Q. I just went to the hairdresser wearing a bright white 100% cotton shirt, and brown hair dye from the previous client got on the back of my shirt. The label says only non chlorine bleach and warm water wash. I'm not sure what to use, and thought you might have some good advice. This is a fairly new shirt and one of my summer favorites.

A. If this is a cotton shirt, I'm sure it can be bleached. One of my pet peeves is that most manufacturers under label their items for legal reasons regardless of testing results. You can always test the shirt to see if it's safe to use liquid bleach.

I recommend consumers do the quick Bleachability Test (2 tspn Clorox® Regular-Bleach in 1/4 cup water; apply a drop on a hidden area like inside seam, hemline or cuff; wait 1 minute and then blot with towel); no color change means it is safe to use bleach on the item. Now you have a couple of choices: I would consider using Clorox® BleachPen Gel (apply; rub in with scrubber tip; wait 3-5 minutes) before adding to the washer. Or,you could also do a quick liquid bleach soak (1/4 cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach in gallon of cool water for 5 minutes), then wash immediately in the hot water using detergent and 3/4 cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach.

Check out the Laundry 101 video on my blog (http://www.drlaundryblog.com) for a demonstration of the test.