IHT-1600-WHT - 11oz Cotton Knit Crew Neck Short Sleeved T-Shirt - White
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@Brandrea @indigostiff the blue armpit stains are due to indigo transfer. I wore an indigo shirt with my leather jacket and then this t shirt. Otherwise, I didn’t wear this shirt with anything unusual.
From what I’ve read, white clothes can turn yellow, similar to paper, due to oxidation. This can be accelerated if not all the oils and sweat have been removed when washing. I usually washed this shirt on a delicate cycle, so that could be partially responsible.
I soaked it over night in oxygen bleach and it helped a lot. I may do it again or try chlorine bleach.
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@DrPat Silly question perhaps but are you in the habit of applying sunscreen? seen something similar when people apply this liberally to the back of the neck and it's done something like that, and runs down back mixed in with sweat.
Just a thought. -
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@Stringthing75 I live in a cool and cloudy environment and don't usually wear sunscreen, but thanks for the suggestion.
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@Brandrea said in IHT-1600-WHT - 11oz Cotton Knit Crew Neck Short Sleeved T-Shirt - White:
I hope you manage to find a solution. I’ve never been able to get my white tees completely stain free especially the neck area, which is why I don’t wear them a lot especially on hot days.
I love the look of a crisp white tee, I just can’t keep them clean
Same here! Live in a hot, humid and sometimes also dusty environment. Killer place for white tees and white shirts.
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I managed to get rid of the stains on my shirt. I did 3 overnight soaks in oxygen bleach followed by 3 washes on a medium cycle at 40 degrees. This removed about 90% of the yellow stains. However, the blue stains in the armpits were still there because the oxygen bleach was not strong enough to break down the indigo.
I then soaked the shirt for 15 minutes at 60 degrees in sodium hydrosulfite, which partially reduced the indigo by removing oxygen and turned the stains pink. If it indigo was fully reduced, the stains would have turned yellow. I then rinsed the shirt to remove the sodium hydrosulfite. If I had let the shirt dry, the indigo would have slowly oxidized and return to blue. Instead, I put it back into a bucket of oxygen bleach. Even though oxygen bleach performs the opposite chemical reaction as sodium hydrosulfite, the oxidation was quick enough that it was able to break down the indigo in its weakened state so the stains were removed instead of turning blue again.
I then washed the shirt with a hard wash at 60 degrees. Afterwards, the yellow stains were invisible and the indigo stains very faint.
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@will6er It is tiny indeed.
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@will6er It’s a medium. I didn’t measure before and after washing but I didn’t notice and drastic shrinkage.
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@DrPat Is your scientific technique why you're a Dr?
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@indigostiff Yea, but it's in physics and not chemistry.
