Why towels get discolored

Bleaching agents in toothpaste, mouthwash, whitening treatments and other dental products can leave discolored spots on towels. Clients may be using some of these products and wiping their faces on the towels, leaving behind residues that can lead to bleached spots on the towels. Minerals in the water: The source of the discoloration on your towels might even come directly from your water supply. Hard water contains extra minerals that towels absorb. These mineral deposits are difficult to wash out and can build up even more over time.

The mineral buildups can lead to discolored spots on your towels. The minerals could also be building up inside the washing machine, and the towels may be picking up the extra minerals in the wash cycle. This may result in rusty-colored spots on lighter towels. Chlorine from pool water: Chlorine bleach is added to many pools to make the water safe for swimmers and keep bacteria at bay. And while it is so diluted that it's not an issue if some pool water splashes onto towels or clothing, repeated exposure can build up over time, making fabrics look faded.

This is a common issue for hotels, resorts, spas, and other businesses with pools, as the towel supply has constant and repeated exposure to the pool water. If you've got towels with discolored spots from bleach products, try these ideas: Neutralize the bleach: If the problem with your towels is from a more direct bleach spill instead of smaller repeated exposures to bleach products over time, the first step is to neutralize the bleach spot as soon as possible.

Leaving bleach on fabric for too long will discolor the fabric, of course, but it can also start to eat away at it and leave behind a hole. In cases of a bleach spill or larger bleach contamination on your towels, first, rinse with cool water as quickly as possible. This helps rinse away much of the bleach instead of letting it sink into the fabric.

After rinsing, make a paste of baking soda and water and apply this to the affected areas. This will help neutralize the remaining bleach on the towels. Leave your baking soda paste on until it feels dry, then brush off and launder your towels as usual. Use rubbing alcohol: If the bleach stain is small, you can dry dabbing the area with rubbing alcohol. This can sometimes lift some of the surrounding color and redistribute it to the bleached area. This method might not work on towels because towels often don't have excess dye in them, but it is worth trying if you want to even out the color on a smaller stain.

Even out color with diluted bleach: Another option is to dilute some bleach and wash the whole towel in the diluted solution. This doesn't restore the original color of the towel, but it can even out the overall color and make the whole towel a lighter color to match the discolored spot more closely.

Restore color with markers or dye: If the bleach stains aren't too large, you can try to fill in the spots with markers. Try to match the colors exactly and use permanent ink, not washable markers, or the color will come out again the next time you wash.

The permanent marker method works especially well on black fabric, although any towel can be a little tricky because of the looped texture of the fabric. An even better fix is to use fabric dye.

You can use this to re-color the stained spots or just dye the entire towel with the fabric dye, following the directions on the package. Use a dye fixative product to set the color more permanently. The resulting colors may be a bit uneven but will be better than the original bleached stains. Remove yellow bleach stains from white towels: Bleach stains on white fabrics are some of the easiest bleach stains to work with.

Do you wonder why towels that you have recently purchased have discolored? I had a customer call today, with that very problem. Basically, we use a lot of products in our daily lives that could easily discolor our towels. Then when the towels are tossed in the laundry together chemicals transfer to other towels.

When this happens, there is nothing to do except live with the towels as they are or buy new ones. Hair removal creams, like Nair, will bleach out washcloths and towels if there is contact. It looks just like a bleach stain. It is amazing how many products we use on a daily basis that have some form of bleach in them, and our towels end up paying for it with the stains. I have always wondered what caused this problem. Now I know. Thank you. I guess I should stick to white towels.

I found a beautiful olive-toned dress and plan to wear a strand of pearls my husband gave me a few years ago. It's been a few years since I've worn hose at all, and I'm not sure what to do or even what's the current style! Just make sure the hosiery is ultra sheer. And you might consider a bronze shoe with the cream hose. It would go great with the olive dress. I think head-to-toe olive would be boring and too matchy-matchy.

As for the issue of hosiery, the trend has been bare legs, but that makes many women uncomfortable, and wearing hosiery is absolutely fine. Ellen: I am invited to attend my first gay wedding.

It's being held in the groom's father's backyard. The ceremony will be first, followed by a sit-down catered dinner. I have no idea what would be appropriate to wear. Dear Confusion: Wear precisely what you'd wear to a straight wedding. No high heels they'll sink in the grass. A long, casual, flowy dress would work. So would a short dress. Or pants, especially palazzos. Watch the weather report and bring an appropriate wrap if it's going to get chilly.

The deposits also might affect the walls of the washer and cause a rust build-up harmful to the color on your towels. With more than 10 years of writing and design experience, Kate Kolb enjoys all things creative. A graduate of Liberty University, she has been featured in multiple university publications and design blogs across the country. What Are the Causes of Towels Discoloring?