Nothing can be worse than seeing your newly bought pair of jeans or black shirt getting faded after a few washes.
Clothes fade because the warm water breaks down the fibres. One of the simplest solutions is to stop washing your clothes in warm water, but again, you must get your clothes cleaned. Giving your clothes for dry cleaning is not only time consuming, but also costly.
If you want to save your clothes from fading and keep it clean and crisp, try the below-mentioned tips that can help you preserve the colour of your clothes.
- When you wash your clothes in washing machine or hand wash them, some wear and tear will happen to the fabric, irrespective of how cautiously you wash them. Before you wash, think twice whether you need to wash those clothes, or you can wear them for some more time. Use a hanger to hang the cloth, so that it won’t be smelly the next time you wear it.
- Sort out the clothes before you put them in the washing machine. Differentiate the clothes that need to be washed and ones that need to be just dry cleaned. Never wash dark shades with light-coloured clothes. There are chances that the dark colour gets stuck to the lighter shades.
- Turn clothes inside out. While washing clothes in a washing machine, make sure you put them inside out. Keeping the dark side inside lessens the friction caused by rubbing against clothes, which in turn destroys the fibres. Make sure you close all the zippers and fasten the hooks.
- Spot treat between the washes. Until and unless your clothes are very dirty, you can wear it three to four times without washing them. If there are minor spills or stains, try to get rid of those using a stain remover and let it dry.
- Use a special detergent. You must use a special washing detergent for cold water loads that will neutralize the amount of chlorine present in the tap water, which is one of the main causes behind fading colours. Take a small amount of detergent, as too much powder, can leave a strong residue on the dark clothes.
- For drying, hang on the clothes under the sun. It is always better to hang the wet clothes under the sun rather than drying it using a dryer. This is so because the heat produced by the dryer can fade the dark-coloured clothes, so hang dry or lay flat when you wash dark clothes. If at all you need to use a dryer, ensure that you use it for a short span of time and put it in the lowest temperature to avoid over-drying.
- Use a fabric conditioner while washing your clothes. Fabric conditioner acts as a magical force. It helps in lubricating the fibres during the wash, so that they don’t get destroyed easily.
- Use a cup of vinegar each time you wash clothes to avoid fading. As a bonus, vinegar acts as a natural fabric softener. Don’t worry! The smell will be washed away once it is rinsed.
- You can also add half a cup of salt while washing new clothes. Adding salt locks the colour and prevents fading.