reports the Express.
Next, you will need to remove the yellow colour of the stain by using oxygen bleach. He stated: “You can either spray on hydrogen peroxide or soak in powdered oxygen bleach and hot water.”
Yellow stains can also affect towels, particularly if you use white towels at the gym, when you’re likely to be sweating more than usual.
To prevent your towels from turning yellow, you can pre-treat them with an all-purpose enzymatic stain remover or a little bit of washing-up liquid before putting them in the washing machine.
You should also ensure to wash your towels as soon as possible, rather than leaving them in your laundry basket for a while.
To rectify yellow stains on your towels, you can spray them with 3% hydrogen peroxide and let them air dry in the shade. You can also soak them in hot water and powdered oxygen bleach overnight before washing.
As we perspire at night, particularly in the summer months, our white sheets can also become affected by yellow marks and stains. After pre-treating the affected areas with dish soap you should add a booster to the drum of your machine.
This could be something like borax, washing soda or baking soda, the dry cleaner said, which will “supercharge the cleaning power of your detergent”.
Next, add some powdered oxygen bleach and skip a fabric softener. Instead you can use a rinse product like white vinegar, Clean Freakz said.