Soap

[Loretta]

I don’t use soap, except on my hands if they’re particularly dirty. I shampoo my hair, occasionally use some of that showergel stuff that doesn’t really do anything, and that’s it.

I don’t have bad skin. I don’t smell bad, as far as I know. How about the rest of you guys?

A couple of quotes from tash’s disgusting toenail thread…

[quote]Even at home the antibacterial soap is a good thing in Asia.

I know somebody who ended up with tiny bumps under their skin all over their body. Turns out it was a bacterial infection. Really nasty. They were using a very mild soap and now use the heavy duty stuff.

I know another somebody who ended up with a fungal problem in their underarm hair. Shaving it off was the solution. Antibacterial soap might have helped that one as well.[/quote]

ormal, healthy feet will not usually “catch” athlete’s foot left in a shower by someone else. Our bodies have “good” bacteria that fight off “bad” bacteria. But, if you use antibacterial soap on your feet, many of the good bacteria are killed, allowing the bad bacteria of athlete’s foot left in a shower to take hold on your feet. The more you use antibacterial soap, the more the athlete’s foot will worsen. Instead, regular use of plain old soap and water will allow the good bacteria to remain so you never get athlete’s foot from someone else - or allow the good bacteria to multiply more and more so they kill the athlete’s foot you may have already. (Every time you use an antibacterial soap or cleaner, some of your germs mutate. Eventually, these germs will be mutated so much that the normally efficient antibiotics we have now will not kill them.)

[Pluck-A-Duck]

I tell friends and family to bring back large Costco-sized packs of Irish Spring and Zest…I can’t stand those bath gels that Taiwanese are so fond of…they leave some oily film on your skin…I like to feel completely clean after a shower…

[mixedvegetables]

There’s plenty of plain old bar soap if you go into a good-sized Watsons. Filmy residues are more common with plain old soap than with shower gels - soap gets scummy on the skin, which results in squeakiness or waxiness. Dove or “beauty bars” don’t do that because they’re not actual soaps. Very nice alternatives.

Most people really don’t need to use soap/shower gel/body bar all over the body with every shower, especially if they take showers daily. This obviously depends on season and lifestyle.

Spot-cleaning is often good enough. I think you have to soap your feet, though. Civilization demands it.

[Ironman]

@Loretta

I don’t use soap, except on my hands if they’re particularly dirty. I shampoo my hair, occasionally use some of that showergel stuff that doesn’t really do anything, and that’s it.

During the SARS outbreak it was critical that we washed our hands. Transfer from door knobs, other hands etc to faces (polite way of saying innoculating yourself with a virus by picking your nose and dabbing the virus on your mucous membranes or rubbing it into your eyes)

Rhinovirus is transmitted primarily [color=blue]by contaminated hands carrying the virus to the mucous membranes of the eyes and nose. Hands can be contaminated by direct contact with another person or by indirect contact with contaminated surfaces and items. [/color]Inhalation of airborne droplets is also a possible culprit. Cold symptoms begin between 12 hours and five days of exposure (usually 48 hours later).)

Just one of many links below that tends to support the theory of not washing with antibacterial soap. It does however say normal soap is just as good at killing bacteria and viruses.

vermontsoap.com/antimicrob.html

[Dragonbones]

@Pluck-A-Duck

I tell friends and family to bring back large Costco-sized packs of Irish Spring and Zest…

Wellman’s in Tianmu has Irish Spring, although it’s NT$49 for a 4.5 oz. bar.

[Buttercup]

I am far too much of a delicate flower to use proper soap. I bathe only in mountain dew.

But I probably smell. Yet another of the multitude of things that fall into the category of ‘not really my problem’.

[Tyc00n]

I have to suffer the infernal fasion sense that is Taiwan… let them smell me…