Cleaning a blood stain from a silk tie

Question

A friend of mine recently moved to a pretty arid climate, and has been experiencing nosebleeds. While he's trying to fix that, he kinda wrecked a brand new silk tie the first day he wore it :(

Since he's new to the area, he doesn't know which dry cleaners around can be trusted with cleaning ties (apparently, if they don't know what they're doing, it can come out worse than when it started).

So, until my friend finds a cleaners he can trust, is there anything he can do with his tie? See picture, below.

See also How to clean blood from white clothes and Removing blood from colored clothes

Answer 1

I have experience washing silk product and cleaning blood stains. I never take my clothing to dry cleaner, so I have plenty of experience washing delicate material such as silk and wool.

The rule for washing off blood stains is to use cold(normal tap temperature) water. Warm water make the cell membrane of red blood cells to rupture, and making blood stain harder to be removed.

I usually just hand wash silk products with cold water.

As of detergent, normal detergent, or just hand soap works. If the stain is too stubborn, I would soak it for a while before washing the fabric.

When it comes to actually washing and rubbing off the stain, you just need to put a bit more detergent on the blood stain, then gently rub different parts of the tie against each other to rub the stain off.

If you see the stain is getting rubbed off a little, then just repeat the process.

I hope this helps, if the stain refuse to go away, maybe consider some special blood stain removing treatment for silk or buy a new tie?

Answer 2

Windex will take apart blood stains in clothes. Ammonia, the cleaning ingredient takes apart the fat molecules that make up the blood cell wall. Meat tenderizer also works but is quite expensive. A similar enzymatic cleaning agent is oxy clean. Like hydrogen peroxide it uses oxygen to clean with. Hydrogen peroxide is well known as a bleaching agent for organic matter, I.e. lightening human hair. Since silk is formed of a similar protein structure to human hair I would not recommend it as a cleaning agent for silk, especially if coloured.

Perhaps your friend could mail the tie to a reputable cleaner? A tie is lightweight and easily shipped.

The real solution is for your friend to prevent nosebleeds to begin with. Keeping hydrated is key. In desert countries water features are often designed into residences for exactly this reason, purposes of humidity and hydration. Indoor fountains can be even tabletop sized and still hydrate their vicinity. If there is no way to even introduce a personal fountain, perhaps there is a public swimming area. Perhaps your friend could swim more? And try that nasal saline sprays to keep his nose wetter? And take his vitamin c and e and k1&2 to help his epithelial cells to recover faster and with clotting?? By the way, the dry winter cold here also can cause nosebleeds. There is a cream similar to polysporin that can be gotten in pharmacies here.

Answer 3

Nurses always recommend to use hydrogen peroxide. It works for white and colour clothes. Here's an answer to similar question about How to clean blood from white clothes.