How to Get Hair Dye Off Your Counter

If you’ve ever dyed your own hair, you know it’s challenging to keep your supplies organized and neat regardless of where you decide to mix or apply the dye. Between applicators and trash, it’s easy for the counter in your bathroom to become stained when using color. Learn tips to keep color off your counter and how to get hair dye off your counter with ease.

Not all hair dyes are the same; some are designed to act as hair paint that covers hair rather than dye the hair follicle. Manic Panic offers a range of semi permanent hair dye that does just this. With dyes that use peroxide additives, the stains they leave behind are easier to wash off with soap and water.

When washing your hair in the sink, clarifying shampoo removes excess pigment from your scalp, but even watered down color stains bathroom counters and sinks with just one drop; knowing how to remove these stains keeps your bathroom looking clean.

Remove Hair Dye from a Bathroom Counter with Ease

Removing stains caused by hair dye is time-consuming when looking for suitable options that won’t damage your counters. However, many of the best solutions involve cleaning items found around your home for effective stain removal.

Use Baking Soda Paste to Remove Dye Stains

Any fan of home remedies for cleaning and stain removal knows the wonders that baking soda works on buildup around the house. Baking soda is an excellent cleaner due to its ability to dissolve in water.

Mix your ingredients in a bowl until they form a paste. To remove hair dye from a bathroom counter, spread the paste over the stained area of your sink while being careful not to scrub.

Laminate countertops are easy to scratch, so scrubbing may damage the condition of your bathroom counter worse than any stain. Leave the paste to dry before wiping it away with a damp cloth.

Remove Hair Dye from Laminate Countertops with Hydrogen Peroxide

Stores sell hydrogen peroxide at a safe concentration for use at home, and hydrogen peroxide is an efficient cleaner that won’t lift colors from your countertop. Aside from cleaning, peroxide works well on fungus and bacteria, making it a great overall bathroom cleaner.

It’s easy to get food coloring stains off countertops as well as hair color or other unwelcome products. Apply hydrogen peroxide to a cloth and rub against the stain to remove the color stain from your countertop. Use a sponge to scrub the countertop to avoid damaging the surface.

Clean Hair Dye Stains with a Magic Eraser

Magic Erasers are unique cleaners that use a foam-like material to remove scuffs and stains from various surfaces. Due to the texture of the foam, Magic Erasers are safe to use on different surfaces, including Formica countertops.

To restore shine to a porcelain sink and counters, thoroughly wet the Magic Eraser and scrub against the stain portions of your countertop to remove hair color stains. Use this cleaning method alone or with stain remover to get your countertop clean.

Clean a Stained Area with Bleach

If you need to clean a dye stain from a white countertop, chlorine bleach should be a go-to to bring a fresh appearance back to your bathroom counter.

Because chlorine bleach is such a strong cleaner, only use it to remove stains from laminate countertops without color. Do not clean counters made of marble with bleach due to the high pH in chlorine bleach.

Dilute bleach by mixing it with water to make it safe to use with gloves. Use a sponge or white cloth to apply the bleach to the stains on your counter and gently rub away the color.

Remove Stains with Ajax

Ajax, a powder cleanser with bleach, is excellent for removing stains. The powder rinses away easily without leaving scratches after cleaning. Create a paste with Ajax and apply the mixture to any stains left on your counter from dye applications.

While wearing gloves, mix Ajax and water until it forms a paste. Spread the paste across the stained areas on your counter and allow it to sit for ten minutes before wiping with a clean cloth.

Remove Stains from Countertops with Vinegar

Vinegar’s acidic properties allow it to break down various stains and it will also remove adhesive and nail glue from countertops with a little elbow grease. Mix vinegar with baking soda to make a paste to remove stains and odors from your countertops.

Mix the ingredients to form a spreadable paste that you can apply to your stained countertop with an old toothbrush or cloth. Scrub gently to work out stains on your counter and reapply the paste if needed.

This vinegar and baking soda paste can be used to wash hair dye out of clothes with a little pretreatment and some patience.

Note: Avoid using vinegar on granite or marble countertops.

Rubbing Alcohol Dissolves Hair Coloring Stains

Like acetone, rubbing alcohol is a solvent known for quickly dissolving varnish or finishes. Rubbing alcohol works well to sanitize and disinfect when used as a cleaner and applied to a stained surface, including marble countertops and to get hair dye off your nails.

For treating small areas, dampen a cotton ball with rubbing alcohol and gently wipe the stain to dissolve and remove it. Switch cotton balls as more color comes away or switch to cloth to clean a larger area.

Tackle Color Stains with Toothpaste

Most commercial toothpaste contains baking soda, peroxide, or another powerful cleaning agent. These additives help clean our teeth, but when used on stains also remove hair dye from laminate countertops.

Rub toothpaste against the stain on your countertop to work out the color. Use non-gel white toothpaste and rub using an old toothbrush or a soft cloth for the best results.

Surface Cleaning to Remove Stains

Many commercial cleaners clean and remove stubborn stains from around your home, with many specifically made to clean the surfaces in your bathroom. One popular option is Bar Keepers Friend, a versatile cleaner that comes in different forms for various cleaning jobs.

To clean dye stains from a bathroom counter, apply a spray and foam cleaner to allow it to set into stubborn stains caused by permanent or temporary hair dye. Bar Keepers Friend is a cleaner with oxalic acid and citric acid to help break down and remove stains.

Oxalic acid acts similarly to bleach and other stain removers and is harmful to humans through prolonged or repeated contact. Wear protective equipment and use only in a well-ventilated space.

Use The Pink Stuff

The Pink Stuff is a versatile cleaner in a spray or paste form. The cleaner is made from baking soda, quartz, sodium silicate, and soap to remove buildup, grease, scuffs, rust, and stains.

Apply the product to the stained counter surface and leave it to sit for one hour. If you’re using the pink paste, it will dry on the stain. Use a scouring pad like Scotch Brite to scrub the stain without scratching your countertops.

How to Get Hair Dye Off Your Counter with Acetone

Acetone, an essential ingredient in nail polish remover, works well for breaking down color in polish. If you’re dealing with hair dye stains on your laminate countertops, apply nail polish remover to your cotton ball and gently rub over the stain.

Repeat as needed until the stain is gone, using new cotton balls each time. This method may remove some of the coloring on your countertop, so test first in a small area before using this method to get hair dye off a marble countertop.

Use Lemon Juice as a Stain Remover

To remove hair dye from laminate countertops, try using the juice from a fresh lemon or juice from a bottle to clean your counters. Lemon juice has the same pH as distilled white vinegar, making it great for dissolving buildup, with a much more pleasant smell.

Cut a fresh lemon in half and squeeze the juice into a bowl or directly onto your counter. Use a cleaning cloth to spread the juice into the counter and rub the juice against the stain to remove it. Once the stain is gone, rinse or wipe the counter with a clean damp cloth.

Leave the juice on the stain for up to ten minutes to sit for stubborn stains. Avoid using lemon juice on porous countertops like marble.

OxiClean to Remove Stains

OxiClean is a commercial cleaner that works like bleach, with an application process like baking soda. OxiClean is made from sodium carbonate and sodium percarbonate; the latter is used in oxygen bleach to clean without causing colors to run or bleed.

Follow label instructions when using, but OxiClean should be combined with water to activate. Use a sponge or cloth to work the cleaner into the stain until the stain is gone. Rinse or wipe away any residue with a damp cloth.

How to Get Hair Dye Off a Wooden Counter

Getting stains from wood surfaces works slightly differently from cleaning a laminate or marble surface. With wood countertops, avoid using abrasive or corrosive cleaners that may weaken the quality of the wood while you try to remove the stain.

Lemon Essential Oil Removes Stains

If you’re working with semi permanent color or a recent stain on a wood counter, using lemon essential oil is a quick way to remove hair dye from wood. What makes this essential oil effective is its acidic ability to dissolve residue even if it’s dry.

Wipe up as much excess of the stain as you can with an old cloth before adding a couple of drops of lemon essential oil to the spot. Rub the stain with a clean cloth and repeat as necessary until the stain is gone.

Use Dish Soap to Clean Painted Wood

For stains that have not dried into the wood yet, use a gentle to mild dish soap to treat and clean the stain. Washing with dish soap does not remove any paint or coloring on your counter.

Dampen a sponge in the water and work it into the stain in circular motions. Because there is a layer of paint between the stain and the wood, the color should come away quickly without ruining the appearance of your counter.

Remove Stains with Makeup Removers

Makeup removers remove color and pigment from human skin as part of their function. Many of them come in packages of wipes you can use to wipe away stains on the countertops in your bathroom.

Other options for removing stains with makeup removers is a cleanser like micellar water, which uses ingredients that reduce the surface tension between solids and liquids. These ingredients allow you to trap stains in the water before easily wiping them away with a paper towel or cotton pad.

How to Remove Dye from Bathroom Grout

If you accidentally spill or drop hair dye on your counter and it falls onto the grout, it’s crucial to remove the stain quickly as it could cause damage to grout.

Hair color achieved with permanent hair dye often contains peroxide in the form of a developer. Peroxide and any lightening agents like bleach corrode grout and leave them looking dingy over time if left untreated.

Mix liquid dish soap, hydrogen peroxide, and baking soda in equal parts before adding enough water to create a thick but runny mixture.

Use a sponge to spread this mixture across the stained grout on your counter. Leave the mixture on your grout for five minutes. Use a clean cloth to wipe the solution before rising the counter and grout with water.

Reduce the Chance of Staining Your Counter

When dyeing your hair over the bathroom sink, if you’re not careful, you may stain your sink or the counter space around it. Place an old towel down to protect your sink from any dye that lands outside of the mixing bowl.

Applying oil or gel also protects your counter and sink from stains. Applying a small bit of olive oil to your counter and your skin are excellent ways to keep hair color from staining.

Although every cleaning suggestion does not work for every type of bathroom counter, figuring out how to get hair dye out of a marble countertop doesn’t have to be stressful. The next time you find a splotch of unwanted color on your bathroom counter, you’ll be well equipped to handle removing it.

If our guide on how to get hair dye off your counter was useful, please share our tips on how to remove hair dye from a bathroom counter with friends who enjoy dyeing their hair on Facebook and Pinterest.