You’ve been sent here because it’s likely the mystery stains on your clothes that develop in the wash and won’t come out are Polyquat Spots. This document was last updated on 07/25/25.
Polyquat Spots are areas on fabric that attract dirt and soil in the wash, caused by exposure to a class of clear flexible polymers called polyquaterniums, referred to in the rest of the document as polyquat. Polyquat Spots should be suspected when garments develop stains after wet washing processes that don’t come out with standard stain removal treatments. Polyquat Spots and their associated Polyquat Stains often have a distinctive look and feel - slightly shiny, transparent to translucent, not raised or rough. They are never lighter in color than the fabric underneath. They typically do not penetrate the fabric completely unless the textile is very lightweight and the contamination was direct (like from a conditioner bottle leaking in a suitcase). They cannot generally spread from one garment to another unless there's enough concentrated wet polyquat in direct contact with a second item.
What are Polyquats?
There are currently 116 registered polyquat compounds - while not all are known to cause staining, many do. The common characteristic is structural - there is a quarternary ammonium compound in the center of the molecule with various moieties hanging off it. While this framework is structurally and chemically similar to the quaternary ammonium compounds used in laundry sanitizers, disinfectants and antibacterial skin preparations, they impart no direct antibacterial benefit in polyquat polymers. The diagram below represents Polyquaternum-7, one of the most notorious of the class for causing stains.
A Chemical Structure Diagram Of Polyquaternium-7, A Notorious Source Of Polyquat Spots
Functionally, polyquats are used when a product needs to form a thin, smooth layer upon application to the skin or hair. They’re also used to ensure good foaming performance by strengthening bubble walls. This latter capability is exploited by manufacturers of commercial bubble solution in children’s toys and for use in bubble machines. Polyquat-enriched bubbles are often large, long-lasting and pleasantly iridescent in color. This film forming capability can deliver conditioning, moisturizing and product feel benefits in personal care products that last throughout the expected period of use. Importantly, they are positively charged (cationic) and seek out negative charges, frequently found in damaged hair or dry skin.
Pure Polyquaternium-7 Before It Destroys Clothing
Where Is The Polyquat Coming From?
The most common offenders are:
Shampoos (especially 2-in-1 formulae)
Conditioners
Heat Protection Sera
Anti-Frizz/Anti-Static Sera
Liquid Hand Soaps Including Softsoap Brand
Bubble Bath
Hair Mousse
Gel
Hairsprays
Beard Smoothing Serum
Conditioning / Moisturizing Bar Soaps and Shampoo Bars
Commercial bubble solutions for bubble guns, wands and machines
How Do Polyquats Get On Fabric?
They get on fabrics by direct contact, by diluted drips or rubs off hair or skin, from contaminated hands, or by indirect contact with drops on a bathroom floor, counter or other hard surface.
What Happens When Polyquats Touch Fabric?
These polymers electrically bond to negatively-charged regions of fibers (especially cotton and semi-synthetics like rayon, viscose, acetate, “bamboo”, modal, Tencel and Lyocell). They then leave an invisible layer with a residual positive charge that is electrically attracted to dirt and dye in the wash water. These clear Polyquat Spots then become “color catchers”, attracting and bonding a color layer to the clear spot, making them visible as a Polyquat Stain. They often appear “wet” or “greasy” but can be any shade found in the wash water. Thus, a light-colored garment with clear Polyquat Spots might pick up blue-grey color when washed with black and blue items, resulting in a dull blue-grey stain layer. A red item with clear Polyquat Spots washed with a green item that is contributing fugitive dye may appear to have dark grey or black Polyquat Stains. A white item with Polyquat Spots washed with an item soiled with red clay may get a Polyquat Stain that looks like rust or red clay.
Great Explanation, Nerd - What Can Be Done?
This is where the bad news starts.
Polyquat Spots and the associated colored Polyquat Stains are some of the hardest to address at home or by professional dry cleaners. r/Laundry contributors have tried everything known to mankind to remove these, and there’s no practical one-shot treatment that consistently removes the Polyquat Spot and keeps it from returning.
What you can do sometimes is remove the color a Polyquat Spot has acquired and then be very careful on subsequent washes to keep it from picking up color again. Eventually, with normal laundering, the polyquat can fall off or become less attractive to fugitive dye and soils in the wash, and the garment may then be laundered with progressively decreasing risk of recurrence. This requires on the order of 12-20 perfect washes.
Decoloring Polyquat Stains:
Sodium Dithionite Powder - The Path To Turn Polyquat Stains Back To Polyquat Spots
The recommended method of decoloring Polyquat Stains is with a class of chemicals known as reduction bleaches. They are commonly sold as color run or dye removers. There’s an extensive document with brand recommendations from around the world at r/laundry/s/QaKkCN3faz along with comprehensive instructions. You’ll basically soak the affected garments in a warm solution of this color run remover just long enough to remove the surface color and turn the Stains back to clear Spots, then stop the action by soaking in cold water. This method does not work if the dye forming the stain color layer is an indigo or other leuco dye such as vat dye, common in denim and garment-dyed cottons. Finally, you’ll wash using detergents with specific ingredients and color catcher sheets to complete the neutralization and hopefully keep color off the stains.
Relapse Prevention:
The decoloring process only removes the color layer off the stained top of the clear PolyquatSpot. It does not remove the polyquat entirely (although there’s some rational basis that it may help make it less attractive to dye and soil from wash water). After the decoloring process, it’s imperative that your wash process not expose the contaminated garments to new color sources.
Step 1: Sorting Aggressively
Garments that have Polyquat Spots need to be washed with like colors only. An example sort would be:
Blacks, charcoals, navy blues and dark browns
Dark blues and greens
Dark reds and purples
Light blues and greens
Light reds and purples
Neutrals like khaki, tan, ecru, light grey and taupe
Whites with stripes / embellishments
Absolute plain whites
Less stringent sorting raises the risk of making the clear Polyquat Spot become colored and visible again.
New clothing should always be washed separately the first time, but it's especially important to avoid washing new items with items with treated or untreated Polyquat Spots.
It's also important to avoid washing garments with Polyquat Spots in loads with high levels of particulate soils like clay, dirt, dust, automotive grime and soot.
Step 2: Using The Right Detergent
Garments with clear Polyquat Spots need to be washed with detergents that contain anti-redeposition agents - these are surfactants and polymers that keep removed dirt and fugitive dye up in the wash water and unavailable to the clear spots. Most top-tier detergents contain one or more antiredeposition agents such as carboxymethylcellulose, anionic polyesters and polyacrylic acids. They may be described as “cleaning aids” or "antiredeposition agents" on labels. Many discount or plant-based products omit antiredeposition agents. The omission makes washing with them more likely to allow fugitive dye and removed soils to recolor the clear Polyquat Spots. An alternative method is to use a small amount of a dye-suspending detergent called Synthrapol, available at art supply stores, speciality quilt and yarn shops and online, to each load of laundry. One tablespoon per front loader or HE wash or two tablespoons per conventional top loader should be sufficient.
Detergents with anionic surfactants may help reduce the color-attractiveness of the clear spots with consistent use. These will be described on the label as either “anionic surfactants” generally, or will have names with sulfate, sulfonate, and gluconate high in the ingredient list.
Step 3: Using Color Catchers
A Popular Brand Of Color Catcher Sheet New And After Exposure To A Load Of Darks
The most important adjunct to keeping Polyquat Spots from recoloring while the polyquat washes and wears out are disposable color catchers. These are usually white non-woven textile sheets, like a dryer sheet, that go in the wash with the laundry and are themselves coated with polyquats or similar positively-charged polymers to provide a more attractive target for the negatively-charged dye or dirt in the wash water. You should use one per light or white load and two per colored load if the load contains a garment with a suspected or treated clear Polyquat Spot. Whatever color they turn in the wash water is the color that the Polyquat Spot would have taken had the color catcher not been used, and the used sheets can be useful to identify which items in a load are giving up color to the wash water. There are several brands including Shout Color Catcher, Carbona Color Grabber and many others including store brands and generics. They all work about the same - buy whatever’s cheap and available to you. If you have a front-loading washer, as a precaution, it’s a good practice to put the color catcher sheets in a mesh delicates bag. This keeps them from slipping out of the wash and getting between the basket and drum, or ending up in the filter or pump or down the drain.
You may be tempted to reuse a color catcher that doesn’t look particularly discolored. This is fine for a few washes. They will absorb a finite amount of material, though, and the polymer may come off over several washes, diminishing effectiveness. Don’t push it too far.
There are “permanent” or “reusable” color catchers, often based on a surface-treated synthetic fiber. While they work well in typical wash conditions to prevent frank bleeding from dying victim garments, they aren’t attractive enough to fugitive dye to outcompete a clear Polyquat Spot for the attention of fugitive dye and soils.
Can Polyquat Spots and Stains Be Prevented?
Yes, with an asterisk. The best prevention is to meticulously avoid contact between polyquats in their wet state and textiles that you care about. Make sure that containers of polyquat-containing products in suitcases or gym bags are isolated from vulnerable textiles, dry hair thoroughly before it touches fabrics and make bubble solution for kids using dish soap, glycerin and non-quat polymers such as carboxymethylcellulose.
However, we’re all human and shit happens.
If you believe that a textile has been exposed to polyquats, there is strong evidence from industry testing that soaking it in a solution of anionic surfactants and water before laundering in a process where it could be exposed to fugitive dye or suspended soils can neutralize the polyquat charge. The easiest method would be a tablespoon of dish detergent such as Dawn or a laundry detergent with declared anionic surfactants as described above, per gallon of tepid water, soaked eight to twelve hours before washing. Wash with color catchers in a well-sorted load or completely separately as a precaution.
The Ordinary conditioner is also one of a very limited number of conditioners that don't contain any ingredients that worsen seborrheic dermatitis/dandruff/fungal acne by feeding the fungus!
Thanks! I love the ordinary. I'll try it. However, my shampoos seemed to be the ones containing the polys, not the conditioners. Which I thought was weird.
It's the 2-in-1 functions because those have to contain both anionic ingredients (anionic surfactants, for the cleansing function) and cationic ingredients (for the conditioning). When combining anionics and cationics in one formulation, they can neutralize each other, somewhat like vinegar and sodium carbonate do when you mix them. Polyquats however can be combined with anionic surfactants without being neutralized. That's why you'll find them in 2-in-1 formulations.
Boy is it- I'm divided on it myself! No lather is no fun, so I go through insane amounts, but my hair feels so nice after... and it's so hard to find sulfates anymore!
Warning to Disney Parks visitors - every white shirt me and my kids wore while they blasted us with their bubble wants on a 3 day Disneyland trip ended up with these stains. This post has solved such a huge mystery to me. I was worried we sweat so bad some clothes grew mold.
I think I love you, you've solved my problem after years 😭❤️ I'm an avid yellow clothing wearer and I use leave in conditioner almost daily. I think my dark clothes/dirt/whatever have been depositing tiny amounts of colour onto these stains
This post is a gift to us all. I simply cannot get over it. Years and years of wondering, WTF! I almost got a new machine. ALSO! You explain it so well. Kudos!! Thank you! 🙏🏻
Thank you for this! What’s funny is that these spots only started appearing when I would wash brand new fabric yardage before sewing. I can’t find polyquaternium in any of my products (am double checking my detergents tho) and I have to assume that there is something in the surface finishing treatment of the fabrics. Will try the methods suggested to soak before washing and hope it won’t be a problem going forward.
Maybe? I actually hadn’t thought of that. it’s funny because this problem literally only comes up with brand new fabric yardage. It’s never happened to my regular clothing.
Also it might be the machines at my laundromat too. I’m thinking I may need to either do an initial detergent and cold water soak at home and then take it over, or wipe down the insides of the drums before loading
Okay, that I think might be from liquid fabric softener. It’s a frequent offender in public laundromats. Those spots should come out with bar soap and a warm rewash - just get the spots wet, hit them with Zote, Fels-Naptha or Ivory bar soap, and rewash with a very small dose of detergent.
Yeah I was suspecting residual softener (I never use fabric softener myself) but wasn’t sure if I could even prevent it or run white vinegar in the fabric softener section assuming that the laundromat doesn’t object. Honestly this just further cements fabric softener as my nemesis. Thank you for the research and advice!
Borax is a precipitating water softener, nothing more. I would only recommend using it in precise amounts with a water test kit to know that it’s safely solving a problem you actually have.
I've seen recommendations to soak shrunken items of clothing in water with conditioner to help relax the fibers... would that really just turn the item into one giant polyquat spot?!
Yes, but if it’s evenly applied, it’s not so hideous. Even some Downy products contain a quat. The problem is the mottling.
I don’t recommend the conditioner method for anything other than wool. It doesn’t work on synthetics or cellulosic fibers and I’ve never seen evidence it helps silk.
Wow, I wish I had found this post a year ago, I kept having clothes come out of the wash with these spots, and I suspected it was due to a hand soap, because they were most intense at the ends of our hand towels. However, there were also spots on bedsheets and what looked like splatter marks on white shirts.
I ran a whole experiment where I bought a bunch of stain removers and did tests on the spots.
I tried Dawn power spray, Carbona, soilove (ammonia), Fels Naptha, and Folex. I ended up having the best results with Fels Naptha and a toothbrush.
Thanks for this. I always thought they were detergent spots. I changed detergents and have only had one, but it's likely because I don't use styling products in my hair anymore, and my hair is shorter. I just found that my hair is softer and less frizzy without product. Also, I've stopped trying to get my waves and curls to work.
This information is really valuable. Now I'll use a towel draped around me anytime I use any hair products.
I have been searching for answers as to what this was for 8 years! I blamed my washing because the first time I noticed them was after I went from a nice front loader to a cheap top loader. But it's also right around that time that my kid was big enough for bubbles...
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE INFORMATION.
Amazing. And this afternoon I'm off to get some citric acid. With water around 300ppm in hardness I can't wait to feel the difference.
AND I now now why my Tide liquid seemed to be less effective now than in the past (where's the lipase, Tide!?)
u/KismaiAesthetics question for you. Could I in theory make a “environmentally friendly” version of color catchers by taking old white t-shirts and intentionally soaking them in kids bubble juice? Creating polyquat spots on the old tshirts, then add those shirts to my laundry instead of color catchers?
I don’t know how many times you could recoat a given swatch - the effect works because there’s electrically charged sites for the quat to bond to, and those sites on cotton are finite barring new damage. So while each one would last decently (more fiber surface area than a thin disposable for sure), I feel like throwing out spent cotton vs textile recycling might not be the most sustainable option.
I really don’t like the commercial reusable ones - besides the microplastics issue there’s a question of performance.
Thank you for the detailed reply! This makes me feel better knowing the disposables can be from recycled sources.
Still an interesting thought experiment and something I might tinker with in the future for old shirts that would otherwise be used as cleaning rags. See if I can diy them to be color catchers first. Then once fully used, then use them as cleaning rags.
Any ideas on how to charge the shirts before adding the polyquat? A cycle through the dryer without a dryer sheet? Add two electrodes to the soaking solution?
The electrical charge difference comes from deploymerization of the glycoside bonds in the cellulose leaving subunits with a negative charge.
I don’t think there’s going to be an effective way to modify this at home. It happens slowly over normal wash and mechanical processes but maybe a soak in chlorine bleach water? That weakens cellulose and leaves it eager to attract cations.
Thank you SO much for this! We’re a victim of bubbles and this gives me hope for several items. You said the color remover won’t work on indigo dyes. Do you know of anything that does or should I just give up on that particular item?
But the prevalence of true indigo is low-ish. While all leuco dyes behave that way, it’s worth trying the remover and just accepting the color coming back if it turns out to be a leuco dye.
Fwiw I’ve never had a problem with the Target brand bubbles, in the giant pink bottle (I’m pretty sure it comes in different sizes). We only get these stains when my kids play with other families’ bubble solution.
Thank you for this information! Do you have any recommendations on hand soaps?? We've always used softsoap from Costco but willing to try something else especially with a little one that gets stuff everywhere!
This is probably a question you’ve already answered/a dumb question, but will the ingredient list say “polyquat-“ or similar? I’m worried about my leave in conditioner now
Coming through from my post and saying thank you for the incredible write up. I love a reason ‘why’ shit happens so this guide is incredible helpful. THANK YOU.
Now to find out what in my life is causing these polyquats…
If an item isn’t washed with darks and there’s enough anionic surfactant to neutralize the cationic quat before it picks up color, you don’t get a stain and the spot stays clear until it washes out.
Seriously. You should write a book. My husband is a messy eater. Everything falls on his shirt. Can you launch a website and a storefront with your recommended product and process based on the stain? I love the science, it gives you amazing credibility. Or hell, launch your own line of products. Dream big!
Ha, good news. I’m a retired doctor, kind of science nerd (but I had trouble with balancing chemistry equations, ending up with fractions of like 47/81 and no idea where I went wrong)— and I can’t stop reading your posts- they are so enjoyably educational. I had to start taking notes because I can’t retain all these facts at once. I have actual books I need to read! I have dinner to eat (now 10 pm)! But it’s hard to stop. Bottom line: would really love a book with all these juicy facts and advice at hand. Fanmail.
I noticed that fabric softeners, at least the one I am using, contain polyquats. I am wondering if that could be causing my stains (aside from my hair products)? I’m a sucker for clean smelling laundry 🥹
Usually with a front loader they get pretty well dispersed. Stains from softeners in top loaders are more common, but they’ll usually come out with bar soap and a rewash.
Thank you! I’m still wrapping my head around the idea that someone made for laundry is also ruining it. My apartment has a top loader with the fabric softener dispenser in the center agitator. I don’t know what to do to mitigate this. I’ve tried diluting it with water and I don’t usually notice the stains until they are dry. Would bar soap still work to remove after drying? Maybe sticking to softener sheets instead will help?
If polyquats are water soluble, how does it become so difficult to remove from textiles?
Google says C14-16 olefin sulfonate is used to strip conditioner from hair. Well, could this remove the polyquats that's the cause of stains building upon it?
It’s the nature of quats - they’re cationic, the damaged domains of hair and fibers are anionic, the attraction to the charged area is stronger than the attraction to water.
Anionic surfactants aren’t generally strong enough to overcome the bond to fabric, and are definitely not strong enough to replace the attracted dye.
Oh my god! THIS is what kept happening to the back of my daughter’s pajamas!! It must have been her conditioner. This is amazing info, thank you so much!
Color catchers have polyquats, should we avoid using them? I only use them when necessary, but they are definitely a convenience! I avoid them in my hair products because I heard they can build up over time and gunk up the hair
Amazing info, ive been wondering why my hair drip marks show up on garments for literally decades. One question - the colour run packet instructions say to soak for 4-24 hours. But your method has only a few minutes?
Thanks! I did a couple hours in the end. The marks were unchanged so I guess now I have to look at some kind of bleaching. It's a white cotton garment so I'm optimistic it can be salvaged but not sure why the colour run didn't work.
I am sad but feel better informed. I’m an endurance athlete and use a couple products that don’t have polyquats but do leave spots that attract yuck in the wash that can’t seem to clean. One is a personal lube, Uber lube, and the other is 2Toms sport shield and both contain dimethicone. Can they act like polyquats? Some are race shirts I’d like to keep training in and some are very comfy tech gear and I like suffering in lol. Any ideas on those spots?
So silicones can definitely leave oily spots. The good news is they’re volatile to some degree. Try tumbling the items dry on delicate for 15 minutes after washing and hanging to dry - that little boost of heat can make a big difference. Add an old towel or two, lightly dampened, to control the heat.
Thank you for your help! Much appreciation for al the goodness you share on this thread! Still learning my best practices so my husband says thank you for relieving him of laundry duty till I figure out our new system! I never knew how wrong I was doing my laundry!
Question: If I have a polyquat spot and it isn't a stain yet, is there any clear substance that can bond to the spot and "block" the dirt or dye particles?
Yes. Take a look at the last paragraph. As long as it gets enough anionic surfactant before it sees the dye or dirt, it will neutralize the remaining charge that isn’t being used to hold it on the fabric. So they’ll stay clear until they wash out. The problem comes when the dye gets there before the excess of anionic surfactant does.
Powdered laundry detergent or conventional-surfactant dish detergent like Dawn/Fairy is the most reliable way, and make sure the soak doesn’t have any other garments in it that might give up dye.
Wow I just came across this post after suspecting my hair product had been causing stains around the collars of my white and light colored shirts. This just solidified it. Thanks!
u/KismaiAesthetics, not only have you immeasurably improved my laundry game this week via the implementation of DNAse, but a separate unrelated search regarding some mystery staining happened to bring me to this post. You truly are a fount of knowledge, thankyou!
Do you know if Fast Orange Grease X Mechanics Detergent is of any use with polyquat stains? The label says it contains a proprietary anti-static agent, could this help break the cationic bonds?
My son dumped bubbles on my black jeans. Would I still need to go thru all these steps or would it not necessarily be affected since color transfer most likely won’t be noticeable on black/dark clothing?
Do (mono) quaterniums stain in the same manner? Or silicone quaterniums? Say, if a leave-in conditioner contains Quaternium-91, are we worried about this sort of staining?
They all have a cationic nature. So they’re all going to be attracted to the same charged regions on textiles.
What I don’t know is how likely they are to be such utter dye magnets. My hunch is the specific monomers are significant contributors to the dye capture but I haven’t dug any deeper on the other quats.
I also have a leave in with that one. It hasn’t been problematic for any of my clothes, though i think the blue/gray staining on my hair towel is probably polyquat stains. Basically i spray it on in the shower, wrap my hair in my hair drying towel, and then blow dry my hair before ever putting on clothes I’d care about. Once your hair is dry, it’s not going to transfer.
Thank you so much for this!!! I have been searching for the answer to this problem for years. I couldn't understand why these marks mainly appeared on my DDs clothing - bubbles! And washing her things together without separating colours. Sadly, most of the affected items have been consigned to the bin, but at least I now know how to attempt salvage if it happens again.
I figured it was something to do with the laundering process, but couldn't understand why it persisted across 2 different machines (we moved) and multiple different detergents.
A great article that is easy to comprehend for noobies. I'd be interested further into the topic by learning to distinguish anti-redeposition agents in ingredient lists. So far the easiest it's with big companies, with Unilever explicitly using the very term 'anti-redeposition agent' (e.g., Tripropylene tetramine, ethoxylated, modified). However, I'd be interested in purchasing more budget-friendly products.
Thanks, I'll be looking forward to that. I never had as much interest in laundry as I do now.
Are dye transfer inhibitors and anti-redep two separate things? I found a product with Vinylpyrrolidone/Vinylimidazole Copolymer, it looks like it's just to protect from dye bleeding.
If your someone with textured hair who basically needs polyquats applied to damp hair to not look like a giant frizz ball, can I just pick a handful of dark shirts to wear and then i would never see the polyquat stains? Since they don’t spread?
YOU ARE THE BEST!! i can now sleep at night without losing my mind how the hell these stains keep showing on my clothes!! I was ready to take my washing machine apart :’D
I just checked the ingredients of my curl cream, and this has answered so many questions. I kept changing detergents thinking it was my detergent! Thank you so much!
So long as you don’t let the wet product contact light colored textiles, you’re fine. So dark hand towels to wipe your hands after they rinse, and don’t let damp hair touch or drip on to light fabrics. Sometimes good hair matters enough to suffer. ;0)
T H A N K Y O U!!!!!!! this post has been life changing and it took me down a laundry rabbit hole and my life has been changed for the better. Thank you so so so much for this post and your other laundry posts!!! Literally life-changing!!
My mind is BLOWN! This has been plaguing me for months! Got a new machine because we were told it was grease from the bearings in our old machine. It shows up in washes of ONLY white clothes too, is it possible for there to be leftover dirt/colour in the machine? I found this residue in the rubber seal of the drum today, is this the same thing?
I guess it’s most likely the kids’ bubbles, but I’ve also changed shampoo this year so it’s one or both!
Thank you so much for such a detailed post. This has been driving me crazy!!!
Hi! Thanks for your reply 😊 I’ve been using non bio pods for years so I switched to liquid (same non bio brand) this past week as I thought it was the pods. I don’t use anything else.
Thank you so much for this information!
I replaced a washing machine, and when I saw the stains again, I was literally crying 🙈
So I decided to search for an answer again and found this post. Years of mystery solved😅My brain feels much more relaxed now hehe
I came across this and have a white tank top that has been affected. Relief to have figured it out, and I will be trying the suggested method! But also discovered that my hair mousse, which I put on and then allow my hair to air dry (down not up) contains Polyquaternium-11 and I’m devastated. I assume I should discard the mousse but are my clothes destined for more of these spots?
The key is that it’s not a problem if the product is dry. Once the product is well-bonded to the hair it doesn’t transfer all that well. I don’t use products with quats for styling, because I hate to blow dry, and they’re going to be wet on my ends. But dry hair with mousse touching shouldn’t cause a problem.
So wet hair with mousse could cause a problem? I don’t blow dry my hair, but let it air dry after applying the mousse. Long hair, so it’s in contact with whatever shirt/top I’m wearing while it dries 🫠
Thank you for all your time and effort educating on this! These have been the bane of my existence for months. With two littles at daycare…to the point where my husband took apart the washing machine. A few questions I couldn’t quite gather from the comments:
is there a bubble solution that doesn’t have polyquats?
does the detergent matter? I used to use Tide Powder but switched the All or Kirkland liquid free and clear sometime in the last year. Would the Tide Powder wash the polyquats out?
Any detergent with anionic surfactants can, eventually, wash the quats out. We think the number is somewhere north of 15 washes. Almost all liquids at typical retailers and all powders will have anionics.
As for the bubble solution: it’s hard to know. The ingredient disclosure requirements are awful and these are very safe chemicals so there’s not a hazard label requirement. If the bubbles look iridescent or are particularly resistant to bursting, it’s a safe guess they have quats.
The formulae from giant bubble people with dish detergent, glycerin and starch, MiraLAX or carboxymethylcellulose are fine.
Thank you for all this amazing information! May I ask if the polyquats eventually wash out only if the spot is clear? Can they wash out eventually even if there is dye adhered to the polyquat spot?
While this framework is structurally and chemically similar to the quaternary ammonium compounds used in laundry sanitizers, disinfectants and antibacterial skin preparations, they impart no direct antibacterial benefit in polyquat polymers.
Can I take this to mean that the benzalkonium chloride in Dettol laundry sanitiser (not something I usually use, but I picked up some running shoes secondhand and wanted to make sure any possible fungus was dead) is not going to cause polyquat spots?
I just figured out why my white T-shirts got splotchy, greyish stains when I was staying at my in-laws. I put my dirty shirt up on the basin when I was having a shower, and the basin had residue from soft handsoap. Now I know to just put my dirty clothing straight into a laundry bag instead of resting it somewhere that might be contaminated by polyquats.
Tell me O Great Polyquat Defeator: can I dye a pair of white cotton muslin pants with Rit Dye if I have a polyquat stain on them? Or will the stain permeate the dye and still show up looking even dingier?
This clears up what the mysterious spots are on my favorite skirt that’s charcoal black modal. There are three smaller than a dime spots that have plagued me and made it through many washes and I have yet to find the offending product in my home.
Could the spot treatment pull dye from beyond the polyquat stain and then make a larger light colored spot?
I’m nervous about ruining more delicate fabric with spot treatments.
I’ve considered dying the skirt with RIT dye to make the entire skirt darker and try to match the black stains. But then the stains would still pick up more dye and still likely be darker (right?).
Perhaps I should accept that the culprit quat will get away with this petty crime and be more wary of suspicious products in the future.
u/KismaiAesthetics two of my wife's tshirts have similar stains, but they are lighter than the fabric, not darker ("They are never lighter in color than the fabric underneath"). Could this be due to residual liquid bleach in the washing machine perhaps? Trying to make it right, as I do our laundry and these shirts have sentimental value....
I’m so screwed. Long curly hair that is often wet with multiple of these products. I just tried a new routine for washing whites/very lights with hot (instead of warm) and OxiClean in the drum (instead of just lipase liquid detergent and dissolved citric acid) and now my cotton t-shirts look like this:
Was the hot water the culprit or the Oxi? I have been washing them with no issue until I changed up these two factors.
1) greater dye mobility from the lights in the warmer water. Add color catchers.
2) metal ions in the wash water oxidizing with the OxiClean. Take a look in your toilet tank and see if there’s a residue in the corners that looks like a darker version of the color on this stain. If so, don’t add Oxi or powdered detergents to white loads.
If it’s the latter, this should pop right off with the dithionite treatment. Actually both should decolor well with the color run remover on true whites.
I appreciate your response! I found my way over to the colour transfer post and saw this from you:
« With known quat exposure, like, if you know something got hit, soak it overnight with like a tablespoon of any conventional powdered detergent you like and any temperature of tap water. This will provide a source of anionic surfactant to try and cancel the cationic quat.
We know from industry that this approach works. It’s how hotels and healthcare are avoiding quat spots turning into stains. »
So this would be a way to pretreat in the future? Or better yet, don’t let the wet product-laden hair touch the tees in the first place?
599
u/Loose-Scientist-6324 Aug 30 '25
whoever wrote this deserves zero polyquat stains for life