Were These Towels & Washcloths Purchased Online Once Another Color?

Have you noticed your whites having reddish/brown blotches after bleaching? And what's strange, it may not be all of your whites. Is there something in the water in Lafayette Parish?

I thought bleach was supposed to help make whites brighter. I know over time, beached can make your whites look dingy. But when that happens, it's usually on older white clothing, bedding, bath towels and washcloths and the discoloration is throughout the entire towel, washcloth, bedding or garment.

I used to buy thick expensive bath towels and washcloths until recently. Over the past year, I've switched to cheaper washcloths and bath towels from Amazon. They looked fine until a few months ago.

I'm noticing reddish/brown splotches all over my white bath towels and washcloths from Amazon but only when I use bleach. And it's not the entire towel or washcloth, only in spots. It's also worth noting that the discoloration is not occurring on any other whites, only the whites bought online.

Online research explains how too much iron in a water system can do that or if the bleach interacts with manganese. This is more prominent in homes where an underground water supply is used such as a well. But I'm on Lafayette Parish water.

These spots will not come out. I've tried rust removers, more bleach and even baking soda. Towels (old and new) now have these reddish/brown, with maybe a purple hue, spots all over them.

In this video, you can see how after a towel has been sprayed with bleach, in this case, I used Clorox Cleaner, the spots start to appear. What you don't see in this video is how, as time goes by, the spots get darker and more intense. The towel used in this demonstration had been freshly washed.

More research suggests (there is no proof of this) that the cheaper bath towels and washcloths purchased online were once another color and dyed white and that the original color is coming through.

I'm not sure what's happening, but it sure makes for horrible-looking whites.