Cleaning Gasoline out of Hair

So last Sunday I was helping my older brother James work on his truck. Something was wrong with his fuel line so he was going to blow some air through the line to see if there was a leak anywhere. It was my job to stand by the gas tank to see if I could hear the air coming through. James had already tried this a few times when I wasn't there and couldn't hear anything, so I was his last resort. Well the 1st time he tried with me whatever was clogging the fuel line came unstuck and the air went through to push the gasoline out the gas tank and onto me! Luckily I did not get any in my eyes however my hair got sprayed with most of it.

I immediately took a shower and tried to wash the gas out with shampoo. This is where I learned lesson #1 the shampoo will not work and has a chemical reaction with the gas to make the shampoo ball up and stick to your hair. So after scraping off the shampoo mess, I hit up google on the porch to air out the fumes. This is where I found the solution to my problem. The way to get gasoline completely out of your hair is with Dawn dish soap. I also tried one more thing just in case and I learned lesson #2 do not use any baking soda on your hair, it will make a tangled, dry mess on contact. Luckily, I tested tried a small portion of hair first, but that even that small portion took a long time to comb through.

 So regarding the dish soap it worked really well for me, I lathered it in my hair then rinsed twice with it and my hair no longer had a residue on it and best of all it got totally rid of the smell! I guess it makes sense since they use Dawn to clean oil off of birds, and gas is made with oil. The only bad thing about it is Dawn is made to clean off all grease, therefore it also stripped my hair of all it's natural oil. My hair has been really staticky since so I got some sunflower oil to run a small amount through my hair to try and calm my hair and restore some oil to it.

As for my clothes they only got a small amount of gas on them. I tried a few things to get the gas out easier but the only way to get it all out was to let my clothes air out the gas on the porch and then I washed them 3 times. Make sure to wash the gas clothes separate from other clothes unless you want those to stink too.

I hope this helps anyone else who gets gasoline in their locks.
Just fyi I have long, thin, curly hair I am not sure how this would work for you, however I'm pretty sure it will work for most anyone since the soap is just dealing with the gas and not your hair as well. Also make sure to get all the gas out of your clothes before throwing them in the dryer, if there are leftover fumes your dryer may start on fire.

dawn-dish.com