Quilt washing question

Shampoo and Orvus are nearly the same thing. They are both the same kind of detergent. Simple shampoo without a lot of extra stuff in it anyway, Not one of those specially formulated to clean your hair using only leaves and extracts from Martian canal shrubs things. Looking at my bottle of woolwash (just doesn't happen to be woolite brand) I see that Orvus=shampoo=woolwash, at least for my particular bottle of woolwash(1).

Acrylic yarn you could probably wash in dishsoap or Fels Naptha with no risk. Lava would probably cause fuzzies though. (G)

NightMist

(1)So why might you ask, do I even have woolwash instead of just running down to the feed store and getting a bucket of Orvus? Three reasons:

1) our kiri does most of the laundry and she is a total media victim. She belives in Mr. Clean and the Mop and Glo Lady, and will hear no words that tell her that the stuff is just whatever it is and that whatever it is will work just as well. She knows in her heart that a tornado will come whipping out of the Ajax and smite her down if she uses an off brand product, or something intended for cleaning somethng else. 2) The woman who owns the local Agway doesn't believe in washing animals. Yeah it's true. She says if the vet wants you to wash an animal for some reason, he can get you what he wants you to wash it with but she won't do it for him. Wierd huh? 3) the equestrian shop, knowing how Agway woman feels about such things, takes full advantage and carries only the top shelf fancy dancy stuff, with non horse specific varieties showing up on the shelves during fair season. The sort of stuff that is packaged with hoof polish, or fleece conditioner, or deoderizers, and if you buy this package along with a bottle of our mane and tail conditioner you get a free package of our guaranteed not to stain ribbons in your choice of red, white, or blue. Very pricey products in other words.

Shampoo was a lifesaver for a bright red and pink heart quilt that had a large dark splotch in the pale pink sashing. I think it was a squashed bug from being in RV for a long time. Shout didn't budge it. Then I blobbed the stain with some cheap shampoo. Voila! Shampoo dissolved the blotch. I washed the quilt in the washer with a small amount of liquid detergent and Borax (to remove musty smell) and dried it in the drier. My heart is beautiful again!

-Dot

About shampoo. Back in the day, we had a sweet wire-haired dachshund who had very tender skin. He had rashes, etc. Veterinarian said flea shampoo is too harsh. I mentioned wanting to try (human) baby shampoo. He said that is *way too harsh* for dogs! I had to buy an expensive (canine) shampoo and conditioner, but it saved Scruffy from the skin problems, and he really did not look very scruffy after a bath! ;) So, I am GUESSING that dog shampoo (not the flea stuff) would be more gentle for quilts than human shampoo would be. JMO.

PAT, glad to hear that Dot saved her quilt, > Shampoo was a lifesaver for a bright red and pink heart quilt that

That's too funny -- when our dog with sensitive skin couldn't handle the flea shampoo, I asked our vet about baby shampoo and she was enthusiastically FOR it. Did wonders for the dog. :)

Don't worry, my dog had expensive tastes in lots of other areas. He was also one in a million. :-)

Back in another life I worked for a dog groomer. We washed the dogs' heads with tear-free baby shampoo and the rest of them with Dove for Dishes. That was at least 30 years ago when Dove smelled like maraschino cherries and was very mild - no super grease-cutting anti-bacterial chemicals in it. The owner of the shop used to test each bottle of baby shampoo by putting it in his own eyes, to make sure it was really tear-free. In the 5 years I worked there, we never ever had any complaints with dog's eyes or skin.

Mickie

The whole reason baby shampoo is 'no tears' is because it has an ingredient that keeps the eyes from stinging. It's not necessarily not irritating the eyes, you just can't feel it. Look at the ingredients label-- it'll have, down on the list someplace, an ingredient with the suffix "-caine", as in lidocaine or novacaine. It just numbs the pain receptors. Otherwise, baby shampoo can be harsher than regular adult shampoos.

It's true that furry and feathery animals generally rely more on their hair or feathers for protection and don't have such a thick cuticle layer. But then what's in dog shampoo that can do the job and be milder than baby shampoo? I don't think there is such a thing, so I'm skeptical. AFAIK animal shampoos are just like human shampoos. Some of them, like the stuff they use for pachyderms, are specially formulated for refatting (like a heavy conditioning shampoo with oil), but the ones for furry animals are unremarkable.

Robert

Good guess, but wrong! You may very well see an ingredient with a "- taine" suffix as in betaine or sultaine, but not a -caine. They do have anti-sting ingredients, but not anesthetics. The anti-sting ingredients are a couple of types of nonionic surfactants -- polyethoxylates either of monoglycerides or of synthetic glycolipids. There are also high ethoxylate nonionic surfactants that CAN numb mucous membranes, but these are not used in shampoos.

In general, only the cheapest baby shampoos are as harsh as regular shampoos, and most of them would be milder than adult shampoos even if you took out the anti-sting ingredients. The only thing that can make baby shampoos slightly harsher to hair is that they're adjusted to neutral pH that the eyes like, instead of the lower pH that hair would like.

Robert