BBC Focus Magazine

[Flakkarin]

I tend to use bar soap for my bathroom sink since it lasts hell of a lot longer, but is it detrimental to try to wash your hands with something that has been hanging around collecting dust and grime?

[Ush]

Yes it can make your skin fall off, your hair fall out and your eyeballs explode.

I read that used soap has residue on it's surface so presumably it is possible that you could pick something up. I can't imagine that regular soap would kill all germs after all. That's just a guess though!

[Doonhamer]

Not sure about that, but never use bars of soap in a shower, they cause a build up of hard to remove scum from the caking agent they contain. Best with liquid soap or shower gel.

Personally I recommend the Original Source mint shower gels, they give a nice tingle...

[M Paul Lloyd]

I was told (and it may just be a myth) that you should wash your hands in cold water as it does not open the pores like warm water does, which supposedly allows dirt to get forced into the skin as you wash plus you lose fewer natural oils etc. I have applied this method for some years, with bar and liquid soap and so far all seems well.

However I refuse point blank to indulge in the lunacy that is the cold shower, yes it may be invigorating and healthy but I'll manage without my invig's being quite so orated if its all the same thanks.

[Flakkarin]

Hehe thanks for the tips Doonhammer, though note I only use on the sink - i.e. just for handwashing, I need a shower gel in the shower to get a good lather!

I just wondered if the liquid hand soaps were just a money-making scheme since they last a fraction of the time of bar soaps

[M Paul Lloyd]

I would say that liquid soap is, like pretty much anything new, a money making scheme, but only because the dispensers are set to provide a bigger than required amount for each hand wash.

You shouldn't need more than what amounts to the size of a garden pea to wash your hands but in my experience you end up with a teaspoons worth and the excess just ends up going down the plughole.

[Esther]

My first husband was obsessive compulsive, and he would spend about an hour at a time just cleaning the sink, the taps, and the soap... By the time he'd cleaned the soap and himself to his satifaction the whole bar would be gone. Used to cost me a fortune and I'm sure liquid soap would have been better as it would have stayed 'uncontaminated', but if you've ever read the ingredients on liquid soap, you'll see that it's really a concoction of strange sounding chemincals and not 'real soap' at all, so unfortunately he wouldn't use it.

These days I make my own soap and, due to the fact that as a carer I often have to wash my hands an incessant number of times a day and have similar concerns about my rather grusome hands contaminating the soap other people use, I make my own liquid soap just by adding water to 'normal' soap and whizzing it up with a stick blender. I bought a cheap dispenser and it seems to give out smaller doses than the ones you buy ready filled - I think they are designed to make you waste as much as possible so you have to buy more.