Many a beloved black shirt or pair of black jeans have I witnessed fade to a dull charcoal gray after repeated washings. This eventually happens in spite of my taking preventative measures such as using a water softener, consistently washing and drying my black clothes separately, and using liquid detergent instead of the white powder stuff.
Is there anything I can do to reverse the fading process? I know there is bleach to make whites whiter; is there an anti-bleach to make blacks blacker? Can I safely soak my clothes in black dye? Can I pour a cup of ink into the washing machine? If so, where do I find a relatively inexpensive black ink or dye that works on cotton, denim, and synthetic fabrics, and won’t wash out right away?
Wow, this Rit dye sounds great… I don’t recall ever seeing it in any supermarket or pharmacy here in Toronto, though. Fortunately, their FAQ says you can order direct from them.
This is about the only time I’ve found that marketing hype translates into laundry room reality: If you love black or deep-colored clothes, it really can make sense to use different detergents for whites’n’lights and brights’n’darks. The optical whiteners that prevent greying and make the light colors look “clean” are hell on the dyes of colored fabrics.
Also, as Sue Duhnym said, wash the dark colored clothing inside out. And if you hang it to dry, then definitely hang it inside out, and out of the sun if at all possible. Sunlight is a terrific bleaching agent!
Wash your black cotton clothing in cold water, no matter what the label says. Black is going to fade, but in cold water and on gentle cycle it won’t fade as fast.
Reminds me of an old promotional poster for Joe “King” Carasco. It showed a fake laundry detergent ad, with a huge bottle of tabasco sauce being poured into a washing machine. The tag line was “Redder Reds. Redder Whites too!”
Personally, I wouldn’t bother with Rit dyes. They aren’t very good. And black is a particularly difficult color.
Some suggestions…when I am finished with a tie-dye or batik project, I always use a dye fixative in the final rinse. I helps keep colors from fading. You might want to try using a fixative on new clothing.
When I dye, I use cold water dyes, like Procion. They are much stronger. That would be my choice for over-dyeing a faded piece of clothing.
