How to keep white clothes white: the liquid neel guide

A white shalwar kameez is white for about six washes. After that it drifts towards grey or yellow, and no amount of extra detergent brings it back. Neel does, in one rinse, if you know how to use it.

Why whites go dull

Two reasons. Detergent leaves a thin residue that builds up wash after wash and scatters light, which reads as grey. And the sun, plus sweat, plus the ageing of cotton, tints the fabric yellow. Bleach strips both but also weakens the cloth.

What neel does

Neel is a blue pigment in water. A tiny amount in the final rinse leaves a trace of blue on the fabric. Blue cancels yellow, and the eye reads the result as a brighter white. It is the same trick as blue shampoo for grey hair. No bleaching, no damage.

Liquid versus the cake

The old neel cake has to be dissolved by hand and never fully does, which is where the blue patches come from: undissolved specks landing on the cloth. Liquid neel is already dissolved. It disperses evenly in water in one stir and cannot leave a patch.

How much and when

• Wash the clothes as usual and rinse out the detergent.
• Fill a bucket with clean water for the final rinse.
• Add one capful and stir until the water is evenly pale blue.
• Put in the whites, move them around for one minute.
• Wring lightly and dry in the sun.

In a machine: add the capful to the rinse-water compartment, or to the drum when the final rinse starts. Never with the detergent; the detergent wash rinses it straight out.

The two mistakes

Too much neel. The water should be pale sky blue, not ink. Too much and the clothes take on a tint. If that happens, rinse again in clean water.

Neel on the cloth. Never pour it onto fabric, always into water first. This is the only way to get a patch with liquid neel, and it is easy to avoid.

What to use it on

Whites and very light colours. Cotton, lawn, blends. Not on coloured clothes; it dulls them.

A 200 ml bottle is Rs 250 and, at one cap a bucket, lasts a household most of a year.