How to Remove Collar Stains

By Matt Oden | Comments | Bodily Fluids Stains → Sweat | Fabric Stains → Clothing

If you need to remove collar stains from your dress shirts, you need proper tools. Organic body oil and hair oil will accumulate around the neck which then creates the ring stain around the collar on a dress shirt.

Pre-Treatment to Remove Collar Stain Rings from Dress Shirts

Prior to pre-treatment to remove collar stain rings from your dress shirts, you should remove the collar stays. They should always be removable.

It is important to understand that the stain on your collar is oil-based the most popular method of pre-treatment includes dishwashing detergent and shampoo.

These items need to be applied directly to the affected area. Once this is done, you should gently scrub the stain with a toothbrush.

The collar itself should be scrubbed. If you do not want to damage the collar, or are afraid that you will when you remove collar stain rings from your dress shirts, then you can rub the stain with your fingers instead of a toothbrush.

After you have done this and applied the pre-treatment product thoroughly, let the product soak into the collar for fifteen to thirty minutes. Once that amount of time has passed, you should thoroughly inspect the shirt collar to make sure that the stain has been removed. After this, you can wash the item in the washing machine as usual.

It is most important that you read the label on each item thoroughly before attempting to remove collar stain rings from your dress shirts. You should test a small area on the collar before you use a particular stain remover or detergent to remove collar stain rings from your dress shirts.

Test the area in an inconspicuous portion on the inside of the back of the collar before using it on the entire collar to ensure that there is no damage to the color of the fabric.

If the stain you are trying to remove is a yellow color, or a green color and the texture is crispy or crunchy, then the stain is a result of perspiration. If, however, the stain on the back of the collar is white or clear in color and it has a greasy texture, then the stain is a result of an antiperspirant.

Therefore, it should be pre-treated as a grease stain. If you know which stain it is, then you know which solvent is appropriate to remove collar stain rings from your dress shirts.

Avoiding Bleach When Removing Collar Stains

Bleach is one of the worst items you could use when you are removing collar stains even if the fabric is white. The chlorine contained in household bleach creates a reaction to the proteins contained in the perspiration and will then darken the stain.

This is what creates the dark yellow color in the stains around the collar.

Many household liquid detergents are specially designed to tackle difficult protein stains. This means they are perfect for removing collar stains which are caused by perspiration.

If you are using household laundry detergent, you should try and use ones whose labels state that they have concentrating or oxygenated powers meant for protein-based stains such as grass stains and food.

Should the liquid laundry detergent fail to remove collar stain rings from your dress shirts, then you can create a combination treatment. You begin by dampening the affected area again with detergent.

Then set the items in the sun. The garment should be kept damp using cold water. Leave the item in the sun all day, then wash it as usual, and let it air dry.

If you still need to remove collar stain rings from your dress shirts, you can use hydrogen peroxide on your white fabrics. It reacts with the same proteins from perspiration and instead of creating another chemical reaction, it breaks apart the proteins.

However, you should bear in mind that hydrogen peroxide contains whitening properties like chlorine bleach so it should be used with caution if you are trying to remove collar stain rings from your colored dress shirts.

It is most important that you remove collar stain rings from your dress shirts as soon as possible. If the stains continue through many wash cycles before they are removed, then they become decidedly more difficult to remove, especially if they fail to undergo any pre-treatment.