After years of trying every product imaginable to get blood out of clothing, I finally found what works. My father-in-law's colleague told him that the person whose blood it belongs to, can "lick" it out. So I tried it. I had a stain on my skirt (cotton) from where a razor cut on my leg had bled. I took a small amount of my own saliva on my finger and began to rub the stain.
By Cassy from Enterprise, AL
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The best thing to remove blood stains is hydrogen peroxide. Sorry, but the saliva suggestion sounds icky to me.
Yes it's all true! Been doing this for years and even my Half Sisters Saliva will remove My blood stains.
I agree that it is icky, however, it's got some things going for it too. It's free, and it would be very handy if needed when there are no hydrogen peroxide available at that time, like perhaps in the car, and there is none in the car, saliva is right there, and right now. The only way for me to know if saliva works or not, I guess I'll just have to wait until it ever happens again.
Hey, in my age, I grew up with "spit baths" mostly from grandmothers with their hankies that smell like the inside of their pocketbooks, and mints, while in church with the hankie wrapped around their forefinger, spit, and go at our faces or stray hairs on our heads. Yeah, I didn't like that much either, though, there are still people now, who find that spit baths are adorable. ;)
How cool.
I was watching a PBS cross stitch show years back and the host was telling how as far back as the 1800's women discovered when they stuck their finger with the needle and got blood on the needlework, they would put white cotton thread in their mouth and work it around until wet, then take it out and "work" on the stain. She went on to say it only works on your "own" stain. Well, it obviously still works.
Very interesting, but I think I'll stick with peroxide also. Eww!
I haven't tried it in years but was surprised how well "Murphy's Wood Oil" rubbed in before washing worked for stain removal especially blood. Nice memories for some of us how the mothers or aunts always had those hankies tucked in their sweater cuffs for quick access in church.
I think the saliva solution sounds kind of icky too but I suppose it would be worth a try. Every month though I have to get menstrual blood stains out of my daughter's panties and don't think I'd want to fool around with having her give me some of her saliva....would take way too long and it's bad enough I have to deal with the blood. What I've found works best for getting out the menstrual blood is to put the panties under cold running water and get most of it out and then for the remaining, I let sit in clean cold water.
It's due to the protein nature of the stain (blood) and protein-breaking nature of the enzyme (saliva). If the bloodstain is only a drop or two, human saliva reacts much the same as hydrogen peroxide. Saliva contains protease enzymes that dissolve blood and allow it to be "blotted" away.
In my years of quilting I always spit on blood stains when I pricked my finger. It's not icky to me, just an easy way not to have a dried blood stain on a lovely piece of fabric.
Thank you so much for posting this! I'm staying with someone, and I accidentally got blood on her bedspread, and didn't find out until 14 hours after, and I almost freaked! I knew hydrogen peroxide gets blood out, but I didn't know how old the blood could be. When I saw this I immediately got my a spot on my shirt wet, and started to rub in small circles with my finger. When I saw it lightening up I spit on the spot, and went to the bathroom, got a sponge, and poured some hydrogen peroxide on it. The blood is completely gone! I can't even tell where the blood was! Thank you so much! I was so happy I shared it on twitter!
LOL DON'T THINK I WOULD BE LICKING ANYTHING
This was learned by Colonial women during Quilting Bees. My 30 something year old kids grew up knowing if the got a bloody nose during the night - Start spitting on the pillow case before throwing it into the hamper!
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