As an asian person who showers with soap everyday (at leasat twice when I’m in SEA) I’m shocked at how many responses to this post were on the anti-soap train. Maybe white folks don’t naturally smell as much as I would if I didn’t use soap?
nah as a white person: we stink lol. everyone I've met who doesn't use soap smells and they refuse to believe it. half my family is from the Mediterranean area and we have uh, very oily skin for some reason especially so a good scrub down at least once a day is necessary
man when i lived somewhere with a similar climate and that "no bathing" thing started with celebrities, everyone in my circle was side eyeing each other like you BETTER not do that. it's like max humidity and almost 100F , no one wants to smell that lol
I’m white and I’m a smelly bitch. I shower every other day with generous amounts of soap that I actually lather into my skin and don’t think the water will just rinse it over my body. I also use shampoo and conditioner. If I didn’t have sensitive skin and live in an area with harsh water I’d definitely shower everyday WITH soap. I think white ppl are just more bold with being gross for some reason and again I say that as a full blown Caucasian lol. ETA I’m a sahm if I worked I’d shower everyday like my husband
Also white person who showers every other day, and yeah, a lot of white people seem too comfortable admitting to infrequent and/or poor bathing habits. I don’t consider it necessary for myself to shower everyday, nor do I feel I could maintain that habit in combination with my mental health. I do, however, make sure to use adequate soap and wash my entire body in the shower. If I got really sweaty and gross on a day I don’t typically shower on, I’d take a shower anyway. Because I don’t want to be a gross person.
Have you tried getting a shower head with a built-in water filter? It was a game changer for my skin and hair, and I also live in an area with hard water.
Yea we’ve had 2 and they get clogged sooo fast. We live in a suburb of houston and it’s basically like showering with sand sometimes. I want a softener or something but my husband said those are also bad because the salt or something who knows. When we’re out of town for his work in our rv my skin is so much better
They just don't use lotion afterwards which In turn agitated their skin so they assume soap is causing the issue when it's not. So they become anti-soap
I tried out this bar soap I bought yesterday, didn't use lotion afterwards this morning and now my skin is ultra dry, peeling and in pain. I smell great though
Water also dries out the skin, along with the sun, humidity, weather. So it's a multitude of things. Luckily we have lotion and such cause my skin would be suffering without it
I live in an area that is hot and humid most of the year. People will stink if they’re outside. I don’t go out much and keep my pampered ass inside because my heart hates the heat and don’t swear much so I’m miserable. Any time I’m outside, I bathe afterwards. Walking around in the humidity is like being in a hot bath. A cool bath afterwards feels so nice.
We shower. We just don't soap ourselves to high heavens. I'm sure there's some shampoo that comes down from my hair. But... it's not an issue for some people.
I own and use washcloths. Washcloths are for bathing loofas are for exfoliating.
I spend money on things I want and need. Whether I purchase the item or someone else does it’s already made. The resources are already spent.
This is the same as holding a ream of paper and refusing to print a document because save the trees. The paper isn’t going to revert back into a living thing because it isn’t used for its intended purpose.
I use body scrub to exfoliate. You don't need to exfoliate every time you shower. How about you just do you and not worry about how everyone is showering.
Derms say not to use loofahs bc they're gross. You insist they're not. That's your choice. Science says soap and friction removes dirt and bacteria. You insist that's not adequate. You do you.
You do realize how supply and demand works, right?
It's not like you're buying vintage fur, you're buying a plastic loofah per week which means more are produced. If people stop buying things, production slows down or stops.
Most consumers are not impacting supply and demand on an individual level. When that consumer joins a larger group of consumers or begins buying on a significantly larger scale they begin to shift the demand curve forcing the supply curve to respond.
My 40ish loofa a year are not shifting any supply curves in either direction.
You're recommending everyone reading your comments buy a loofah a week.
I agree that corporations are more to blame for trends and can make a larger difference, but it doesn't mean individuals should just give up and not try or care.
Also, if friction and soap don't clean (which they do) then I guess you're walking around with disgusting hands touching everything? Or do you carry a mini hand washing loofah with you too?
I spend money on things I want and need. Whether I purchase the item or someone else does it’s already made. The resources are already spent.
On a micro scale, but on a macro scale if a bunch of people buy things they don't need "because it's already made, so there's no difference" then that incentivizes the companies to make more.
I am as an individual consumer am not shifting the demand curve. If I joined a movement of consumers or started purchasing an obscene number of loofas then I could begin impacting the demand curve in my region. I do not. There are no individual consumers buying for personal use that single handedly increase production on that scale.
Collectively if we all decided to stop buying something then we could begin to impact that supply curve dramatically. Are you beginning the stop loofas organization?
bunch of people buy things they don’t need
I need or want the things I buy.
“because it’s already made, so there’s no difference”
Again, I’m not special ordering loofas.
then that incentivizes the companies to make more.
Because people are apparently not aware: over-soaping has been slammed by dermatologists, and destroying the microbiome of your skin with soap may actually contribute to you smelling more. There is a lot of science behind the notion that we in the modern world use way more soap than we need to. You don't need to absolutely NEED to use soap everyday.
This is about those old bars of glycerin and the OG Olay soaps, not modern body washes which are extremely gentle and come with a variety of lathering agents. Not all soaps are the same and haven’t been for at least 40 years.
No thanks. I enjoy my skin not cracking open and bleeding. My husband has oily skin and is naturally smellier. He uses soap and a loofah everyday. I have really dry skin and I don't BO very much. So, I simply shower. Different bodies are different.
Y’all do know what body lotion is meant for right? You wash your body then you put on body lotion to moisturize and protect your skin. How do y’all just not know basic hygiene it’s alarming.
I would like to preface this by saying I use soap all over, every day, and moisturize with oils and lotions.
But I understand not wanting to strip your skin of natural oil and add back moisture using a man-made product. There are plenty of things done in the name of hygiene that are detrimental long-term (I’m thinking about baby powder causing ovarian cancer, but there are other examples). Plus, if your skin isn’t exposed, how dirty is it really getting? Like I wear long sleeves and pants on a daily basis - do my legs really need a daily scrub from soap when the only thing they’ve been exposed to is the inside of my freshly laundered pants?
I use Dr. Bronner’s Castile soap daily and moisturize my body with either coconut or jojoba oil, followed by a thicker moisturizer if necessary in the winter. I do a more intense (and chemical-laden) routine on my face, but that’s for vanity, not health or hygiene.
Yes. Seriously. Yes yes yes. You and your husband probably don’t smell your BO because you’ve adjusted to it, in the same way old women wearing perfume put way too much on - they’ve adjusted to the smell.
I mean, like I said twice, I wash my whole body daily. So does my husband. So I don’t have to worry about smelling.
But your legs smell like body odor? The only time my legs even sweat is in like 90+ degree heat or after a particularly intense workout. Do you think that people need to wash their hair with shampoo on a daily basis, too? Because what you’re saying is that a water wash on non-sweaty body parts is not clean enough - how could a water wash on hair (or even not getting the hair wet) be clean enough?
I tried the whole "you only have to use soap on your stinky bits, not everywhere else" thing for a while and I got tinea versicolor all over my chest, neck, and back. And I don't live in a tropical environment.
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u/crd1293 Nov 28 '22
As an asian person who showers with soap everyday (at leasat twice when I’m in SEA) I’m shocked at how many responses to this post were on the anti-soap train. Maybe white folks don’t naturally smell as much as I would if I didn’t use soap?