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Running Colours When Hand-Washing My Brand New Pants? Help!


Histonin

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Hey guys, I need help with clothes. Basically, I just got myself a pair of N2N Bodywear dream lounge pants today from Sportsmenasia. It's made of beautiful material, and has such a luxurious silky feel to it. I'll post two pictures of what it's like below for you guys to get a better understanding.

This is what it generally looks like, doesn't come with hot guy unfortunately:

L6-12-Full.jpg

DreamPantPop09C.jpg

I got myself a black pair, as shown above. I went home quite happy with my purchase, and then decided to hand wash it, using body soap because I was quite worried about the colours running. And to my shock the water started getting stained a dark purplish hue. I was using warm water at this point.

Later on, I went online and saw that the pants were meant to be machine or hand-washed with cold water, and no bleach.

Honestly, I have no idea whether my warm water was a cause in the colours running. But later on, I tried the same thing again, this time using cold tap water and the same body soap. The container of water I was using turned the same purplish hue, which quite scared me.

The pants is 92% polyester and 8% spandex, if that's of any help.

Essentially, I want to know if I did anything wrong, and if there is any way to prevent the colour bleeding from the pants. Or is this something that is characteristic of this material?

I have a wrestling suit which is made of similarly stretchable material, and I also experience the same problems when hand washing it. I never want to machine wash these clothes, for fear of what may happen to the colour.

Help me guys. I want to save these pants.

Edited by Histonin
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Use cold water. And minimise any soap use in first few wash as the harshness of the chemical tend to decolourize the dye. Colour running in first few wash quite natural. Also, air dry and don't dry in sun. U may want to also google for some housewife tips on how to control decolorisation for new clothes (eg some suggest washing w vinegar in early few wash, but I cannot confirm if it is useful)

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Vinegar, salt, etc. Helps a tiny little bit...but it doesn't stop it.

In the past before the invention of modern dyes, people used various salts, e.g. copper sulfate, to "fix" the dye into the fabrics. Dyes do not dissolve easily in water, but adding a salt helps the dye dissolve and penetrate the fibres. Vinegar did a similar thing by adjusting the pH.

The problem with synthetic fibres is that they don't allow water to penetrate easily in the first place, which is why they're used for waterproof materials and quick drying swimwear. So if the dye can't get in, then it can't colour the fabric. Manufacturers use excess amount of the dye to "force" the dye into the fabric. But this leaves behind quite a bit of dye that isn't "fast" or actually bound to the fabric.

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