Among residential laundry services providers, summer is associated with sweat-stained collars and armpits. Clients often drop off shirts with yellow rings around the collars of their dress shirts, caused by sweat, hair and beauty products, or a mixture of the two. 

Below are a few ways to prevent and treat those stubborn yellow stains.

Adjust your hygiene routine 

Sweat and skin products can stain your white collars yellow. Frequently washing your neck and jaw area can help, but so can using the right products. Before you dress, make sure you wash thoroughly in the shower. Use a washcloth, sponge, or loofa to get around your neck, jaw, and collarbone. 

After drying, you can apply baby powder to your neck before dressing. Or, if you wear lotion, rub off the excess product before putting on your shirt. Throughout the day, it helps to wipe your neck with facial wipes or sponge off accumulated sweat. The main goal is to prevent your products and sweat from soaking into your collar. The longer the exposure, the deeper the stain.

Don’t press dress shirts after wearing them 

Prevent collar stains by pressing your dress shirts before you wear them. Even if you briefly try on the shirt, your sweat and skin products can press into the fabric. With heat, the stains will set and become much harder to remove. It will be especially noticeable on white shirts. The safest thing to do is press your shirt the best you can before wearing it, especially in the collar and armpit areas.

Use professional products or services

It’s easiest to treat stains in their forming stages. If you see a fresh ring around the collar, pretreat it with an enzyme stain remover. Enzymes will attack the proteins that make up sweat, breaking it down for an easy washing. After pretreatment, you can throw it into the wash. You can also soak your shirt in a tub of water mixed with stain treatment. 

However, if your shirt is dry clean only or is too delicate for the washing machine, take it to a professional laundry service provider.

Laundry Care Express — Pickup and delivery laundry services

Laundry Care Express offers laundry and dry cleaning pick up and delivery services to residents in the Santa Cruz and San Jose areas. Schedule a laundry pick up today for your next laundry load, and we’ll eliminate those yellow collar stains that never seem to fade.