How to Get Hair Dye Out of a Carpet

Hair dye can turn your greying strands of hair into luscious locks in a few short hours! But, when you drop a blob of dye on your carpet it just doesn’t have the same impact.

In fact, dying your carpet instead of your hair is a nightmare, and one that can turn out really messy if it’s not treated quickly. But don’t worry, we’ve got some solutions below that’ll help you get hair dye out of a carpet in no time at all.

Tips Before You Start…

Here are a few points to consider before you start your cleaning:

• Always test your method out on a hidden square of carpet.
• Make sure your carpet can be cleaned using your chosen solution.
• Act fast when it comes to hair dye.
• Kids and animals should always be kept out of the room when treating a stain.
• Don’t walk over the area you have just treated.
• Wipe away any excess dye you can see on the carpet before your start cleaning.
• Don’t use the gloves that come in your hair dye box to clean the blob of hair dye off your carpet – there will be dye on these gloves, use a fresh pair!
• There is always a chance that a carpet’s colour could fade when a product is used on it.

 

New Stains

When you’re tackling a new hair dye stain you should act as fast as you can, this way you’ll have the best chance of removing the entire stain off your carpet.

You should follow the steps below to get hair dye out of a carpet.

Step 1: White vinegar, warm water and washing up soap

This method typically has the best results, so you should start with it.

Step 2: Rubbing alcohol

If there are some small dye stains left on your carpet you now need to apply rubbing alcohol to the stain.

What you need:

• Cloths
• Rubbing alcohol
• Gloves

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Follow all the steps in step 1.
2. Grab a new clean cloth.
3. Pour some rubbing alcohol onto the clean cloth.
4. Test out the rubbing alcohol on a piece of carpet that is hidden – make sure the product works okay with your carpet, not every carpet likes rubbing alcohol.
5. If your carpet is okay after the test, start dabbing at the stain with the cloth dipped in rubbing alcohol – No scrubbing and no need to saturate the cloth!
6. Keep repeating this process until the hair dye has disappeared.
7. Soak up any extra liquid with a clean cloth.
8. Allow the area to dry naturally and try not to walk over it.

Rubbing alcohol is great at removing tough stains, but you should be careful when you use it. Always open a window, wear gloves, and keep children and animals away from the area you’ll be treating.

If you’re still not convinced that your hair dye has been removed from your carpet, continue onto Step 3 below.

Step 3: Ammonia, warm water and washing up soap

You can either use this method on its own, or you can use ammonia after you’ve tried step 1 and 2 above. This is up to you. You can buy ammonia in various stores across the UK.

What you need:

• Ammonia
• Warm water
• Washing up liquid
• Gloves
• Cloths
• Bowl
• Teaspoons
• Tablespoons
• Cup

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Put gloves on.
2. Grab a cotton cloth and dab at the hair dyed area to soak up as much of the dye as possible – No hard scrubbing!
3. Grab a bowl, tablespoon, teaspoon and a cup.
4. Put 1 teaspoon of washing up liquid in the bowl.
5. Pop 2 cups of warm water into the bowl.
6. Put 1 tablespoon of ammonia in the bowl.
7. Stir the mix around.
8. Open your windows.
9. Use a cotton cloth to dab some of the mixture onto a testing area – if your carpet is okay after the test, continue with this method.
10. Use a cotton cloth to dab some of the mixture onto the stained area – the cloth should be damp and not saturated in water.
11. Make sure the mix covers the whole stain.
12. Allow the solution to soak into the stain.
13. Leave the area alone for 30 minutes.
14. Keep everyone away from the area.
15. Continue to dab the ammonia mix onto the stain with a clean cloth.
16. Make sure the mix covers the whole stain.
17. Leave it for a further 5 minutes.
18. Use a cold damp cloth to soak up any leftover ammonia – do not saturate this cloth in water.
19. Keep dabbing at the area with a clean wet cloth until the stain and ammonia has gone.
20. Allow the carpet to dry for 24 hours and avoid walking through the treated area.
21. Keep your windows open for further ventilation.

Ammonia is very strong, so you should always use this product with care!

You’ve got a good idea about how to get hair dye stains out of a carpet, but what do you need to do if you’ve got an ancient hair dye stain on your carpet?

If you have a pretty old hair dye stain on your carpet, there are different solutions you can try out. Check out what you need to do below.

 

Older Stains

If you have old hair dye stains on your carpet you’ll need to follow the methods below to remove them. It’s likely that these methods will take longer to try out, and depending on your hair dye stain, the methods may provide you with mixed results.

Method 1: Hydrogen peroxide

Hydrogen peroxide is pretty strong stuff, so you won’t actually need to use a lot of it to remove your dye stain. Nonetheless, you should be very cautious when using this product as it can remove the colour from carpets.

This should be used as a last resort, or if you don’t mind running the risk of your carpet losing its colour.

What you need:

• Gloves
• Pipette
• Cloths/sponge
• Water
• Hydrogen peroxide

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Pop some gloves on.
2. Get a pipette and fill it with hydrogen peroxide.
3. Use the pipette to pop some hydrogen peroxide onto a testing area – make sure your carpet is okay before you continue with this method.
4. Use the pipette to drop a few drops of hydrogen peroxide onto the hair dye stain – do this very slowly and don’t saturate the carpet.
5. Cover the whole stain – but don’t drop any drips on the rest of the carpet.
6. Leave the carpet for 24 hours – don’t touch, walk or let kids play near the treated area.
7. Get a wet cloth or a sponge and start dabbing the treated area – no need to saturate the cloth/sponge in water.
8. Keep pressing down on the stain to keep on removing the dye.
9. Leave the area to dry naturally – keep everyone away from the area.
10. Open a window to keep the room ventilated.

You might find that your carpet has lost some colour after trying this method. To re-colour your carpet you could purchase a fabric marker pen to touch up the faded areas. Try and choose a colour that matches your carpet’s original colour.

Before you try the fabric marker on the carpet, try it out on a hidden area to see what happens. Plus, you should follow the instructions on the fabric marker’s packaging!

Method 2: Astringent, baby shampoo and hairspray

For this method you’ll need a couple of products that can be found around the home. It won’t take you long to try out this method and the results can be great!

What you need:

• Astringent
• Baby shampoo
• Hairspray
• Gloves
• Cloths
• Water

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Pop some gloves on.
2. Spray some hairspray onto a hidden area of carpet to see what happens – if everything is okay continue with this method. If you see any carpet discoloration you should either stop using this method and try something else, or continue and accept that the carpet could lose colour.
3. Spray some hairspray onto the dyed area – this should be a thick layer.
4. Leave the hairspray on the carpet for 5 minutes.
5. Get a cotton cloth and gently remove the hairspray from the stained area – gently dab the area.
6. Pop some astringent on the stained damp area – test it out first.
7. Leave it for another 5 minutes.
8. Dab at the treated area with a damp cotton cloth.
9. Repeat Step 8 until the dye has been removed.
10. If the hair dye on the carpet is soluble you can now pop a few drops of baby shampoo onto the area.
11. Rub the shampoo into the carpet with some cold water.
12. Dab at the area with a clean cloth to remove any leftover shampoo and water.
13. Leave the carpet to dry naturally – open some windows to allow air into the room.

You may find that you have to repeat these methods to see the results you want. Each hair dye stain is different after all.

 

Tips to Avoid This Happening Again…

Here are some tips to reduce the chances of you dropping hair dye onto your carpet in the future:

• Put plenty of newspaper on the floor where you’re going to be dying your hair.
• Don’t squeeze so much hair dye out of the bottle in one go.
• Don’t open the hair dye bottle on the carpet.
• Dye your hair near the sink.
• Get someone to help you, if possible.

 

Conclusion

Hair dye is messy and if you do manage to get a couple of dye drops on your carpet it’s not the end of the world. The solutions above will help you to remove the dye, but be patient. Every stain is different, and some colours take longer to clean than others.

If you’ve got your own tips, let us know below!

 

FAQs

Can I use a specialised carpet cleaner to remove hair dye from my carpet?

This is an option worth trying, if the methods above have not worked for you. However, you might find that an off-the-shelf carpet cleaner doesn’t give you the results you want because hair dye can be quite tough to remove.

On the other hand, if you act really fast a product that has been bought could do the trick!

Can I use bicarbonate of soda?

Yes you can try using bicarb. Follow the steps above for ‘White Vinegar, Warm Water and Washing Up Soap’ (just replace the white vinegar with bicarb), and then finish off with some rubbing alcohol, as noted in step 2.

Should I just call a professional?

If you only have a small patch of hair dye on your carpet, you should be able to remove it by using the methods above.

However, if you have a major problem, for example, if old hair dye is spread all over the carpet in your home, you might want to consider getting it cleaned by a professional. OR replacing it.

Professional help is likely to be expensive, so it’s better to try the cheaper solutions first, if possible.