Compositions comprising (a) a cationic surfactant which by itself acts as a reserve agent in the dyeing of substrates which can be dyed with anionic dyes, or a mixture of such surfactants (b) a cationic surfactant which by itself acts as a retarder in the dyeing of polyacrylonitrile with cationic dyes, or a mixture of such surfactants, and optionally containing other components which are suitable particularly as reserve agents for substrates that can be dyed with anionic dyes.
