How to Remove Hair Dye from a Hot Tub

Table of Contents:

You Will Need
Steps to Remove the Dye
Additional Tips
Sources

Sophie said, “Please help!! My wonderful parents bought us a spa as a house warming gift. One of my friends spent the whole night in it, little did I know she recently had her hair dyed. The next morning I went to look at it, the whole tub was bright PINK!!!! I quickly drained the hot water out but the tub is badly stained including the filter!! What can I do to get this stain off? Please help I’m soo gutted about this.”

Finding a dyed hot tub is not pleasant, but there is a silver lining – since the dye is there, it was very loose on the hair, which means it is loose enough to be removed fairly easily from the surface as well. The primary concern is not using anything to remove the dye that could damage the hot tub in the process, as well as not using a cleaner that will leave a residue you don’t want to be swimming in. Follow the steps below to remove the dye.

You Will Need:

Gloves
Mild soap
Water
A cloth
Isopropyl alcohol

Steps to Remove the Dye:

If you haven’t fully emptied the hot tub, start by doing that.
Put on gloves to avoid getting the dye or cleaning products on your skin.
First, try washing off the dye with a mild soap like dish liquid on a wet cloth. This usually is all that is needed to remove loose dye.
If the dish liquid doesn’t work, rinse out the hot tub thoroughly to remove the soap residue.
Put some isopropyl alcohol on a cloth and test it on a small hidden area of the hot tub to look for any adverse reaction. It should be safe, but it’s always good to double check.
If the test goes well, rub the cloth over the dyed area. No pressure is needed, just repeated wiping.
Rotate the cloth to a clean area as the dye is transferred to it.
When the dye has been removed, wash out the hot tub with a mild soap and water.

Additional Tips:

Do not use rubbing alcohol in place of isopropyl alcohol. Rubbing alcohol contains other additives, including dye.
If the above steps don’t work to remove the dye, you can try using either a white plastic eraser or a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. However, although those products will probably remove the dye, they contain chemicals that it would probably be better not to swim in, so be sure to thoroughly wash out the hot tub with soap and water, then rinse again with plain water, if you choose to use one of them.
Some cleaning products you should never use in a hot tub are scouring cleaners, acetone or other harsh solvents, any strong acid or base cleaners, steel wool, or scrubbers like nylon brushes or pads.
Hot tub filters are usually fairly cheap to replace. You can try washing the one you have in a bucket of soapy water to remove the dye (rinse it thoroughly afterward to remove the soap), but if that doesn’t work, the easiest thing to do would be to simply replace the filter.
In the future, you should always require that guests with long hair tie their hair up while using your hot tub. This can not only help prevent this problem from happening again, but should be done anyway because long hair can get caught in the suction drains, causing the person to drown.