How To Keep Black Clothes From Fading

How to Keep Black Clothes from Fading

Faded black clothes can be a remarkably frustrating laundry mishap, but this fading process is not necessarily inevitable. A few essential washing practices can prevent your favorite black garments from losing their color. If those don't prove helpful enough, there are also a few additional tricks you can try.

Part One of Two:
Essential Washing Practices

1
Wash the clothes less.[1] No matter how special you treat your black clothes and how many precautions you take when washing them, the washing cycle itself wears the dye down, eventually causing it to show signs of fading. To limit the effects of fading, you should only wash your black clothes when necessary. If you can skip a washing here or there, do so to preserve the integrity of the dye.
Black pants and sweaters worn over other layers of clothing can usually be worn up to four or five times before needing to be put through the wash, especially if the clothes are only worn indoors. Similarly, if you only wear the garment for a few hours a day, it can likely be set aside and worn again without going through a washing cycle.
Note, however, that black undergarments and socks should be washed after one wearing.
In between washings, you can treat stains with stain remover and eliminate chalky residue from deodorant with a dry sponge.


2
Sort with like colors. Whenever possible, wash your black clothes with other black clothes or with other dark garments. Dye has a tendency to run during the washing cycle, but if there are no lighter garments to soak of the dark dyes, those dyes will be reabsorbed back into the black clothes they came from.
Aside from separating clothes according to color, you should also separate them according to weight. Doing so can protect the weave and color of your more delicate black garments.

3
Turn the garments inside out. The surface of the fabric directly exposed to the abrasive washing cycle is the surface that will receive the most wear. As a result, the dye will fade first on the surface always facing out during the laundry. Preserve the outside of black clothing by turning each garment inside out before you wash it.
Black color fades due to the friction that results when clothes rub against each other in the washing machine.
More precisely, friction causes the fibers to break, and the ends of those fibers are exposed. Since the surface of the fabric is disrupted, the human eye sees less color, even when no dye has actually been lost.
You can further reduce the amount of abrasion and friction your clothes experience by closing zippers and fastening any hooks.

4
Use cold water. Warm water encourages dye to loosen from the fibers and bleed, so bright colors and black clothes tend to fade faster when washed in warm temperatures. Washing these garments in cold water, on the other hand, can preserve the dye longer.
Warm water breaks down fibers, which is why the colors fade faster in warm wash cycles.
Your cold water cycle should use water ranging between 60 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit (15.6 and 26.7 degrees Celsius) and no warmer.
Note that you may need to change your laundry habits during cold winter weather. Freezing cold outdoor temperatures can cause the water temperature of your washing machine to drop below 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4.4 degrees Celsius). In temperatures this low, even liquid detergents may not be entirely effective. If the temperature outdoors drop below 0 degrees Fahrenheit (-17.8 degrees Celsius), you should consider using a warm water wash and a cold water rinse.
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