How To Get Dried Paint Out Of Clothes

Trying to get paint out of clothes? You can easily get dried paint out of clothes after it's dried. You probably already have everything you need. Check out how to get dried paint out of clothes using hairspray to save your favorite clothes from the rag bin!

Normally when I am painting I put on old clothes that I don't mind getting paint stains on.

However, recently I needed to do a couple of spots of touch-up paint and didn't think I needed to change my outfit.

Of course, it would be the time that I got paint on my sleeve and didn't notice it until it was already through the laundry.

It's not a really good shirt, but it's a really comfortable workout shirt so I wanted to try to get the paint out.

Regularly if I get paint on my clothes I just spray some spot treatment on it and send it through the wash right away.

This time since the paint had dried I had to get dried paint out of clothes. It's a little harder and takes a little more time, but you can get dried paint out of clothes.

How To Get Dried Paint Out Of Clothes

If you have ever wondered how to remove dried paint out of clothes check out this easy tutorial. You can see the paint on my shirt below.

I was able to easily remove it without damaging the clothes.

Getting Started

Getting paint out of clothes isn't a big deal. You will just need a few things.

• Hairspray (The alcohol in the hairspray is what takes the stain out, so make sure you are using hairspray with alcohol.)
• an old toothbrush or fabric brush
• butterknife
• Stain Remover (I make my own DIY stain remover)

To remove paint from clothes after it has already dried you will need some aerosol hairspray and either a butter knife or toothbrush. It doesn't matter which brand of hairspray but it does need to be an aerosol.

Aerosol hairspray has alcohol which will help loosen and get out the dried paint. Hairspray pretty much has enough alcohol to loosen and liquefy the paint without it damaging the fabric. Using hairspray to get paint out of clothes is quick and easy!

Spray The Dried Paint

To start, you will want to take the clothes with the dried paint and spray it with hairspray. I try to really saturate the spot.

When you start spraying it you will see the paint start to get darker, just like ink does when you spray it.

Don't panic, this is completely normal. The alcohol is turning the dried paint back into a liquid.

Loosen Dried Paint

Once it is totally saturated with hairspray you will want to rub the fabric to help loosen the paint.

I used a butter knife to loosen the paint because my fabric isn't really delicate.

If you have a more delicate fabric you may want to use a soft toothbrush. I use this fabric brush on delicate fabrics when I need to scrub them.

As you run the knife over the fabric you should start to see the paint drying up. Then it will start to come out of the fabric.

Don't panic, the paint does tend to spread as you do this. You can see in the above picture it kind of turns wet again and starts to spread.

This will actually make it easy to get the paint out of clothes.

Run the knife or the toothbrush over the fabric for a few minutes until you feel like you have a good amount of the paint loosened up.

You may want to spray a little more hairspray on the paint stain to help loosen it some more.

Wash Away The Paint

Once you have some of the paint loosened up, run the fabric under hot water to rinse away the loosened paint. I recommend using the hottest water possible for the clothing.

Again, if it is a delicate item you may want to use warm water instead of hot.

You may want to spray it with some spot remover while you are running it under hot water.

You can use a store-bought spot remover or you can easily make your own DIY stain remover.

I just spray some on and rub the fabric together like in the picture below. This will really help remove the dried paint from clothes.

Repeat if Necessary

Once you have rinsed away the loosened paint blot the paint-stained clothes so it is a little dry.

If necessary repeat the steps of spraying the hairspray and working the paint with a butter knife. You may need to repeat this step a couple of times.

My shirt was bright pink with some white paint on it so I had to use the hairspray, scrub, and rinse about 4 times before the paint was mostly gone.

Wash The Paint Stained Clothes

Once you have removed all or most of the dried paint from the clothes you can wash the clothes.

Just wash in the machine how you normally would, however, I recommend washing it by itself the first time because of the paint and hairspray.

You don't want to risk any of the paint getting on the other clothes in the laundry.

When it is done washing examine it carefully to make sure all the paint is gone. If all the dry paint on the clothes is gone, you can dry it normally.

If you look closely you can still see where the paint was but it made a huge difference. Check out the before and after.

You can save your favorite clothes with this simple tip on how to get dried paint out of clothes.

Want to see some other stain removing tips? See how to get just about any stain out of clothes here. What stain tips or tricks do you use?