Fugitive dyes are not a specific type of dye, but more of an action that a dye takes part in when its bonding properties are loosened, and the dye itself is put within water. When you clean an oriental carpet with very powerful dyes it it you need to be very careful. First thing a company should do is ask you if you have every had this piece cleaned, or cleaned the piece yourself. If you have and there hasn’t been any problems there shouldn’t be worry for problems with our cleaning. No matter what we always test in a inconspicuous area to make sure the colors don’t bleed. This bleeding process is actually another word for the dye becoming fugitive. The term fugitive dye really means that once a dye is hit with water it releases its grip on the fiber that it has been attached to for so long and will start to move within the water particles. If this is on a carpet and the dye starts to become “fugitive” it will run until it finds a lighter strand fiber where the powerful pigment in this dye will settle, take over, and then bond to that fiber mixing in with the original color. This is why on some oriental carpets you will find that near the deep red color designs that are outlined with white some of the light white fibers have turned pink. We have cleaned thousands of these carpets so you have nothing to worry about, but as stated above we always take our time to inspect, and test areas in these carpets as years of sunlight exposure, and exposure to normal household chemicals can weaken the bond as well between these dyes and fibers.
