# stripy toothpaste
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stripy-toothpaste/162247
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 18, 2003, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stripy-toothpaste/162247 "2003-03-18T11:30:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@phraser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phraser)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2003, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stripy-toothpaste/162247/1 "2003-03-18T11:30:52Z")
This is something which has been bugging me for ages…
Toothpaste that has three different colours in it (like Macleans triple stripe or Colgate Triplemint)-
how do they make it so that all three colours always come out (and as stripes) at the same time when you squeeze, no matter how you squeeze the tube?
😕
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2003, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stripy-toothpaste/162247/2 "2003-03-18T11:37:50Z")
Inside the tube (I dissected one once) is just a single big, broad striped blob of toothpaste; the shoulders of the tube narrow in a funnel-like way so that when you squeeze the tube, the end of the big broad stripe is extruded through the funnel and comes out of the nozzle as a thin, long stripe.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2003, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stripy-toothpaste/162247/3 "2003-03-18T11:47:42Z")
like [this](http://www.eat-it.freeserve.co.uk/stuff/toothpaste.gif)
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### Author:  [@phraser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phraser)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2003, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stripy-toothpaste/162247/4 "2003-03-18T12:26:44Z")
dissecting the tube was going to be my next step…
if that’s the case, how come if you squeeze it from a medial/lateral perspective as opposed a dorsal/ventral perspective, you still get stripes? wouldn’t you expect to get different proportions of the colours, seeing as toothpaste tubes are not perfect cylinders etc?
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2003, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stripy-toothpaste/162247/5 "2003-03-18T12:30:04Z")
It is harder than you might expect to mix up the colours inside the tube, mainly due to their viscosity, but also because of the relatively small diameter and the absence of voids.
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### Author:  [@peepthis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peepthis)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2003, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stripy-toothpaste/162247/6 "2003-03-18T14:12:13Z")
[Cecil speaks on how they get stripes in toothpaste](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_173.html):
> [@](#):
>
> The stripes were created by a special device that was fitted to the nozzle end of the tube: a tube within the tube, if you will, about one inch in length and perforated with a ring of small holes around the top.
>
> Toothpaste tubes are normally filled from the flat end, which is then folded over and sealed. In the case of Stripe, a red toothpaste was first filled around the special fitting; the white toothpaste, filled second, held the red toothpaste in place at the top of the tube.
>
> When the tube was squeezed, the white toothpaste would run through the special inner tube, while the pressure of the squeeze simultaneously forced the red toothpaste through the tiny orifices at the end. With the flow of red matched to the flow of white, the toothpaste emerged from the nozzle perfectly striped.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2003, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stripy-toothpaste/162247/7 "2003-03-18T14:34:52Z")
Wow, there wasn’t anything like that sort of complexity in the tube I cut open; no internal divisions at all and the nozzle was just a hole in the end (it was a three-coloured toothpaste).
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### Author:  [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2003, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stripy-toothpaste/162247/8 "2003-03-18T15:13:03Z")
I only buy single-coloured toothpaste so can’t do my own experiment, but it seems likely that there are at least two methods. I’ve seen plenty of explanations in “how does it work?”-style books that corroborate Cecil’s version and **Mangetout** has used his own empirical approach.
I remember using Signal when I was a kid that was basically white with red stripes painted along the sides (so that would have used Cecil’s method). Paste that is already striped inside the tube would come out with all the colours “embedded” within it. Maybe the OP could take a close look next time he brushes to see which method applies?
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### Author:  [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2003, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stripy-toothpaste/162247/9 "2003-03-18T15:27:00Z")
Wouldn’t the use of such a system as Cecil described bring the cost up significantly?
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### Author:  [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2003, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stripy-toothpaste/162247/10 "2003-03-18T21:00:58Z")
Cecil’s explanation applies only to Stripe toothpaste, a brand which I believe is no more. AquaFresh, the most popular striped toothpaste that I know of, comes in a tube with a clear plastic shoulder; one may plaunly see that the stripes run all the way through the paste, all the way down the tube.