We Tried Removing Ink Stains From Different Surfaces With Hairspray And Were Partially Impressed

Ink stains may not be a repeated issue on the surfaces in your home, but even one of these colorful spills can become an unrelenting eyesore if you're unsure how to clean it. There are various sources online that will tell you how to wipe up ink with all kinds of cleaning products and solutions, including rubbing alcohol, nail polish remover, baking soda, or vinegar. However, we may have found one of the simplest hacks to remove ink from a multitude of surfaces, making use of an item you likely already have sitting under your bathroom sink: hairspray.

In their most-viewed TikTok, @getcre8tiv shows how they were able to erase an ink stain on their linoleum flooring using only a paper towel and some TRESemmé hairspray. The TikToker's video not only explains how this worked on their floors but also that they've had success lifting ink stains from other surfaces like fabric and even skin. After seeing how easily the ink came off of @getcre8tiv's linoleum, we began wondering if this approach really works. And if so, what other surfaces could it work on?

Many hairsprays, including TRESemmé Extra Hold Hairspray, are made with denatured alcohol – similar to rubbing alcohol. The ingredients in the pen ink are easily cleaned with the help of this alcohol as it breaks down the dye stain and coaxes it off of almost any surface. So, when choosing a hairspray for this hack, make sure its ingredient list includes alcohol near the top.

Once it was decided that we were going to give this stain-removing hack a try, our first task was to find the hairspray that @getcre8tiv used in their TikTok. At Walmart, the TRESemmé Extra Hold Hair Spray was available for about $7. Nearly everything else was already waiting for us at home. We gathered some blue BIC Clic Stic Retractable Ball Pens, vinyl gloves, paper towels, and various materials to test the ink and hairspray on. These included linoleum flooring, a green tile, two upholstery fabric swatches from Joybird, a faux leather Aothia Desk Pad, and an unfinished pine plywood board from IKEA.

Four of our test surfaces were able to be studied in our living room, which has the best lighting in our home, so we laid them out on the floor. However, the linoleum was installed in our bathroom. Because of this, and the fact that it was pretty certain the stain would come up from the flooring, we started there.

Sitting on the linoleum bathroom floor with our hairspray and paper towels ready to go, we broke open one of our pens (while wearing our vinyl gloves), snipped off one end with some scissors, and smeared a small blue patch onto our first victim. Then, we let the ink sit for about 30 seconds before spraying the hairspray, dabbing at it with our paper towel, and wiping it up. Thankfully, the ink came up easily and our flooring was left stain-free.

Now in the living room, we laid out our four remaining surfaces for the experiment. The pink leather desk mat was next, and it went through the exact same process as the linoleum. Yet, the results were much different. Even after three rounds of applying the hairspray and wiping the mat, the stain was still visible. It showed less and less progress as we resprayed the leather, and eventually, it was time to move on.

The next two items, the unfinished pine board and fabric swatches, unfortunately, had similar results to the desk mat. The stains persisted no matter how much hairspray was used. Finally, our last test was on a green tile, and it was the most successful stain removal yet. With a single application of hairspray and one wipe, the ink came right off.

By the end of the five tests, we had some very different results among them. Linoleum and tile made this trick look like magic, while our upholstery swatches and pine board were still obviously smeared with ink. Somewhere in the middle was our ink-stained leather desk mat. It still had a small mark, but the hairspray and towel made an impressive dent in the brightness of the spill.

It appears that with fibrous or rough finishes, the ink is able to seep into the cracks, which makes it hard or impossible to remove. However, when the same ink is applied to a featureless surface, it comes up with ease and appears to melt away with the application of some hairspray.

Even though the spray isn't a universal fix for ink stains on all kinds of materials, this trick does work very well on flooring or counters made of smooth tile, linoleum, or a similar medium. Considering the results of these tests, we would absolutely recommend the hairspray hack for removing ink stains on some surfaces, but pen marks on upholstery fabric, leather, and unfinished wood should be dealt with differently.