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Simple: making it difficult for the ink on the pieces to be dissolved by water. Contrary to what is heard out there, salt is not responsible for fixing the dye on the clothes, since it does not act directly on the paint. The popular sodium chloride acts in water, making the liquid saturated. In other words, it’s like the water becomes congested, with no space to receive the ink that would come off the clothes. The dye ends up not coming off, as the place it would occupy in the liquid is already taken by the salt itself. “Thus, the ink stops flowing into the water, as it would naturally, and remains on the fabric”, says chemist Mauro Carlos Ribeiro, from USP. Now, even if you don’t use the salt trick, you don’t run the risk of seeing your clothes completely lose color. “The dye that is already impregnated in the fibers will not dissolve”, says chemist Maria Regina Alcântara, also from USP.