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The forgotten joy of soap

spectator.co.uk

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Re: The forgotten joy of soap

#71

Post by Tepix »

unixhero wrote: post #69
everdrive wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How well does bacteria live on a bar of soap?

Well enough for hospitals to agree with my OC.

Hospitals have different requirements, they have patients with a weakened immune system.

The bacteria that are in a normal household pose no threat to healthy people. Which is why you shouldn't use antibacterial stuff in your everyday life.

With regards to soap in hospitals: They also have special liquid soap dispensers you can use with your elbows. Again something you don't need in your house.

Re: The forgotten joy of soap

#72

Post by willio58 »

mlevental wrote: post #63
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

Shit to shower sans soap? No-go in my book.

Re: The forgotten joy of soap

#73

Post by freejak »

mlevental wrote: post #63
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

this is why i visit hacker news

edit: i'll also add that i too use soap minimally when showering (nether regions). i'm asian so BO has never really been an issue but i did notice that my athlete's foot has not reappeared since i stopped washing my feet with soap for a few years.

Re: The forgotten joy of soap

#74

Post by fatnoah »

jazoom wrote: post #53
stinos wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 h…

In general people should probably bathe less than they do in Western nations. I'm also not aware of any specific studies. Warm water is generally enough, except perhaps in areas that are prone to odour (armpits, groin, etc.). Bathing is more a social issue than a health issue.

I have no comment on the original comment's correlation of cessation of soap usage with lack of body odor, but as someone who rides a crowded subway every day in the summer, I'm not sure I want people to experiment with this.

Re: The forgotten joy of soap

#75

Post by jdmichal »

kashug wrote: post #47
amelius wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good point, but what does that mean for the war against plastic gel bottles? From the article: > Given the war against plastic, maybe there will be a reaction to all these bottles of handwash. The bar of soap might yet stage a resurgence.

It's not common with refills for those bottles? (more often than not the refills are also in some kind of plastic - so not sure how much plastic it saves though)

Volume increases faster than surface area, so yes buying large refill containers will generally be better.

Re: The forgotten joy of soap

#76

Post by PakG1 »

freejak wrote: post #73
mlevental wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

this is why i visit hacker news edit: i'll also add that i too use soap minimally when showering (nether regions). i'm asian so BO has never really been an issue but i did notice that my athlete's foot has not reappeared since i stopped washing my feet with soap for a few years.

No kidding? Did you do anything else to treat it? I thought diligently cleaning my feet with soap would be helpful. I think it has been, but it's recently started coming back a little bit, so I'm not sure. I've tried a whole bunch of other things too, but didn't do anything other than constantly soap for a while because it didn't come back for so long. And now it's coming back....

Re: The forgotten joy of soap

#77

Post by seattle_spring »

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…

I hope you either still use soap when washing your hands, or work from home and don't go out to eat. I work with a bunch of nastyass people that take huge noisy dumps and then just walk right out of the bathroom without washing. No wonder I get sick several times a year now.

Re: The forgotten joy of soap

#78

Post by kstenerud »

mlevental wrote: post #63
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

Not since moving to Germany. They don't have bidets here, and the toilets are mounted to the wall, so you don't have access to the water intake line to install one, nor can you install washlets :/

Re: The forgotten joy of soap

#80

Post by buu700 »

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.

Devil's advocate: is this not a legitimate concern? e.g. can viruses potentially be transmitted via bar soap?

I use bar soap in my own shower, but I still prefer not to use someone else's bar soap and I use equivalent liquid/foam soap for washing my hands and face.

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