How do you get the "yellow" out of white manes and tails?

[weebiscuit]

We talked about dying those black manes and tails, but I have several horses with white tails and the bottom 12" just look horrible! I hate those yellow stains! And sometimes they get them in the manes, too. We don't show, but we do a LOT of therapy work with our horses all over the community, and I really want them to shine!

I have thought about buying one of those hair highlighting kits... Do you think that would work?

I use the "bluing" shampoo on the whites, but it doesn't touch that yellow.

 

[Mominis]

Oxyclean really works! If you use the powdered sort, make a paste out of it and work it through the tail. If you use the spray sort, then just spray and wait. If the stains are really bad, you may have to do this twice. There are some commercial whiteners out there that work really well also. If all else fails, try Shapely's spray in white.

 

[valshingle]

I use Quick Silver shampoo. I've never tried bleaching, sorry. One thought though, make sure you aren't trying to lighten naturally chestnut hairs ~ like on a chestnut that is graying out, or a silver horse that may have a more flaxen than white tail.

Good luck!

 

[Taylor Richelle]

I also use quick silver on my geldings white markings and on my paint stud. Works wonders! Good luck!

 

[targetsmom]

For a mare with a white tail, I will usually braid and "bag" it in a sock to keep it from getting yellow in the first place. Not quite as critical for the boys, bu it will help their tails too.

 

[disneyhorse]

Sometimes it's hard to get out, you can use different stuff and see what works, or make a mixture. Bleach is good but be very careful as it can dry and break hair, so condition the heck out of it afterward.

Prevention is the BEST way to keep tails white, so the urine and mud doesn't get on it in the first place!

Bleach, QuikSilver shampoo, Betadine scrub, OxyClean for clothing, Mrs. Stewarts bluing, and products for livestock (stronger than for horse but more damaging to hair over time) are all things to try.

Good luck,

Andrea

 

[Eagle]

I use a French natural soap called Marsiglia soap.I am not sure if you can find it in America but it is amazing. My haflinger has a perfect white tail and mane so it gets really dirty. Any excuse for a photo. I hope I don't get told off as she isn't a mini.

 

[chandab]

Baking soda and vinegar works pretty good to whiten yellowed tails. Wet the whole tail, rub baking soda into the damp tail, then pour vinegar over the tail, it bubbles when the vinegar comes in contact with the baking soda. [if its just the ends that are yellowed, then do just the ends in a bucket to contain the mess.] Rinse, shampoo, rinse and condition.

 

[StarRidgeAcres]

I can tell you what NOT to do!

Do NOT buy a human dye or bleaching hair product that is supposed to give a white color! My trainer told me not to but I had to try it for myself. I had a silver dapple pinto stallion a few years ago that had a mostly silver/black mane and tail, but had one "white" spot in his mane that came off of a white pinto patch on his neck. I thought it was be so cool looking if I could get that part of the mane to be stark white like the color of his skin hairs. So I put a garbage bag over his mane and just pulled through the "white" part. Applied the bleach (can't remember what brand I used), waited, rinsed. O M G!

It was YELLOW!!!!! It looked horrible and I never could get that yellow tinge out. It had to grow out!

So, learn from my mistake. Use the stuff mentioned above, but don't try to use a human product like we do to blacken manes and tails. The bleaching products don't work the same way.

 

[ruffian]

I use the carpet cleaner for removing cat urine. I use an AI glove. Put the tail in the glove, soak the tail in the cleaner, and use electrical tape to hold the glove in place. I leave it in probably about 10 minutes, usually while I'm washing the rest of the horse, and then rinse, shampoo, and condition.

 

[SampleMM]

Eagle your haflinger is beautiful.

I too use the Quicksilver but I let it sit for a long time and that seems to help with the effectiveness. Good luck.

 

[weebiscuit]

I use Quick Silver shampoo. I've never tried bleaching, sorry. One thought though, make sure you aren't trying to lighten naturally chestnut hairs ~ like on a chestnut that is graying out, or a silver horse that may have a more flaxen than white tail.

Good luck!

Well, with my 48 years of horse ownership, I think I can pretty much tell the difference between a flaxen mane and a white one, LOL!

 

[weebiscuit]

I also use quick silver on my geldings white markings and on my paint stud. Works wonders! Good luck!

I have used the Quicksilver and while it seemed to do OK if they got a grass stain on their bodies, or just a bit of discoloration on their legs, I didn't find it to work that well on the bottoms of those tails which were constantly dragged through the mud.

 

[a mini dream come true]

I use a French natural soap called Marsiglia soap.I am not sure if you can find it in America but it is amazing. My haflinger has a perfect white tail and mane so it gets really dirty. Any excuse for a photo. I hope I don't get told off as she isn't a mini.

Eagle she is beautiful!

:wub

Love the color

 

[weebiscuit]

Baking soda and vinegar works pretty good to whiten yellowed tails. Wet the whole tail, rub baking soda into the damp tail, then pour vinegar over the tail, it bubbles when the vinegar comes in contact with the baking soda. [if its just the ends that are yellowed, then do just the ends in a bucket to contain the mess.] Rinse, shampoo, rinse and condition.

Someone told me about this years ago, but I never tried it and I didn't think it would work. But if you've done it and gotten good results, I will give it a try! Thanks!

 

[chandab]

Someone told me about this years ago, but I never tried it and I didn't think it would work. But if you've done it and gotten good results, I will give it a try! Thanks!

If the tail is extremely stained, it'll probably take more than once or adding a whitening shampoo to get it really white.

 

[Blackwater Farm]

I use the Quick Silver on my geldings body and tail and it works great but not so much in his mane. He has a large white chunk in the front of his mane that always gets really nasty from his feed (I feed wet). His hair is really long and even if I braid it it still gets gross. I might try the baking soda trick!!!

 

[Eagle]

Thanks SampleMM and Hazel