Black clothing (or any other washable fabric) is notorious for ruining lighter colors. Washing all colors and shades together can be disastrous and you could ruin some of your clothes. Highly pigmented fabrics tend to leak dye every time that they are washed.
In general, if you’re unsure whether something will leak dye and ruin other clothes, you should wash it separately or wash the load in cold water. If you’re mixing any black fabric with other shades or colors in your washing machine, make sure that you put the water temperature on cold. Most machines have this function and the cold water lessens the amount of dye that will leak into the water.
Can You Wash Dark Grey with Black?
Dark grey fabrics and black fabrics are usually okay to wash together. If they dye leaks out of the black fabric, it probably won’t change the tone of the dark grey fabric enough that you would notice it. If the dye leaks out of the dark grey fabric, it won’t have any effect on the black fabric because black is darker.
Can You Wash Light Grey with Black?
Depending on how light your light grey fabric is, you can wash it with black. If the grey is closer to black than it is to white, it’s likely that it will be okay to wash it with black fabric.
If your grey fabric is closer to white than it is to black, you should be careful and not wash it with black fabric. If a light grey fabric is washed with black, it probably won’t cause too much change in color and might only become a little bit darker. But again, it all depends on how dark or light the fabric is. It’s best to keep light grey and black fabrics separate in the wash.
Can You Wash Grey and Blue Together?
Again, this all depends on the shades of the colors. If both the grey and blue fabrics are very dark, then they should be safe to wash together. Any dye that leaks from either of them won’t be dark enough or pigmented enough to change the way that the other fabric’s color looks.
If both of the fabrics are light colors, they are probably safe to wash together for a similar reason. Because they are so light, it’s unlikely that any of the pigment that might leak into the water would be dark enough to have any effect on the other color of fabric.
However, if one of the fabrics is much darker than another, there is a good chance that the darker fabric will leak dye into the water that could change the tone of the lighter fabric. Say that you have a light grey shirt and a navy blue shirt. The light grey shirt might come out of the wash with a slight blue tint that it didn’t have when you first put both items in the washer.
Be careful when you mix light and dark clothes of any shade, and remember to wash your mixed-color clothes in cold water.
You may also want to read: Can You Wash Red With Black?