I can still recall the very first time I saw it — this odd, almost neon-orange splotch, on my favorite grey hand towel. It didn’t even look like a normal stain either. It had a glow to it, like I had highlighted it. My initial thought was, It must be the rust from the towel bar. Or maybe something spilled and I completely forgot. I tossed it in the wash with extra detergent, feeling a bit too cocky… nope, it came out the exact same, with the orange splotch on it.
Over the next few weeks, a couple other towels had similar splotches, and all of a sudden my bathroom looked like a pumpkin spice poltergeist had overtaken it. If you’ve ever had towels, pillowcases, or even t-shirts develop those cursed orange splotches that won’t come off, you haven’t gone crazy — there are a few surprisingly common causes.
The big culprit: benzoyl peroxide
This one got me good. Benzoyl peroxide — the active ingredient in a lot of acne creams and cleansers — is rough on fabric. It’s a bleaching agent, which means it doesn’t just “stain” towels. It completely bleaches out the dye.
That’s why the blotch doesn’t look like a random color transfer. It’s more of an orange or yellowish bleach spot, especially visible on darker fabrics. And because the color is removed from the fibers themselves, no amount of scrubbing, soaking, or magical stain blocker is going to bring that color that once was back. For me, the moment when the puzzle came together was when I connected what happened when my face and hands touched the towel after I washed up at night. After rinsing my cleanser off, I would pat dry, and maybe rest on the towel while brushing my teeth — and I figured even brief contact could cumulatively cause damage.
Rust and iron in water
Not every orange mark is from synthetic chemicals in your skincare. If you reside where you have a lot of practical iron in your water — and especially well water — you’re going to have minor rusty freckles overlaying your laundry.
I learned that little fact the hard way when I visited a friend who lived in the countryside. After two washes, my white towel was covered with little orange dots. The correct fix in this situation was not detergent, but a laundry additive for rust removal, that would bind to iron before it had the opportunity to stick to fabric.
Hair products and self-tanners
Another sneaky one. Some hair products — particularly those with chemical color-depositing pigmentation — and self-tanning lotions can leave orange or brown stains on your towels. Even after it is “dry” on your skin or hair, it can still come off during the friction of rubbing with a towel.
I learned that one by repeatedly seeing faint orange marks on my hair towels… when I had never used a self-tanner before. My “warmth-enhancing” shampoo obviously held a small amount of pigment that found itself transferring every time I wrapped my hair.
Cleaning products that act like bleach
Bleach and hydrogen peroxide are not just for use in laundry — they may be lurking within disinfectant sprays, toilet bowl cleaners, and surface wipes as well. If you are cleaning your towels, and you mindlessly wipe your hands on a towel, that is just enough to create a patch.
A friend of mine who had turned her kitchen towels pink during a cleaning spree thought it all started with her washing machine, until she realized she was using a spray cleaner on her counters, and then drying her hands on the closest towel.