A customer brings in a traditional Filipino shirt, a Barong Tagalog, about once a week. This time, he brought it in with a yellow stain on the back.
Although it looked like yellowing, since this garment is cleaned frequently, I assumed it was a relatively fresh stain rather than oxidation or long-term discoloration.
I first gave it a light wash using a neutral detergent. Sometimes stains disappear at this stage, but this time it had no effect at all.
I then applied dish soap directly to the stain, waited a bit, and gently brushed it with a toothbrush. The stain started to shift slightly, indicating that it was likely an oil-based stain. However, some areas still didn’t move much.
I applied a stronger spotting agent (Hydret) and gently brushed again with a toothbrush. The stain almost completely disappeared, so I applied Hydret to all the stained areas and let it sit for about five minutes.
After that, I ran a light hand-wash cycle. The shirt came out perfectly clean.
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