| Be Careful With That
Spritz! You've showered, brushed your teeth, put on your makeup, and
are completely dressed. Now for the final touch - one last big spritz of hair spray before
you walk out the door. While this may help to keep your hair in place during the big
stockholders meeting, it might also cause irreparable damage to your clothing.
Many hair sprays, mousses, and gels contain a high percentage of alcohol and
can cause color loss in certain fabrics, especially silks and acetates. As the alcohol
contacts the fabric, the dyes are actually dissolved and pushed out into a ring, where
they dry. The resulting ring is permanent.
You may not notice this problem right away, but once general surface soil is
removed in cleaning, the color loss becomes quite apparent.
Some hair sprays contain not only alcohol but also lacquers. This can cause
dark stains to show up around the collar, neck area, and shoulders. Although these stains
can be difficult to remove, it is not usually impossible, and your IFI member
professional drycleaner should be able to remove the stains.
Try to spritz before putting on your clothes or at least place a towel over
your clothing. These simple steps could save you a lot of aggravation and money. |
Misleading Care Labels According
to the Federal Trade Commission's Care Label Rule, most wearing apparel made to day must
have a care label permanently affixed to the article. Unfortunately, many care labels give
inaccurate or unclear instructions and continue to confuse both the consumer and the
professional drycleaner and launderer.
You may not look at the care label until it is time to have your clothing cleaned, and
then you are shocked at the true meaning of the care label, One of the more confusing
labels reads: "Do not dryclean., do not wash, spot clean only."
The Care Label Rule clearly states that the instructions on thc label must be
followed, and anyone who processes the garment contrary to the label is responsible for
garment failure. Because of this fact, many drycleaners have had to tell their customers
there is not a process that will spot clean the gar ment successfully. Any spot cleaning
procedure will be ineffective in removing under arm stains, cosmetics around the collar,
and other general soil. Consequently, your drycleaner may be forced into the unfortunate
predicament of telling you that they cannot clean the item.
For further information about care labels, please contact your lo cal IFl
member professional dry- cleaner. |
