Page 19 | To find this bizarre? Friend and soap

SplodgePocket · 2025-04-15T17:56:12+00:00

A friend came around earlier as I had a half day. Before she left, she said she was just popping to the loo. I then heard her call a minute later, “Splodge? There’s no soap”. I have a dispenser, so I assumed it had run out and called back that there was some on the side of the bath. There was a pause and she called back, “No, not here”. I knew it was there so replied, “Just against the wall, behind the shower screen”. Again, a pause before a bewildered “No…” I was completely confused now, as I knew very well it was there. I went through to the hall and she was standing in the doorway looking baffled. I went in, looked behind the screen and sure enough, there it was. I handed it to her and said, “Here, see?” She burst out laughing and said, “Ohhhhh!! It’s ^shower gel^!!” I was a bit confused and replied, “Well yes; soap, shower gel… whatever”. She was smiling at me a bit like I was a child who’d made a comical mistake. She said, “You said ^soap^. This is shower gel. ^Show-er gel^.” With the last bit really slowly, like she wasn’t sure English was my first language. I was really taken aback. Who is this bizarrely literal? Surely it’s all pretty much the same thing? I thought maybe she was looking for a bar of soap and this was what had confused her somehow, but surely when you couldn’t see it you’d think “it must be the stuff in the bottle”? And even if you didn’t, wouldn’t you just have used the shower gel anyway? I’ve never noticed her take things so literally before. Is it me or is this just really odd?!

hereismydog · 15/04/2025 20:11

jen337 · 15/04/2025 20:09

If someone’s washing their balls in the sink then the soap’s the least of my problems.

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Soap is portable (the whole reason OP posted!)

They might’ve taken it to the shower if they ran out of shower gel. I’m not playing bumhole roulette with the soap, so I don’t use it.

UnctuousUnicorns · 15/04/2025 20:10

SporadicMincePieMuncher · 15/04/2025 20:06

This was the point you should have twigged that most people asking for soap aren't looking for something labelled shower gel, and you should have said something like "There's shower gel, I use that as handsoap." Because most people don't actually use a product labelled as showergel as a hand washing soap, even if they agree with you that it's the same ingredients.

Edited

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At that point, I'd have wondered why the fuck the friend couldn't have just used any vaguely soapyish liquid in the bathroom to wash her bloody* hands with, and have done with it without all this farting about! 🤷‍♀️

*Not literally. Obviously.

jen337 · 15/04/2025 20:09

hereismydog · 15/04/2025 20:04

Answer me this: would you be happy to wash your hands with the same bar of soap that someone you were visiting might have rubbed all over their balls? If you would, then carry on. If you wouldn’t, then why not?

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If someone’s washing their balls in the sink then the soap’s the least of my problems.

hereismydog · 15/04/2025 20:09

28Fluctuations · 15/04/2025 20:07

Yup, I'd use that bar soap. Soap isn't a breeding ground for bacteria and bacteria on the soap are effectively washed away while using the soap, lathering and rinsing. It's how soap works.

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Go and look around literally any clinical area. You will never find a bar of soap in any of them.

If you’re happy to use it, great. Not for me, thanks 🤮

ChampagneLassie · 15/04/2025 20:08

I think you are both unreasonable. I wouldn’t stress over this in some roses house if I were your friend. Equally if you told me soap was in the shower I wouldn’t occur to me you meant shower gel. If you meant that, you should have said that. I don’t think they are always the same ingredients. I buy sanitising soap and very gentle shower gel. Mine certainly aren’t the same.

IfYouPutASausageInItItsNotAViennetta · 15/04/2025 20:07

hereismydog · 15/04/2025 19:56

Can’t you read? OP does have a soap dispenser, but it had run out. Have you never run out of a product before? Or did you just want to have a little dig at OP, really?

Also ‘bum bacteria’ is the reason I would never touch a bar of solid soap at someone else’s house. I don’t want to use anything that other people have been rolling around in their hands after wiping their arse 🤢 I’d use the shower gel before I used someone else’s bar of soap!

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Don't most people put another one out ready when it's running low?

Same as you do with toilet paper - or do you just shrug your shoulders if it runs out without having put a new one there ready and nonchalantly wipe your arse with the hand towel instead or simply not bother wiping at all?

28Fluctuations · 15/04/2025 20:07

hereismydog · 15/04/2025 19:56

Can’t you read? OP does have a soap dispenser, but it had run out. Have you never run out of a product before? Or did you just want to have a little dig at OP, really?

Also ‘bum bacteria’ is the reason I would never touch a bar of solid soap at someone else’s house. I don’t want to use anything that other people have been rolling around in their hands after wiping their arse 🤢 I’d use the shower gel before I used someone else’s bar of soap!

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Yup, I'd use that bar soap. Soap isn't a breeding ground for bacteria and bacteria on the soap are effectively washed away while using the soap, lathering and rinsing. It's how soap works.

Newusernameforthiss · 15/04/2025 20:07

I've never understood what shower gel is for? It just seems like rubbish watered down soap?? I think YANBU, in fact shampoo is also basically the same, but I know I'm in a minority on this. They're all the same!!! Detergent companies think we're all stupid!

Clarabell77 · 15/04/2025 20:07

SplodgePocket · 15/04/2025 19:03

Well, liquid soap. But it’s pretty much the same thing.

Can I ask those of you saying you’d never wash your hands with shower gel why it’s different to using it on the rest of your body?

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Soap usually sits on or next to the hand basin where hands are washed, I wouldn’t expect to go looking for it in a shower cubicle.

C152 · 15/04/2025 20:06

SplodgePocket · 15/04/2025 19:29

Even when I’d specified it was on the edge of the bath?

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Your friend asked for soap and you said there was some; not that she should use the shower gel. If you told me there was soap, I'd be looking for a bar of soap.

SporadicMincePieMuncher · 15/04/2025 20:06

SplodgePocket · 15/04/2025 19:08

But I wasn’t asking her to guess that it was behind the shower screen. I literally said that that was where it was. If I’d just said, “Oh, I’m sure there’s some there somewhere” I’d take your point.

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This was the point you should have twigged that most people asking for soap aren't looking for something labelled shower gel, and you should have said something like "There's shower gel, I use that as handsoap." Because most people don't actually use a product labelled as showergel as a hand washing soap, even if they agree with you that it's the same ingredients.

Wallywobbles · 15/04/2025 20:05

I’d have looked for something to wash my hand with so if that’s shower gel I’d use that.

hereismydog · 15/04/2025 20:04

jen337 · 15/04/2025 20:01

I don’t think you’ve quite grasped the primary benefit of soap.

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Answer me this: would you be happy to wash your hands with the same bar of soap that someone you were visiting might have rubbed all over their balls? If you would, then carry on. If you wouldn’t, then why not?

CinnamonJellyBeans · 15/04/2025 20:03

hereismydog · 15/04/2025 19:56

Can’t you read? OP does have a soap dispenser, but it had run out. Have you never run out of a product before? Or did you just want to have a little dig at OP, really?

Also ‘bum bacteria’ is the reason I would never touch a bar of solid soap at someone else’s house. I don’t want to use anything that other people have been rolling around in their hands after wiping their arse 🤢 I’d use the shower gel before I used someone else’s bar of soap!

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Actually, I have re-read the OP's posts and the she DOES have a soap dispenser on the sink. It was empty, so she suggested her guest use shower-gel as a one-off substitute.

I apologise sincerely. I am a maniac for hand hygiene.

IfYouPutASausageInItItsNotAViennetta · 15/04/2025 20:02

queenmeadhbh · 15/04/2025 19:40

This is it. Like others, I don’t think the weird thing is using shower gel to wash your hands if you have no hand wash or bar soap. I think the weird thing is you not understanding that most people would be looking specifically for soap not shower gel and wouldn’t think “oh she must mean the shower gel obviously”. Would you have said the same if it were shampoo? Just soap for your hair!

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"It's just through the door in the garage - it says Autoklenz on the label, but it's obviously exactly the same thing!"

ZenNudist · 15/04/2025 20:01

Jesus 14 posts at last count from you because you'd run out of hand-wash in the dispenser next to the sink and were not capable of telling friend to use the shower gel and friend was so desperate soap she's shouting about it from the bathroom but won't use a bit of shower gel (which is liquid soap whatever anyone might say). You sound like a right pair.

UnctuousUnicorns · 15/04/2025 20:01

SharpLily · 15/04/2025 19:58

Er, my husband has been known to do this.

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I'm a seventies child; many a time we wuz too poor to afford shampoo so had to use Cusson's Morning Glory instead. Cue tiny violin...

latetothefisting · 15/04/2025 20:01

Tulippilut · 15/04/2025 19:49

I wouldn’t use shower gel as soap - I would just think it wasn’t “ anti bacterial “ - so if it was in a dispenser that said shower gel I would have behaved in the same way as your friend and wouldn’t have assumed that was to use.

But , if I have read OPs post right , it wasn’t labelled as shower gel - it was a soap dispenser with soap in ? Maybe it being in the shower though , not on the sink, that’s what’s made her think it’s shower gel ? Bit of an odd place to put it ?

if it is shower gel then yeah I’m with your friend , it’s not what you expect to wash your hands with.

I have used shower gel in the past if I have ran out , just like in the kitchen if I run out I would use washing up liquid - but only actual soap is what I tend to use .

no, from OP's subsequent updates there were two different bottles.

she has a soap dispenser on the sink which usually has liquid handwash/soap in. Because that had run out she wanted the friend to instead use a bottle of shower gel, in a shower gel bottle, that was on the side of the bath. But instead of saying 'Use the shower gel' she told her friend there was more soap on the side of the bath.

jen337 · 15/04/2025 20:01

hereismydog · 15/04/2025 19:56

Can’t you read? OP does have a soap dispenser, but it had run out. Have you never run out of a product before? Or did you just want to have a little dig at OP, really?

Also ‘bum bacteria’ is the reason I would never touch a bar of solid soap at someone else’s house. I don’t want to use anything that other people have been rolling around in their hands after wiping their arse 🤢 I’d use the shower gel before I used someone else’s bar of soap!

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I don’t think you’ve quite grasped the primary benefit of soap.

HaddyAbrams · 15/04/2025 20:00

This is the opposite to what happens in my house. Every time my brother comes round he moans there's no soap by the sink. I tell him there's a bar of soap (which there is). Last time he came he "joked" that he'd picked me up some cheap hand-wash as I obviously can't afford soap. Fucking prick.
I sent the handwash home with him.

SharpLily · 15/04/2025 19:58

Poonu · 15/04/2025 19:45

One of my hand washes is a strong anti bacterial (we have builders in), specially ordered. No way I would use that on my body or expect my family too.

By your line of debate everything is the same so why don't you use fairy liquid as shower gel? Lol I'm just being silly

Er, my husband has been known to do this.

jen337 · 15/04/2025 19:58

You should have said “just use the shower gel it’s by the bath”, but also she was being a bit disingenuous with her reaction.

hereismydog · 15/04/2025 19:56

CinnamonJellyBeans · 15/04/2025 19:50

No matter how impoverished you are, you need to keep a bar of soap by the sink for hand-washing after the toilet. You cannot dispense with hand hygiene (or even shower gel) if you wish to avoid making others sick with your bum bacteria.

Can’t you read? OP does have a soap dispenser, but it had run out. Have you never run out of a product before? Or did you just want to have a little dig at OP, really?

Also ‘bum bacteria’ is the reason I would never touch a bar of solid soap at someone else’s house. I don’t want to use anything that other people have been rolling around in their hands after wiping their arse 🤢 I’d use the shower gel before I used someone else’s bar of soap!

UnctuousUnicorns · 15/04/2025 19:56

sandyhappypeople · 15/04/2025 19:54

YABU for calling shower gel 'soap'.

Besides, I wouldn't use anything from around someone's bath, especially something that they have to handle to wash their fanny.

And here come the loons... 😅

Spinthewheel1 · 15/04/2025 19:56

SplodgePocket · 15/04/2025 19:29

Even when I’d specified it was on the edge of the bath?

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I still wouldn’t have thought you were referring to the body wash.