We report accurate, direct measurements of the absorption recovery lifetimes (fluorescence lifetimes, tau(f)) Of dyes which are commonly used as saturable absorbers in self-starting passively mode-locked Ti: sapphire lasers. The values tau(f) for IR 140, HITCI, and DDI dissolved in ethylene glycol are respectively 165 +/- 5 ps, 200 +/- 7 ps, and 27 +/- 0.5 ps. The femtosecond temporal resolution available in these measurements also made possible the determination, for the first time to our knowledge, of fast initial relaxation rates of the excited electronic band of these dyes.