How to get rid of blood stains

Let's not beat around the bush (pun intended?!) but if you have a period, you are very likely to have had bloodstains on fabric at least once.

We have had a lot of questions around how to look after your period underwear and what cleaning supplies would be needed to get rid of the blood when we launched our brand new period underwear collection.

Good news: if you wash your own clothes, you're ready to go.

Here are our tested and tried tips:

1- Never use hot water

This one might seem counter intuitive, but blood is rich in proteins and when heated, these proteins bind together. This actually causes the stain to set firmly into fabrics. A nice visual aid so think about cooking eggs - you could wash a raw egg off quite easily, but if you cook it into a fabric it becomes a lot more difficult!

2- Rinse, rinse, rinse

Use cold water to rinse. Cold water does not cause the proteins to bind, so they can evacuate your fabric more easily. Rinse until the water runs clear.

3- Optional: Soak using "normal" detergent

If the stain doesn't really budge after rinsing it, soak it in a mix of your standard detergent and cold water and let it sit for a bit. We find it only takes an hour or so.

Do not use bleach or other heavy hitters as it might ruin the look and functionality of your garment.

4- Wash & Dry

Put the rinsed period underwear into a garment bag or straight into the machine. Wash it at or below 40°C. Hang it to dry and it'll be ready to be used again in no time.

Tip: Never put a blood stained garment into the dryer, it will cause the stain to "bake" into the fabric and it will become harder to get it out.

Work on getting the stain out first by following the steps above.

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