Many shades of grey

June 5, 2006 7:04 PM

How do I keep my blacks black?

For my work I have to wear a lot of black clothing. I find that the color fades quickly- often with just a couple washings. Is there anything I can do to retain the color longer? As a side note, I rarely dryclean, just use my washer and hang to dry. The fading happens to dry-clean-only clothes and regular clothes.

posted by purplefiber to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (22 answers total)

There are washing additives for keeping black clothes black just as there are for keeping whites white.

Although not necessarily where you live.

If you google for "persil black velvet" you'll find links from the UK and Ireland. It seems to be a rather experimental new product though.

If all else fails maybe someone can send you some in the mail?

But lots of other sites have tips on things like washing in vinegar before you wash black clothes the first time and so on.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 7:20 PM on June 5, 2006

Also,
1) sometimes just buying cheap black clothing is worthwhile if you go through it quickly. (like from Ross, perhaps)
2) synthetic materials stay blacker longer than cotton.
posted by fireflies to stars at 7:24 PM on June 5, 2006

Cheer dark?
posted by IvyMike at 7:31 PM on June 5, 2006

I wash all blacks in cold water with Woolite dark, and dry them on gentle. I actually get pretty terrific results. Even some of my cheap Target blacks have stayed nice and dark through months of regular washing. I've kept better clothing respectably dark for a couple years.
posted by j-dawg at 7:41 PM on June 5, 2006

Wash in cold water always and dry on the lowest setting.
posted by CunningLinguist at 7:44 PM on June 5, 2006

Avoid ironing them if at all possible.
posted by furtive at 7:49 PM on June 5, 2006

Cold water & Cheer dark. Apparently, it has something in it that neutralizes the chlorine in water.
posted by theora55 at 7:57 PM on June 5, 2006

oh, and I also wash all my blacks together in cold water.
posted by fireflies to stars at 7:58 PM on June 5, 2006

Don't overstuff your washer--do smallish loads of laundry for your nicer darks. Also, turn your clothes inside-out before you wash 'em.
posted by neda at 7:58 PM on June 5, 2006

Response by poster: Great answers- thanks folks. Funny- I made a trip to Ross this afternoon for the express purpose of buying more black clothes (great minds think alike, LS).
posted by purplefiber at 7:59 PM on June 5, 2006

If you're hanging your clothes outside to dry, that's probably your problem. Ultraviolet from the sun causes most synthetic dyes to fade, and it can be quite rapid. (And there's a lot of ultraviolet even on cloudy days.)
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 8:05 PM on June 5, 2006

The woman who used to run the wash & fold place near me recommended turning black jeans inside out before washing. Since that laundromat closed and I started using another one, some of my blacker jeans have become noticeably greyer. May just be coincidence, but I'm going to start turning my own jeans inside out.
posted by aneel at 8:06 PM on June 5, 2006

Hoo boy, can't anyone dig up the previous thread that had all the same answers?

Well, anyway, let me point out again that cleaners were originally known as cleaners & dyers because clothes were progressively dyed darker rather than cleaned.

If you keep your blacks separate, you could re-dye them in your washing machine with rit dyes or such.
posted by StickyCarpet at 8:12 PM on June 5, 2006

To be honest, cheap clothes won't last nearly as long as quality stuff. Jeans are a good example - denim from, say, Express will tend to fade and run in just a few washes where a lot of quality denim (that can cost a bit more) won't. I wash mine inside out and don't dry them at all, and I figure this would work for most of your blacks and darks. The only clothes I do dry are undershirts, workout clothes, and underwear/socks (plus towels and such).
posted by kcm at 8:29 PM on June 5, 2006

Denim is a lousy example, because for the majority of denim wearers, having the color fade is an advantage. (It looks cooler, or something like that.)
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 10:19 PM on June 5, 2006

Once or twice a year, I re-dye all of my black, washable clothes black again. The clothes are already black to begin with so I ignore the manufactures recommended weight to dye ratio and fill the washer as though I was doing a normal load. Everything comes out looking revitalized because the small gray hairy/furry bits are black again. Also, this works best on solid black clothing rather than something like black jeans with color gradations.

I find this to be enormously satisfying.
posted by defreckled at 10:49 PM on June 5, 2006

previously
posted by Mr Stickfigure at 2:28 AM on June 6, 2006

Yep, turn your clothes inside out before washing them (and check they are still inside out when drying them). This helps preserve colour quite a bit.
posted by pollystark at 3:59 AM on June 6, 2006

defreckled, I am so trying that.
posted by CunningLinguist at 4:20 AM on June 6, 2006

Can I just say I was astonished on visiting your user page to discover you're in San Francisco? I just assumed anyone who has to wear a lot of black clothing for work lives in NYC.
posted by languagehat at 5:57 AM on June 6, 2006

Consumer Reports tested dark laundry detergents and found they worked, but not really any better than regular detergents. It isn’t what those products have but what they don’t – optical brighteners, which deposit on black clothes and work at cross purposes anyway.

I seem to recall that the book Laundry scarcely discussed this subject in its 380 or so pages.
posted by joeclark at 5:58 AM on June 6, 2006

neda - your advice is counter-intuitive. You'd expect that if dye was leaching from clothing, doing less per load would result in greater dilution of the leached dye, and faster fading. Is there something I'm missing? I really would like to know, because I always do full loads of darks, according to my reasoning above.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 5:18 PM on June 7, 2006