How To Remove Old Yellow Stains

This is a dry cleaner’s guide to removing old yellow stains (usually caused by sweat and body oil’s aging overtime):

1) Pretreat the soiled areas with a solution of warm water and a few drops of dish soap. This will help remove any remaining oils.
2) Handwash your hat. It CANNOT go into a washing machine as the cardboard or plastic brim WILL get messed up. I have made this mistake so please don’t do this.
3) Soak your hat or garment in the hottest water you can get and powdered oxygen bleach. Let it sit overnight (oxygen bleaches require lots of time and heat to work so please be patient).
4) Let it air dry and then inspect.
5) Repeat the process if needed

You can also swap out step 3 and spray down your garment with 3% hydrogen peroxide and let it air dry. HP is also an oxygen bleach.

I hope this guide helps you remove your yellow stains!

For more laundry tips and tricks feel free to throw me a sub or follow me at @jeeves_ny on IG and TikTok !

[Di-eyql]

I've always just put our dirty and sweaty hats in a delicates bag and tossed in machine with the clothes (cold wash) and usually into the dryer afterwards. Guess I've been lucky all these years as no hat is destroyed yet, just faded colours maybe after many washes.

[ATLfletch]

I have had great luck for years using the top rack of the dishwasher to wash these. You need to be careful how you load them so they won't move around and also so the water can hit all parts of the hat (especially from the top).
And Yes, scrub any sweat stains with a scrubby brush and Dawn liquid before putting it in the dishwasher.

[kathypants]

Soaking them with a dishwasher pod in hot water works great as well.

[louiseparisotto]

Well I've washed my running hats in the washing machine for years - or the top rack of the dishwasher and they have all be fine

[ethanjenkins]

Question! is this method or spraying hydrogen peroxide and air drying better for removing yellow sweat stains (after using antiperspirant) from shirt underarms??
Thank you!

[SaidAlSeveres]

Yes! I just found a hat on a trail. It’s really dirty but super cool and was not sure how to wash it. Now I know! I just need some oxyclean

[livefortoday]

there are hat frames used to keep the hats shape so you can wash it in the washing machine.

[MrTributes]

you can machine wash a hat, the brim will be fine unless its made of cardboard, or if you have no motor function, then you wont be able to figure out how to reshape it...

the structure in the forehead is what you need to be careful of cus it can warp and theres no fixing that.

[Ksweetpea]

Ooh, I'll use this for the hat of my beekeepers suit at the end of the season

[kathykershner]

I spray white hats with Clorox Cleanup, scrub with a kitchen brush, rinse and hang to dry. Perfection!

[Katrinabuttles]

I used shampoo then Oxi clean for soaking .

[BlondeQtie]

the funniest thing i have seen was that someone put their hat into a dishwasher 😂 it worked 😂

[peterh]

The red NY didn’t bleed or discolor the white around it?

[Slugbunny]

I've been washing my Stetson caps and they come out okay. Brim is fine.

[kumaIndigo]

I did it and in one of my shirts it made the yellow brighter

[mattreynolds]

What's the difference between machine washing in a hat holder for the brim compared to soaking over night?

[HiNinqi]

Is the hot water kept hot on a burner/stove? Leave it boiling?

[heartofdixieflipper]

I have tried soaking and washing with dawn and oxcyclean however I have had white hats turn yellow when drying.

[tinydancer]

Yes you can wash hats in a machine. You just have to know how to do it right. I wash my ball caps when they need it and the brims come out just fine.

[jojokeane]

Use sodium perborate. A hat can be washed in the dishwasher.