A challenging carpet stain - please help

[LaCerbiatta]

I spilled some hair dye on our new cream 100% wool carpet (gulp!..). It's that dye you use to cover up roots with a brush, that comes off in the shower. I immediately washed with water and soap but there was still a very noticeable pink stain. I then tried vinegar and carpet detergent but there was no change. So i did something really stupid: I tried milton tablet solution. Only it was too concentrated and created a yellow stain :(. So now there's a pink stain with a yellow halo and nothing is making it better..

Any ideas? Dh is being really helpful and saying that the only option is to rip it all out....

sadly I think your dh might be right.

Oh don't say that :(
Anyone else has any suggestions?

I think this is what insurance is for....

If the stain is definitely set permanently then it can be an option to cut out the affected bit of carpet and replace with a spare bit, or a bit taken from a usually hidden area. If the carpet's new and has decent pile, and the stain isn't too huge, then it can work pretty well.

Having said that, it might be worth checking out your contents insurance and just getting a new carpet.

Hadn't considered insurance, thanks for that. Have to check that it covers accidental damage.

Would cutting the bit out and patching with new carpet not look obvious? It's one of those carpets with biggish loops, like this one

Yes, I think you'd need a tufted carpet to be able to cut out the stain without it showing, sorry.

Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to sound like a misery guts, its just that the very nature of hair dye is that it's meant to stay put, therefore I think there is a good chance it won't come out.

sounds like you can't make it worse so I'd try ace fabric bleach. it is colour safe and wool safe. although they say it is not suitable for carpets, I have used it on stains and it has been fine.

the only problem is that the yellow stain caused by the Milton is likely to be a bleached patch rather than a stain that will come out. if that's the case, and you can get the pink hair dye stain out, you could always try dabbing on a weak solution of tea or coffee (depending on the cream tone of your carpet) to try to re-dye it.

i if all else fails google carpet repair in your area.

good luck!

Thanks all, I'll try ace bleach.

No need to apologise treacle! :)