How To Prevent Hair Dye From Staining Bathtub

When you dye your hair at home, you want to color your hair, not your bathtub. I’ve colored my hair quite a few times as well as my daughters. It didn’t take me long to learn that blue hair dye can quickly stain everything!

Since that experience, I’ve learned how to prevent hair dye from staining a bathtub. We’ll go over everything that you need to know, including how to remove hair dye from a bathtub if it does get stained. 

How To Avoid Staining Your Bathtub With Hair Dye

If you’re coloring your hair at home, it’s important to follow these tips to make sure that you don’t stain your bathtub. Avoiding stains is much easier than having to remove them. 

Dye Your Hair In A Separate Room

The easiest way to prevent stains when dying your hair is to keep the hair dye out of the bathroom as much as possible. Don’t mix your hair dye in the bathroom, and avoid dying your hair in the bathroom. Splatters of dye can, and will, stain your gorgeous porcelain bathtub. 

Instead, arrange the designated hair dye towels on the floor in your bedroom or living room to catch dye that falls from your hair. Prop a full-length mirror against the wall in the room of your choice, and dye your hair as you normally would. 

Use Gloves

If you’re out of gloves, pick up a new box before dying your hair to help prevent stains. Stains will occur when you wash your hands after you’ve finished your hair. 

If you absolutely must wash your hands, use a stainless steel sink in the house. For most people, that means using your kitchen sink instead of your bathroom sink. 

Cover Your Bathtub With Towels Or Paper Towels When Dying Your Hair

While dying your hair in another room is ideal, this isn’t always an option. If that’s the case, it doesn’t mean that you’re destined to have stubborn stains on your bathtub. Avoid stains by covering your bathtub and bathroom sink while dying your hair. 

Treat dying your hair like you would doing a messy craft project with a kid. If you have a washable painter’s cloth, throw it over your bathtub. You can also use a few more designated hair dye towels or paper towels to protect your porcelain. 

Utilize Petroleum Jelly

If there are small pieces of your bathtub or sink that you can’t seem to keep covered with a towel, put a swipe of Vaseline across them. This is a common trick people use when dying their hair at home to prevent it from staining the skin.

The thicker the layer of petroleum jelly, the better it will be at preventing hair dye stains. 

Clean Up Hair Color Immediately

Sometimes, you’re going to get a splat of hair color somewhere that you don’t want to. In this situation, you want to clean it up as soon as possible to prevent hair dye stains. Hair color removing wipes are great for quick cleanups. 

As you prepare your workspace to dye your hair in your bathroom, make sure that you have something handy to wipe up spills, even if you don’t have hair color removing wipes. Makeup wipes and baby wipes are both great substitutes. You can also use a soft sponge or towel and: 

• Hydrogen peroxide-based cleaners
• Liquid dish soap
• Bathroom cleaning products
• Bleach
• Bathroom cleaner like Tilex
• Chlorine bleach

These will work to both remove the hair dye and prevent hair dye stains on your bathtub. 

Let Cleaners Work To Remove Stains

Sometimes, a simple wipe isn’t going to work to remove hair dye from your bathtub. Permanent dye tends to stain easier. Red and blue hair dye are also notorious for staining everything that they come in contact with, including bathtubs. 

If you still see color on your tub after wiping away the dye, spray it with whatever cleaner you are using. If you’re using standard cleaning bleach, make sure that you put it in a spray bottle and properly dilute it with warm water or cold water.

Then, spray the stain and let the cleaner sit on the stain for twenty minutes. Finally, scrub it with a non-abrasive sponge. 

How To Prevent Hair Dye Stains When Rinsing Your Hair In The Shower

No one wants to see their luxurious bathtubs stained with dye, but you are going to have to rinse out the hair dye from your hair somehow. There are several methods you can use to make sure that fiberglass bathtubs maintain their gorgeous appearance. 

The trash bag method is popular. To prevent hair dye from staining your bathtub, simply cut open a trash bag. Then, spread the trash bag along the floor of the bathtub, and cut a small hole above the drain for the water to go through. 

Standing on the trashbag while taking a shower will be slippery. Instead of risking a fall, bend over the tub to rinse the dye from your hair. After you’re done, let the hair dye dry a bit on the bag before taking it out of the bathtub.

When you remove the bag, make sure that you are careful to avoid spilling dye! You can use this same method with a cheap, plastic painter’s tarp. 

Pastel colors are less likely to stain tubs. You should be safe to simply make sure that you rinse the color all the way down the drain. 

Rinse Hair In A Stainless Steel Sink

Hair dye will not stain a stainless steel sink like it will other materials. If you happen to have one in your kitchen, rinse your hair in the sink. Make sure that you take precautions to avoid staining your sink counter, though! 

How To Get Hair Dye Off a Tub

If you’ve already stained your bathtub, it doesn’t mean that you’re stuck with a splatter of color forever. These quick tips and tricks will help you remove the hair dye stain. 

Baking Soda And Water

Mix one teaspoon of baking soda with warm water to form a thick paste. Spread the paste on the stain, and let it sit for one hour. Then, scrub away the mixture with a microfiber cloth or soft sponge. You can use vinegar if you don’t have baking soda.

Hot Water And Dish Soap

Hot water tends to remove stains more effectively than cold water. Get a cup of clean water, and mix it with dish soap. Use this and a sponge to gently scrub away the stain. 

Hair Color Remover

This is an exceptional product that is designed to remove unwanted stains. It works wonderfully at breaking up the color molecules in semi-permanent color. Simply use it as directed on your bathtub. (They also make products to remove hair dye from skin.)

Nail Polish Remover

If you happen to have nail polish remover handy, use it on your bathtub to remove stains! Simply put some on a cotton ball and wipe away the hair dye. This will even remove the soap scum! 

FAQs

Will permanent dye stain my bathtub?

Yes, both permanent and semi-permanent dye can stain your bathtub. As a general rule of thumb, the darker the color the more likely it is to leave a stain. Cheap box dyes are also more likely to stain your tub. Instead, try henna dye from your local beauty supply store. 

Does red hair dye stain the bathtub?

Red hair dye can, and sometimes does, stain everything it comes into contact with when it is still bleeding. When rinsing hair dye, make sure that you rinse it all the way down the drain. After the first rinse, it is less likely to leave a stain. 

Will hair dye stain a stainless steel sink?

Hair dye will not stain a stainless steel sink. However, bleach will. If you’re using a lightning product, there’s a good chance it will stain your sink. Rinse out the bleach in your tub, and hair dye in your stainless steel sink. 

Does hair dye stain acrylic baths?

Yes, it does. Acrylic tubs are more susceptible to stains than other materials, so you will more than likely find yourself scrubbing them at least once. Use traditional cleaning methods or bleach. A cotton ball and rubbing alcohol or fingernail polish will also work. When all else fails, opt for hair bleach. 

In Conclusion

Dying your hair at home is a cost-effective way to get the color you want. Make sure that you don’t stain your bathtub with these tips.

If you do, it’s important to get hair dye out of your tub as soon as possible to prevent a lasting stain. For more shower cleaning tips, check out this article!