Friday, 20 November 2009
Dried Blood stain removal
The problem is that blood contains natural properties called haemoglobin's that make it set, and set hard. It does this to prevent infections from getting into our bodies when the skin is broken, without it whenever we got a cut we would be at risk of infection and death. So blood drying is normally a good thing, but not when its on your clothes!
To get rid of dried blood stains you need to loosen these proteins which have made it set so hard. And there are several ways to do this.
First scratch off any clumps of blood, so you just have where you can see the blood stains in the fabric. Next soak the blood stain in some detergent that contains enzymes, this will start to break the blood stain down.
After soaking for a bit, you are going to need some sort of special product. here you have two options. from most supermarkets you can buy specialized blood stain remover, this is a product designed to help break down blood stains.
If you cant find this, you can also use meat tenderizer. The reason is that meat tenderizer breaks down the proteins in meat to make it softer and more tender to eat. Luckily the proteins that make blood hard are very similar, and most meat tenderizers will happily break down the blood stain for you.
Once youve used either of these products the blood stain should be a bit looser, you can then scrub it out with a brush (an old toothbrush can work well) whilst running it under cold water. With most of the stain gone you can put it in a normal wash, but what ever you do, check the stain is gone before putting the thing in a drier, cos if you heat up a blood stain and really cook it in it could be practically impossible for you to get it out!
Thursday, 22 October 2009
Blood stain removal
The best way to remove a blood stain is to really get at it as quickly as you can. If the blood stain is really fresh you can often remove it just using cold water. Run the stain under the tap for a bit, and the stain might come straight out.
If the blood stain has begun to set, but is still relatively fresh though, keep using cold water but try to gently scrub or tap out the blood. To do this take either an old toothbrush, or if you dont have one of those get a cloth and gently rub or scrub the blood whilst still running the water over it.
Whatever you do, whilst the stain is still fresh do not use hot water, using hot water will set the stain and make it more diffiuclt to remove.
Once youve gotten rid of most of the stain using the above method, if there is still a faint outline of a stain to remove then you should next soak the garment in cold water with normal washing powder for a few hours, before washing the in a normal cycle.
After washing, dont put the item in the dryer, let it drip dry before checking that the stain is completly gone. A hot dryer can really bake a blood stain in, making its removal much more difficult.