If washing with chlorine bleach fails to remove a stain from a piece of cloth, what's the next step? For example, my family and I have sheets with very old blood stains, towels stained by my father's brown hair dye, a white lab coat stained by ink from a damaged ballpoint pen, a formerly white skirt that turned pink from dye that bled from other clothes in the washing machine, and white socks that have grey bottoms. All of these stains have refused to budge when washed in the washing machine with detergent, bleach, and cold water.