Cleaning Ring Around The Collar?

To remove a stain it is important to understand what it is made up of. Collar stains are caused mostly by natural oils from the skin and hair. Shampoo works most of the time, because it removes grease from hair.

Why dont you try an ordinary shampoo, or a shampoo specific to greasy or oily hair. The Shampoo you are using may be a little too hightech and the ingredients in the shampoo may be different. :) hope this helps.

is it true that it is impossible to remove the stain after drying as stated by one of the posters

Editor's Note: Some stains are "set" after drying so are much harder to remove. This isn't always the case but it's best not to dry (in an automatic dryer) before the stain is removed if possible.

IS there ANY way to prevent ring around the collar??
I scrub my neck with a wash clothe and soae almost every day!

try putting a cheap (like AquaNet) hairspray on the shirt right before you toss it into the washer.... works for me. I had been in the USN and my wife would put it on the neck of my dress white uniform shirts... These days I am doing the laundry and still use it. I cant tell you how it works...just that it does. Good luck

I have tried, Wisk, Tide, OxyClean and about every "spray stain remover" on the store shelves with only minimal results. My mom suggested Fels-Naptha bar soap and a small scrub brush.

The dry cleaner told me that ring is from your hair products mixing with your natural oils (i.e. shampoo, conditioner, hair gel, hair spray, etc) I once heard to put baking soda in a pot of hot water on the stove and boil socks to get the stains and smell out.. wonder if it works on white dress shirts?

My boyfriend is a Physician Assistant at an ER. He has has to wear the white lab coats over the scrubs. I recently moved in and he showed me the ring around the collar on these 2 coats. I made a paste of Baking soda and vinegar, brushed it on, let it sit for a couple minutes and then scrubbed with a little nail brush.

My boyfriend gets ring around the collar on his work button down shirts. I used Murphy's oil soap and scrubbed the collar against itself to get it cleaned. I'm so happy it works. Less $ buying new shirts all the time.

I suffer from hyperhydrosis (excess sweating). My ring around the collar is BAD. SHOUT GEL is a miracle worker. I had to use it a couple of times to get the stain completely.

GO Murphy's oil soap. You saved my shirts! Thank you for the suggestion. It really worked.

I wanted to know if I can use the Shout Concentrated gel to remove stains and not be worried that it will fade my clothes. Can anyone please comment on this? Thanks

I always do my dress shirts in their own load. I use Woolite and one of those "knuckle scrubber" brushes to do the collars.

Pour a thin line of Woolite directly onto the collar and scrub with a wet brush. I usually do this while waiting for the washing machine to fill. Do this every time you do laundry, and after about three washings your shirt collars will look brand new.

--And, you don't need to add any detergent because there'll be enough Woolite in the machine to take care of the shirts.

I found a product that prevents ring around the collar all together. They are simple peel and stick strips called sweat strips I used them in 90 degree + heat and no ring around the collar. I don't have to throw anymore shirts away. Thank goodness. Check it out. ww.sweatstrips.org

This will work all the time: Wet collar. Apply a mild soap
Use a degreaser dish washing soap. Tap lightly and rinse

For whites use oxi clean or similar, rinse twice to remove all chemicals
wash shirt with a fabric softener. If all else fails I will take it to the cleaners
no worries no pressing and i have time for my kids.

I just finished my laundry -- and no more ring around the collar on most of the shirts!! Thanks to everyone here whose advice informed my strategy.

Here's what I did:

It's true that AGITATION of the dirt seems to be the main thing. I used an ordinary toothbrush i had lying around (one I saved and cleaned thoroughly before using) to apply a good natural cleaner to the stain. I used FAST ORANGE hand cleaner by Permatex, which I bought at an auto repair store. It's marketed as a natural hand cleaner for tough grease stains. This stuff takes engine oil and other car grease right off of your hands in seconds. It says on the bottle it can be used on laundry stains, too. If I didnt have this I would have tried Murphy's Oil Soap, which I've had good experience with in other uses.

So I diluted about a tablespoon of FAST ORANGE -- it's powerful stuff -- in a little bit of water and applied it to the collars with the brush. Just about 10 seconds of scrubbing all along the edge.

Then I dropped the five shirts (all patterned whites or light blues) into the washer on a cold, gentle setting (Permanent Press on my machine). I added about three tablespoons of Arm and Hammer Essentials laundry detergent (a concentrated detergent).

Once they came out, I hung the five wet shirts in the hot Florida sun UPSIDE DOWN, so that the collars got full sun exposure. About two hours later, the shirts were all dry, brilliant in color, and only one of them had a small trace of the ring stain! (previous to doing this on my own, I had been laundering them at dry cleaners for a long time).

I am thrilled I was able to achieve this without exposing my nice dress shirts to the cost and toxicity of a dry cleaners!!

shoulders

December 1, 20090 found this helpful

For anyone looking for the ultimate solution to this problem, here it is. I'll explain my story.

A friend of mine borrowed a $300 dress shirt (yes, i know that's an expensive shirt, it's for rare occasions) without my knowledge and wore it for several weeks with a tie. Needless to say, the guy has very poor hygeine and the shirt ended up with the worst most nasty collar grease and yellow stains you could possibly imagine. Imagine the stain you're dealing with times 1,000. Anyhow, this happened 3 years ago and I've held onto the shirt because it's expensive and I was upset about it and didn't want to throw it away.

I tried several times to take it to the cleaners to get the collar stains removed to no avail. So, as you can imagine, he wore the shirt many times without washing it, plus it's been to the cleaners several times, plus I've tried to get the stains out myself before, so we're talking about the worst collar stains plus the fact that they are completely set in at this point.

The other night, I was going out with some friends and I saw the shirt there and once again realized how mad I was that it had these nasty collar stains, so I started doing some research which is when I stumbled across this forum. I tried everything listed here, literally, everything.

I finally removed the collar stain and it was with a solution that is not listed here yet. Here is my recommended course of action:

1.) Use GoJo or Fast Orange (or even a grease removing dish liquid) several time, each time rinsing the collar thoroughly to break apart the agitated grease. This will remove most of the grease and will leave you with the yellow collar stain.

2.) This is the trick that does the heavy lifting! Buy yourself a bottle of this stuff called K2r Spotlifter (www.k2rbrands.com/.../original.htm). It's pretty inexpensive too, like $5 a bottle, great investment. It has chemicals in it, but did not fade or damage my shirt at all. After I completed step 1, I sprayed a good amount of K2r along the stain on the collar and it sit there for 10-15 minutes. It starts as a clear liquid on the shirt, then it turns to a dried foamy substance. Use the built-in scrubbing head on the bottle to remove the left over dried foam. You won't believe your eyes. The stain was almost removed. As it states on the bottle, tough stains may require a second treatment. I rinsed off the original treatment with water, then let the shirt dry, then repeated the treatment two more times on the collar stain. The stain is gone cpmpletely. Took a few treatments, but was well worth it to save this $300 dress shirt.

I hope that helps some one in the future. Good luck! Make sure to remove the grease before using the K2r.

Meg

March 10, 20100 found this helpful

My mother showed us, as girls, how to remove tough stains that are caused by anything fat-soluble or otherwise greasy or grease-based:
Seems counter intuitive, but rub shortening into the stain, really saturate it with shortening, and leave it for a couple of days, to let the fat molecules grab onto the existing stain's fat molecules. Then get out the concentrated detergent or degreaser to remove both the shortening and the dissolved fatty stain. If you want, a bipolar compound that is both fat and water soluble, such as glycerin, can be applied to the shortening before using the detergent, to help make the whole thing more soluble.

It works when degreasers and super detergents alone don't, to remove oily stains.
Since sweat stains are oil-based (sebum is skin grease) this should work.

cereza

May 19, 20110 found this helpful

I like "My Clean Shirt" it gets ring around the collar out, along with all of the other common stains. I am not sure if you can buy it in stores. I know you can buy it directly on the website. http://www.mycleanshirt.com I have used it for a few months and I am very happy with it. When I got it I used it to remove some serious stains that were already "set"; it took two treatments, but the stains came out.

Daisy

November 17, 20130 found this helpful

I found a nice gentleman's button up shirt. I don't know the history of the stain other than extremely filthy. I read the comments here and don't have these things on hand so, I used: Peroxide and baking soda. The stain came out with minimal brushing.

In a large bowl, I placed the collar and arm pits of the shirt then poured peroxide along the stain. It seemed to just roll off on some parts so I submerged the shirt until fully wet. I poured some baking soda in my hand and just made a paste on the shirt already dampened with peroxide. I started to scrub but it seemed like the stain was lifting itself off.

There is a slight yellow stain remaining so I will do this again. If this doesn't work the second time, I am going to use denture cleaner.