PDA

View Full Version : Stains in bathroom from hair dyes?



k_hepburn
March 31st, 2008, 04:35 AM
I live in a rented apartment and the landlords are currently getting all of the bathrooms in the building re-done. I love the idea of getting a new bathroom. But I am beginning to worry if there is a risk that my colouring my hair with medium - dark brown box-set colours at home may mean there is a risk of leaving behind VERY visible stains - especially since I may be moving out sooner rather than later, probably within the next year, at which stage, according to the lease, I will have to pay for repairing any damage that I may haved caused to the apartement.

Possible staining never used to be a problem so far, since the bathroom was very old, with dark blue / grey tiles and greyinsh grout you wouldn't have noticed any stains on. But the new bathroom is going to be all white tiles, even in the floor of the shower, with no bath tub to rinse my hair over any more. I'm particularly worried about the grout in between the tiles and about the new hand-washing basin (apparently these are not made from solid porcelain any more these days but rather from some sort of coated material ). Have any of you who colour at home - especially using darker, permanent dyes - ever had a problem with persistent stains on bathroom surfaces? Any suggestions on ways to remove them - should I be stocking up on chlorine bleach or something like that before I next bring out the hair colour?

It's not like I usually splash about a lot, but the occasional blob of hair dye WILL find it's way onto the washing basin or floor, and then there is the run off from rinsing the hair out afterwards (as I mentionned: the floor in the shower will be white tiles and grout, too).

Greetings

katharine

Miss Murphy
March 31st, 2008, 04:42 AM
Katharine, I have only had problems with stain once before - and that was in my old apartment with very old fixings. The bathtub was all rough from constant scrubbing, and the dirt sort of just settled there.
So I imagine it shouldn't be a problem with a new shower floor or wash basin.

lilalong
March 31st, 2008, 04:45 AM
I once had problems, with the white cracks between the tiles being stained by my dark brown hair dye. Even lots of scrubbing couldn't get it off.
By contrast, the bathtub has never been a problem. I just rinse the color off. (I'm not waiting until it's dried, though.)

Miss Murphy
March 31st, 2008, 04:51 AM
Hm, you might consider covering the grouts in petroleum jelly before colouring, then. At least the ones within splash range.

Or even easier - why not put down some old newspapers on your bathroom floor?

Bloodflower
March 31st, 2008, 04:58 AM
Before I started with henna and indigo I used to dye with black chemical dye. I never left a single permanent stain in any of the bathrooms I used. I use a normal detergent for the bathroom to clean the surfaces (only the very cheap ones don't seem to work).

I only have two stains from indigo in my current bathroom where the gaps between tub and wall are sealed with silicone. I can't get the silicone white again. But they can be replaced rather easily, so I don't worry about those stains.

Miss Murphy
March 31st, 2008, 05:07 AM
I only have two stains from indigo in my current bathroom where the gaps between tub and wall are sealed with silicone. I can't get the silicone white again. But they can be replaced rather easily, so I don't worry about those stains.

Just a quick note to Bloodflower: I had nail polish marks on silicone once, and just covered it with white Tipp-Ex. Worked like a charm :)

Girltron
March 31st, 2008, 05:42 AM
I think if all else fails and you get a stain on grout, it shouldn't be hard to get a little bit of matching grout and dabble it on the spot with a cheap brush. If you do this cleanly, you could cover up a stain pretty well and permanently. I'd do that about a day before your walk-through at the end of your lease, after trying bleach and everything else.

Also, there's the white toothpaste trick. If you don't mind leaving behind a very nonpermanent fix.

BlackfootHair
March 31st, 2008, 06:31 AM
I think if all else fails and you get a stain on grout, it shouldn't be hard to get a little bit of matching grout and dabble it on the spot with a cheap brush. If you do this cleanly, you could cover up a stain pretty well and permanently. I'd do that about a day before your walk-through at the end of your lease, after trying bleach and everything else.

Also, there's the white toothpaste trick. If you don't mind leaving behind a very nonpermanent fix.


Ha ha...toothpaste...my mom used toothpaste on the bathroom wall to fill in a dent. When I was little I used to eat it. Then she would have to put more on the wall. She used to tell me all the time not to. I can still remember her asking me if I had been eating the toothpaste off the wall again. :D

AutumnLeaves
March 31st, 2008, 01:16 PM
Just as an FYI, when I got hair dye on linoleum and counter tops, I've used a bleach pen and it removed the dye without damaging the finish. It helps too if you lay down a plastic garbage bag over the sink and floor areas right away. Also try to wipe up immediately with clean wet rag and you may avoid staining altogether. Good luck!

Jeni
March 31st, 2008, 01:19 PM
I've never had a problem with the grout staining, my stains always come from the actual dying process (splattering the wall behind me). White isn't such a bad thing though. Go out and get white paint chips, find the shade of white your walls are (make sure the finish is the same) and buy a small sample size and a brush. Before you move carefully paint over any marks. I would think you could get a small amount of grout and just dab it over any stains. For everything else, newspaper, old towels/sheets are your friends. Cleaning the floor or counter is a lot harder then walls and grout!

Jeni

serenitygal
March 31st, 2008, 02:09 PM
Hmm. I'm renting too, and quite anxious to avoid staining my bathroom. My bathroom is also carpeted (dumb idea if you ask me, but no one did). I put down old towels all over the carpet and around the sink area prior to dying. I wear old and black clothes, and dye just a small portion of hair at a time. Finally, once that stuff is on, I don't leave the bathroom until after I've rinsed it out, which keeps the stainable square-footage down to just the bath. My fixtures are older, but the dye seems to wash right off of anything except a couple of caulk spots, which I just recaulked.

chrissy-b
March 31st, 2008, 03:22 PM
rubbing alcohol. dab a little on the spot with a cotton ball. takes out the dye every time.

Darscilla
March 31st, 2008, 03:29 PM
I rinse, rinse, rinse the tiles in the shower with lots of water the moment I've rinsed the dye out, and I've never had any discolouration in the 10 years I've been using permanent black dye. Any 'whoopsies' that get on the walls or floor during application come off with just a swipe with a damp cloth if you get to them right away, as well.

Isilme
March 31st, 2008, 03:37 PM
ok if you are using henna, it will stain textile and plastic, but not tiles, not even white ones:) So, watch out if you place a henna bowl on top of your white washing machine!;)

Kallisti
March 31st, 2008, 04:53 PM
I've used shampoo on a washcloth to get dye stains out of white counter tops and linoleum with success. Recently I dyed a friend's hair red with that Feria Power Reds dye, I dripped a few times and wiped and it wouldn't come off. (That is some powerful stuff) So I grabbed an old washcloth and coated it in shampoo and scrubbed the stain, all of them came off pretty easily when scrubbed with the shampoo.

AlleyKitten
March 31st, 2008, 05:08 PM
I find baking soda is my best friend cleaning tubs and sinks, because it's nice and abrasive, but not so much it will damage the finish. It works really well mixed into a paste with whatever soap you're using. Definitely give it a shot before resorting to bleach and paint.

LifeisAdventure
March 31st, 2008, 05:32 PM
In my 10+ years of chemical dying (I only gave that up a few years ago, bad me!) plus a few experiments with henna, I have never stained any bathtub/shower surfaces. Old tile, new tile, plasticy basins, linoleum, metals, ceramics, none of that had a mark, but what DOES stain is counter tops and cabinets (look out for your vanity!). And if all else fails, there are some good posts here suggesting quick-fixes before your move-out! ;)

Ash
March 31st, 2008, 09:40 PM
At least you don't have carpet in your bathroom! I'm thinking about coloring my floor with a box of hair dye to hide the stains, at least until we redo the floor with tile.
One thing you can do is to put several garbage bags covering your floor and an old towel over them to hold them in place. Another thing that works for me is to use the kitchen sink (stainless steel) to rinse out the dye and maybe to wash my hair in for a couple of days. I barely have to scrub then.

hazelceleste
March 31st, 2008, 11:48 PM
I've made a ton of stains with hair dye, and 99.9% of them have come out with plain chlorine bleach. The only stains that wouldn't bleach out completely were on white grout, which wasn't a huge deal, imo, since grout is easy to repaint.

k_hepburn
April 1st, 2008, 03:09 AM
Thank you all very much for sharing your experience and advice!!!

I am reasonably comforted since the risk of staining does not seem to be as big as I feared.

I am still wondering about the tiles which will end up in the floor of the shower since these have some kind of a roughened surface in order to prevent slipping. I don't know whether that makes them porous (surely putting tiles in a shower that would "suck up" anything intensively coloured must be a bad idea?). Well, we'll see, but I'll definitely be rinsing, rinsing, rinsing (unfortunately the kitchen sink is nor really an option - almost impossible to maneuvre your head under the faucet, plus the hot water supply is limited). I might also take on the idea of using pertolium jelly for "at risk" parts of the grout (I guess putting it on the shower floor tiles themselves wouldn't be such a great idea, since it might make them permanently ultra-slippery shudder:).

And I will be covering up the rest of the floor and vanity surfaces and, just in case, will stock up on some rubbing alcohol and bleach (not to be used at the same time, I presume... :stirpot: ). But I very much like the idea of using shampoo first, before breaking out the hard stuff. It's such an obvious option, I really wonder why it never occurred to me - I must still be mentally compartmentalizing to much (cleaning agents here, hair care there).

So again, thank you very much everybody for helping me with my inquiry!

katharine