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The forgotten joy of soap

spectator.co.uk

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Re: The forgotten joy of soap

#31

Post by lm28469 »

tempguy9999 wrote: post #26
11235813213455 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here, the joy of a good Marseille soap (I'm in France). It lasts at least 3 months for showers, washing hands, and everything (hair as well) I heard some people wash their teeth with soap, I'm not there yet :))

When I was a young kid we were out of toothpaste and some adult suggested using soap. I remember it wasn't very nice, but that's all. For the sake of science, I just repeated that, so as taught in school, the scientific method. experiment: brushing teeth with soap instead of toothpaste. apparatus: toothbrush, soap (sainsbury's cheapo), teeth, darwin-award level of stupidity. result: surprisingly inoffensive. Almost n…

AFAIK using soap wouldn't do much to clean your teeth. Toothpaste work because it contains abrasive and to a lesser extent fluoride and other additives.

Most of the cleaning comes from the action of the brush on your teeth which physically removes bacterias, leftover food, &c.

Re: The forgotten joy of soap

#33

Post by kstenerud »

I stopped washing with soap 6 years ago and never looked back.

For the first month, my skin was so greasy all the time that it felt like I'd been wearing the same clothes for a week, just an hour after putting them on, but then my skin finally adjusted to the new normal.

My skin is soft - much too soft for a man of my age, according to my wife. I have no body odor, even after a heavy workout where I'm still covered in sweat. I can (and have) gone for week long hikes and come back not smelling bad. Contrast this to before where an hour after a shower I'd smell terrible if I didn't put on that nasty underarm deodorant (I don't use that stuff anymore, either).

My father was skeptical when I told him, but eventually I won him over and he experienced something similar when he stopped using soap to wash.

Soap is only for things you can't remove any other way (like motor oil), or for when you need antiseptic conditions.

Re: The forgotten joy of soap

#34

Post by tempguy9999 »

lm28469 wrote: post #31
tempguy9999 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was a young kid we were out of toothpaste and some adult suggested using soap. I remember it wasn't very nice, but that's all. For the sake of science, I just repeated that, so as taught in school, the scientific method. experiment: brushing teeth with soap instead of toothpaste. apparatus: toothbrush, soap (sainsbury's cheapo), teeth, darwin-award level of stupidity. result: surprisingly inoffensive. Almost n…

AFAIK using soap wouldn't do much to clean your teeth. Toothpaste work because it contains abrasive and to a lesser extent fluoride and other additives. Most of the cleaning comes from the action of the brush on your teeth which physically removes bacterias, leftover food, &c.

I agree and have to wonder whether toothpaste really does anything significant, or perhaps it's just a moneymaking consumable.

Re: The forgotten joy of soap

#35

Post by stinos »

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #18

It's quite remarkable how successful the marketing campaign against bar soap has been such that it's somehow thought of as unclean. All to get us to switch to far, far more wasteful liquid soap.

somehow thought of as unclean

To be fair: if your hands are dirty like from gardening or working on a bicycle then some of that dirt will stick to the soap and stay there until after a couple of 'clean' uses. But in my mind that doesn't mean the soap is unclean. After all, the visible dirt is normally a lot less to worry about than the stuff which you don't perceive with your bare eyes. Of which I actually don't know whether it's present on a bar of soap or not - wouldn't be surprised if there are higher levels of bacteria on the surfcae - but whether that actually has a negative effect is something else.

Re: The forgotten joy of soap

#36

Post by pivo »

geolqued wrote: post #17

Surprised to see this on HN, it's not my main gig but recently I've been getting into the details of exporting and selling coconut oil soap from my family's business. It's a remarkably simple process to make soap from oil or fat. just heat and add a caustic agent. Sodium Hydroxide for bar soap or Potassium Hydroxide for liquid soap. When I check out the competition and look at the ingredients list I'm surprised at ho…

> Most body washes are technically detergents not soaps.

Many bar "soaps" you find in pharmacies and grocery stores are detergent too, at least in the US. If it doesn't say "soap" on the label, it probably isn't.

Re: The forgotten joy of soap

#37

Post by dnvbcnvb »

Negitivefrags wrote: post #3

Does anyone else find shower-gel just completely ineffective? After using it I don't feel clean. I feel like I just rubbed cooking oil on my body. With regular soap bars you get the "clean" feeling which no other product seems to match.

YES!

I wash hands tens of times per day. Every time before touching food, or after touching something potentially poisonous (like eliquid, strong detergents, gasoline, etc).

I can't imagine using liquid soap, it doesn't clean at all! It's horrible, hands covered in some oil, can't remove it with water.

I'm using this https://www.ladymakeup.com/shop/barwa_hypoallergenic_traditi... 0.99 PLN (0.26 USD) for a 100g bar at Carrefour. It's the best soap: vegan, available, cheap.

Re: The forgotten joy of soap

#38

Post by crispyambulance »

londons_explore wrote: post #23

Bar soap has died due to a perceived lack of cleanliness. People look at a half used bar of soap lying in a shared bathroom and think "Some other dirty person has rubbed that in their private parts. No way I'm touching that!!!". Soap, unless stored in a well designed soap dish, also always has a partially dissolved slimey bit that's pretty icky.

What! When did this happen?!

Never heard of soap bars being considered dirty ever. That slime is just because the soap has been sitting in puddle of water in a soap-dish.

If the soap bar has "stuff" on it, you just rinse it and rub that stuff off in a second.

Re: The forgotten joy of soap

#39

Post by stinos »

jazoom wrote: post #6
Negitivefrags wrote: post #3

Does anyone else find shower-gel just completely ineffective? After using it I don't feel clean. I feel like I just rubbed cooking oil on my body. With regular soap bars you get the "clean" feeling which no other product seems to match.

What you're interpreting as "clean feeling" is likely stripping your skin of its protective oils. That's why we (doctors) don't recommend soaps as a general rule. That oil is there for a reason.

Would doctors recommend using nothing at all, just warm water, for e.g. showering or bathing (not talking washing hands after changing diapers or so)? Or why not? It seems to be hard to find actual studies about the effects. In fact I have yet to find one, might be my search skills are lacking. From anecdotal experiments I don't see much difference and no negative effects. I don't like the smell anyway, my skin nor hair seems to care, in fact seems to produce less oil overall probably because it doesn't have to counter removal anymore, and as far as I and close friends can tell my body still smells the same.
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