I can still recall the very first time I saw it — this odd, almost neon-orange splotch, on my favorite grey hand towel. It didn’t even look like a normal stain either. It had a glow to it, like I had highlighted it. My initial thought was, It must be the rust from the towel bar. Or maybe something spilled and I completely forgot. I tossed it in the wash with extra detergent, feeling a bit too cocky… nope, it came out the exact same, with the orange splotch on it.

Over the next few weeks, a couple other towels had similar splotches, and all of a sudden my bathroom looked like a pumpkin spice poltergeist had overtaken it. If you’ve ever had towels, pillowcases, or even t-shirts develop those cursed orange splotches that won’t come off, you haven’t gone crazy — there are a few surprisingly common causes.

The big culprit: benzoyl peroxide

This one got me good. Benzoyl peroxide — the active ingredient in a lot of acne creams and cleansers — is rough on fabric. It’s a bleaching agent, which means it doesn’t just “stain” towels. It completely bleaches out the dye.

That’s why the blotch doesn’t look like a random color transfer. It’s more of an orange or yellowish bleach spot, especially visible on darker fabrics. And because the color is removed from the fibers themselves, no amount of scrubbing, soaking, or magical stain blocker is going to bring that color that once was back. For me, the moment when the puzzle came together was when I connected what happened when my face and hands touched the towel after I washed up at night. After rinsing my cleanser off, I would pat dry, and maybe rest on the towel while brushing my teeth — and I figured even brief contact could cumulatively cause damage.

Rust and iron in water

Not every orange mark is from synthetic chemicals in your skincare. If you reside where you have a lot of practical iron in your water — and especially well water — you’re going to have minor rusty freckles overlaying your laundry.

I learned that little fact the hard way when I visited a friend who lived in the countryside. After two washes, my white towel was covered with little orange dots. The correct fix in this situation was not detergent, but a laundry additive for rust removal, that would bind to iron before it had the opportunity to stick to fabric.

Hair products and self-tanners

Another sneaky one. Some hair products — particularly those with chemical color-depositing pigmentation — and self-tanning lotions can leave orange or brown stains on your towels. Even after it is “dry” on your skin or hair, it can still come off during the friction of rubbing with a towel.

I learned that one by repeatedly seeing faint orange marks on my hair towels… when I had never used a self-tanner before. My “warmth-enhancing” shampoo obviously held a small amount of pigment that found itself transferring every time I wrapped my hair.

Cleaning products that act like bleach

Bleach and hydrogen peroxide are not just for use in laundry — they may be lurking within disinfectant sprays, toilet bowl cleaners, and surface wipes as well. If you are cleaning your towels, and you mindlessly wipe your hands on a towel, that is just enough to create a patch.

A friend of mine who had turned her kitchen towels pink during a cleaning spree thought it all started with her washing machine, until she realized she was using a spray cleaner on her counters, and then drying her hands on the closest towel.

What has actually helped to prevent it

Once I was aware of the main culprits, I started to treat my towels like my favorite clothing. Here are the things that have helped:

Use white towels for face care: If I am using anything that contains benzoyl peroxide, I only use plain white washcloths. This way, bleach marks are invisible.

Wait for products to dry: When using acne treatments or self-tanner, I always wait for the product to be fully absorbed before touching any fabric. I find it annoying to just stand there, but it saves my towels.

Use filtered water or rust remover: If you have iron-rich water in your area, you could use a laundry additive to prevent those pesky little rust freckles.

Have a dedicated hair towel: I keep a couple of old towels in the bathroom just for drying my hair, so any pigment or dye left by shampoo doesn’t ruin my nice sets.

Can you remove the damage?

If the stain is from benzoyl peroxide or bleach, unfortunately it’s permanent — meaning the color is literally gone from the fibers. You could:

Dye the entire towel a darker color to hide it.

Repurpose it as a cleaning towel or hair towel.

Bleach the entire towel to provide a uniform appearance.

If the stain is from rust or mineral deposits, you may get lucky. There are fabric-safe rust removers that can sometimes recover the original color; I have managed to save a couple of pillowcases that way.

Spotting the difference

With chemical bleaching, there are usually larger, irregular patterns or patches of bleach splashed or blotted over the spots where you would place your hands or face. Mineral staining from water is generally smaller, speckled spots and less uniformly positioned.

Once I learned to read the “pattern” of the marks, I was able to almost immediately identify its source. I found it somewhat satisfying to be able to solve the dilemma rather than blaming some overly vague “laundry curse.”

I am not totally stain-free — life happens and there are times I forget I have acne cream on — but I have gone from piling up laundry towels every couple of months to maybe one every year or two. If your bathroom towels and linens are starting to have a little more pumpkin theme than you would like, it is worth taking a look at your skincare, the water you bathe in, and your hair care routine.

Identify the culprit, and suddenly keeping your towels in pristine condition won’t seem so much like a guessing game anymore — just pay attention to the danger zones, and avoid them with your good fabric.