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The forgotten joy of soap

spectator.co.uk

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Re: The forgotten joy of soap

#61

Post by organsnyder »

crispyambulance wrote: post #38
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.

Perhaps it depends on location? Where I live (Michigan, US) I feel like an anachronistic rebel having soap bars at the sinks in our home instead of liquid soap dispensers. I think the perceived lack of cleanliness is one of the main reasons (along with the Bath and Bodyworks marketing machine).

Re: The forgotten joy of soap

#63

Post by mlevental »

kstenerud wrote: post #33

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 i…

the 65 million dollar question: do you only wash your butthole with water as well

Re: The forgotten joy of soap

#64

Post by FreeFull »

tempguy9999 wrote: post #34
lm28469 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Brushing with an abrasive does make a significant difference. The fluoride also has a significant effect on reducing tooth decay. The other parts aren't too important (flavour and mouthfeel). You can definitely get away with using other abrasives, but it won't be as pleasant.

Re: The forgotten joy of soap

#65

Post by everdrive »

unixhero wrote: post #59

This may be a very cool hipster topic and I don't want to disregard the art and skills involved with concocting a great line of soap bars... However, soap bars are not particularly hygienic. This is due to the fact that [1] they are shared between people in the wash basin and the shower or tub [2] they are used repeatedly but in reusing it, the user is potentially exposed to old grime and bacteria.

How well does bacteria live on a bar of soap?

Re: The forgotten joy of soap

#66

Post by hanoz »

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.

A liquid soap dispenser bottle sits there for weeks with all its complex surface area touched by umpteen dirty hands, never in itself getting washed, but a bar of soap comes self contained in a neat wrapper all of its own which is automatically shed with every use. I wouldn't use anything else.

Re: The forgotten joy of soap

#67

Post by jbuckner »

kstenerud wrote: post #46
NhanH wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean you are just using water nowadays, or did you switch to using detergent or otherkind of cleaning formula?

Just water. My hair is short so I can get away with washing my hair water-only as well, but it becomes a pain for people with long hair (it can become quite unmanageable).

I have long, curly hair and stopped using shampoo and conditioner many years ago. Similar to your experience of adjusting to no soap over the first month or so, I went through that with my hair. Eventually my hair oils normalized and now I only use shampoo/conditioner if I get grease in it or something else that water alone can't handle. The natural oils do a great job on their own controlling frizz.

Re: The forgotten joy of soap

#68

Post by everdrive »

stinos wrote: post #35
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…

This is all true, but it's not much effort to rinse and lather the soap a bit to make sure it's clear of grime as well.

Re: The forgotten joy of soap

#69

Post by unixhero »

everdrive wrote: post #65
unixhero wrote: post #59

This may be a very cool hipster topic and I don't want to disregard the art and skills involved with concocting a great line of soap bars... However, soap bars are not particularly hygienic. This is due to the fact that [1] they are shared between people in the wash basin and the shower or tub [2] they are used repeatedly but in reusing it, the user is potentially exposed to old grime and bacteria.

How well does bacteria live on a bar of soap?

Well enough for hospitals to agree with my OC.

Re: The forgotten joy of soap

#70

Post by ilikehurdles »

rusticpenn wrote: post #25
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.

Soap makes my skin dry and itchy in winter. Oily shower gels are pretty awesome.

I use those fancy overpriced handmade soaps and they don't cause any skin dryness or itchyness.
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