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How to Get Hair Dye Out of Pants

Mar 15, 2011 / By Kimbry Parker

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Wear old clothes when applying hair dye.

Photo: Liquidlibrary/liquidlibrary/Getty Images

It's fun to play hair stylist and do your own dye job. But as you may have learned the hard way, dyeing hair is messy business. If you ended up with hair dye on your pants, don't get in a tizzy just yet. That glob of hair dye looks nearly impossible to remove, but you can get it out if you handle the stain the right way. And in six to eight weeks, you'll be wiser about how to give your tresses a touch-up without hair dye getting on your clothes.

White Pants

Grab a clean bucket and fill it with 1 gallon of cold water. Dump in ¼ cup of chlorine bleach.

Submerge your stained pants in the bucket. Grab a book, take a bath or turn on some tunes. Relax for 30 minutes while your pants soak. Take them out after 30 minutes, though; leaving the pants in the bleach solution for longer can damage the fabric.

Rinse your pants under cool water. Spray a laundry pretreatment spray on the spot, if it still exists, then launder the pants in the hottest water allowed for the fabric and with the recommended amount of laundry detergent for the size of your load.

Colored Pants

Fill a clean bucket with 1 gallon of cold water. Toss in 1 cup of household ammonia.

Grab another bucket (or even a large bowl) and stretch the dye stained part of the pants tightly over the empty bowl. Use big rubber bands around the bowl's mouth or a few hair clips on the sides to hold the pants tight over the bucket or bowl opening.

Dip a cup into the ammonia solution and slowly pour it through the dye-stained part of the pants so the liquid drains through to the empty bowl. Do this until you have poured the entire bucket of liquid through the fabric and into the bowl below.

Rinse the pants under cool running water. Spray the spot with a laundry pretreatment spray and launder the clothing as usual.

1.2 buckets

3.Laundry pretreatment spray

5.1 cup household ammonia

7.Cup

2.¼ cup chlorine bleach

4.Laundry detergent

6.Large rubber bands or hair clips

When you touch up your hair or dye it again, wear old clothes that you don't mind staining. Or, cover up your outfit with a full-coverage apron, just like the pros.