Fashion & Style

How to remove those horrible hair dye stains from the skin of your forehead and neck.

We’ve all done it. We’ve all gone down that embarrassing road. We dye our hair and realize our forehead and ears and neck are now the same color as our hair dye and it is NOT coming off with simple rubbing. Now the easiest way to remove hair dye from skin is to not let it happen and take preventative measures to avoid this catastrophe. When we get our hair dyed professionally, the stylist will usually put a long string of cotton around our entire head, covering our forehead, ears and neck. This, along with a bit of Vaseline or lotion applied anywhere our hair meets our skin will prevent any staining you may get from the dye itself. However, if you are beyond this point and are sitting at your computer with black stains all along your forehead, you probably don’t want to read about what you SHOULD have done. You want to know how to actually remove the dye that is already there. Fortunately, like getting rid of hiccups, all kinds of people have all kinds of remedies that may prove to work on you.

Simple Solutions

Evidently, there are some products you can buy at hair salons and hair beauty supply stores that were created specifically for this purpose, but if you are too embarrassed to run out and purchase these products, there are many home remedies that may work. If you don’t have to be somewhere right away, one of the simplest methods is to rub some Vaseline or baby oil on the stains and leave it on overnight. The stains should be gone by the next morning.

Some serial skin dyers have recommended simply using warm water and anti-bacterial soap or your normal everyday cleanser (like Noxema) to get rid of the stain. Simply splash the area with warm water, apply your cleanser or soap and scrub. Rinse with warm water and repeat until all traces of the stains have disappeared.

Odd Solutions

Developed in the 1970s was a method of removing dye from skin that many hair stylists swear by. If you happen to have ash from cigarettes laying around, either dampen your finger or get a wet rag and rub it in the ashes. Then rub the ashy finger or rag onto the stain. This should rid your skin of the stain with a few rubs. Yet another recommendation is to use toothpaste. Squeeze a small amount of the toothpaste onto your finger and rub it on the stains. Since the toothpaste is slightly abrasive it should take the stains right off without being too harsh on sensitive skin. Two other solutions that seemed a little weird but are worth a try are rubbing the stains with a cotton ball soaked with regular milk or rubbing the stains with your own hair.

Scary Solutions

These following solutions were mentioned, however, I would strongly advise against using them, for safety reasons. Some people have found success in rubbing the stains with nail polish remover that contains acetone to remove them. Still another dyer advised applying hydrogen peroxide to existing stains. Another solution is to rub Comet on the skin that is stained. If you do decide to use one of these methods, you MUST thoroughly cleanse and rinse your face and neck and ears afterwards, making sure not to get these chemicals into your eyes, nose or mouth. Again, I would highly advise against these last three solutions. If all else fails, contact your normal hairstylist and ask for advice or schedule an appointment with him/her to see if he/she can get rid of the stains safely.

Written by Tammy Vela – 2002 Pagewise