Mrs. Stewarts blueing

[SwanFeathers]

So... I'm going to be weird for just a minute. I wash my laundry by hand and I blue my whites to brighten them. Once in awhile I stain my hands blue, and it occurs to me that if I didnt bun my hair that too might be stained.
Has anyone used laundry blueing as an alternative hair dye?

[Jo Ann]

Not per se, but I've used Era Laundry Detergent before to force-fade my semi-permanent hair color and it has bluing in it to "whiten and brighten" whites and colors AND had it put a faint blue tint to my hair before (it washed out in the next shampooing, though).

[SwanFeathers]

I wonder if its the same stuff in the purple whitening shampoo?

[Kat]

Didn't old ladies used to use blueing on their hair to brighten the white? Isn't that why old ladies had the stereotype of having pastel-blue hair, because some of them overdid it? LOL.

(In fact, I seem to remember that one of the Ramona books found her managing to turn her doll's hair green, because the doll was blond and she decided to give it a "blue rinse" like she'd heard of some older neighbor or relative having done to her hair...)

[Riot Crrl]

I think most purple shampoos contain synthetic dyes like Violet 2. People definitely use bluing (diluted quite a bit) in place of purple shampoo. Mrs. Stewart's does discuss that on their web site although they do not mention dying your hair straight up blue. I might try it for toning one day.

[Obsidian]

Didn't old ladies used to use blueing on their hair to brighten the white? Isn't that why old ladies had the stereotype of having pastel-blue hair, because some of them overdid it? LOL.

(In fact, I seem to remember that one of the Ramona books found her managing to turn her doll's hair green, because the doll was blond and she decided to give it a "blue rinse" like she'd heard of some older neighbor or relative having done to her hair...)

Yes, I remember reading that or hearing it someplace. I was actually thinking about trying it once I grow my grey out some more. I think it would brighten without giving the ashy tone purple shampoos can.

[lapushka]

So... I'm going to be weird for just a minute. I wash my laundry by hand and I blue my whites to brighten them. Once in awhile I stain my hands blue, and it occurs to me that if I didnt bun my hair that too might be stained.
Has anyone used laundry blueing as an alternative hair dye?

We wash whites at least on 60°C, my mom used to wash them at 95°C (our machine still does that, it's almost boiling point). So when you do them by hand, that has to be 40° tops in order not to burn yourself; can you get all the staining out easily at that low a temperature? Just curious.

[illicitlizard]

We wash whites at least on 60°C, my mom used to wash them at 95°C (our machine still does that, it's almost boiling point). So when you do them by hand, that has to be 40° tops in order not to burn yourself; can you get all the staining out easily at that low a temperature? Just curious.

I wash everything on cold and have never had an issue with staining... The detergent does its job in my case

[lapushka]

I wash everything on cold and have never had an issue with staining... The detergent does its job in my case

Even for men's white underwear and blood stains?

[MusicalSpoons]

We wash most things at 40℃, some things at 30℃ as per instructions, towels at 60℃ and sometimes my Dad's uniform at 60℃ (if it's caked in grass stains, mud, even chicken blood/feathers in the past). A decent detergent will get out stains (even blood) at 20℃, especially if it's been pre-soaked.

I've actually never heard of blueing - is it literally a blue liquid? We have used blue coloured detergents at times, but I wouldn't dream of getting it anywhere near my hair