Why does white shirts turn yellow

Only use on pure white clothes and fabrics. Yellow color remover product for white clothes. Tip 4 — Use a liquid bluing agent. For white clothing that has severely yellowed. An old school product for yellowed whites is called laundry bluing. This bluing agent should be added to the wash cycle or rinsing cycle.

This product is to get white clothing to appear brighter white. This product can be used incorrectly and stain your clothing, so read the directions on the product before you use it. Hang a rope line outside and try drying your white clothing outside in the sunlight. The suns rays actually help to whiten the clothing or fabric. Give it a try to see if this helps to remove the yellow stains on your white shirts.

If you work in a restaurant and your white shirts turn yellow, it may be from the cooking residue in the air. If you work with people who smoke, the smoke in the air contains nicotine and tar and can stain your white shirt. If you work in a HOT environment, you may sweat enough to turn the white shirt yellow. If you have a white shirt that is 10 years old, it may turn yellow from age alone.

If a white shirt gets yellow stains around the white shirt collar it is from heat and sweat. So consider the reasons why or how your shirt turned yellow and use the methods above to get them bright white again! Need tips and tricks for removing pet hair from your clothes?

Is your washing machine causing stains on your clothing? Ever wonder if you can wash pillows in the washing machine? However, we do recommend checking the garment label to know whether it is suitable for bleaching or not or do a patch test on a small inconspicuous part of the garment, just to be on the safe side.

Pro tip: Pay special attention to the areas like shirt underarms, collars, areas around buttons, or any food stains that are on the garment.

Now that the pre-soaking is over, we recommend rinsing out the clothes — they are now ready to be washed. The general thumb rule is to use the hottest temperature of water that the material can take, but it also varies from fabric to fabric. We know from experience that delicate linens need a lower wash temperature than more robust cotton bed sheets, so we recommend choosing an average water temperature that is warmer than usual.

Most of us automatically assume that our white garments would be clean once they are through with the whole cycle of washing, and rightly so. However, it is always a good idea to check on the clothes once they are out of the washing bucket. If the stains still persist, we recommend re-treating the area and washing it again before putting it out to dry. There is a risk of the stains settling into our precious whites if this step is ignored.

Ultraviolet rays from the sun help to brighten and whiten garments, so choose a nice, sunny day to wash your whites and dry them outside. If a dryer is being used, the best bet would be to run them through a low heat cycle, remove the clothes from the dryer while slightly damp and let them sun-dry the rest of the way.

Wearing white clothes more than 3 or 4 times before washing them or not checking for stains before storing them away for next usage is the biggest cause of them turning yellow due to ongoing decay as well as invisible chemical reactions. Additionally, we often wash whites together with our coloured garments to save time or avoid an extra wash cycle — this practice needs to be stopped immediately as it is one of the biggest causes of white clothes turning yellow over a period of time.

An old-fashioned laundry product, laundry bluing , can be added to the wash or rinse water to make white clothes appear brighter. Just carefully follow the directions on the bottle. If neither oxygen-based bleach or bluing gets your clothing white enough, use a commercial color remover such at Rit Color Remover to strip away any color from the clothing. It should not be used if there is colored trim or decorations on the clothing. If possible, line-dry white laundry outside in the sun.

The ultraviolet rays of sunlight will help to whiten the clothes. Chlorine bleach can be used on cotton fabrics that have yellowed due to storage issues. Always follow product directions and don't use too much bleach. If you can detect a chlorine odor as you remove wet laundry from the washer, you are using too much bleach. Cut back on the amount used and add a second rinse to remove as much of the residue as possible. As a last resort, if you love the clothing and can't get the yellow out, consider dyeing the fabric another color.

Today's dyes are more colorfast than those of the past. You should be able to enjoy the garment for many more wearings. Environmental factors like the nicotine from cigarette smoke or greasy cooking residue can cause fabrics to yellow. Underarm yellowing on shirts happens due to a reaction between your antiperspirant and body salts.

Clothes that are stored improperly can react with the acids in a cardboard box or wooden shelves and turn yellow. Chlorine bleach is great for cleaning and disinfecting but it can cause yellowing if overused or if used on white synthetic fibers like nylon, microfibers, or polyester.

The bleach weakens the fibers and returns the synthetic polymers back to their original color, yellow. Even white fabrics made from natural fibers like cotton and linen can turn yellow if they are exposed to too much chlorine bleach.

Overuse of chlorine bleach can also cause white clothes to yellow when hung on a clothesline outside to dry because the sun adds another layer of bleaching due to ultra-violet rays. And, if you are using too much detergent or fabric softener and not rinsing well, the high heat of the clothes dryer can "bake" the residue into the fibers and leave them grey or yellow.