...to feel strongly that women should not wash their private parts with soap, nor use feminine freshness wipes?

[Needlesswidow]

And the reason this is bothering me now is because I have had an argument with my (otherwise lovely) "waxing technician" because every time I go for a brazilian she insists on wiping me, inside my vagina after every spread of wax, with these packeted wipes.

How is it that we are in 2014 and the medical profession has not done a good enough job to make women aware that using products which remove the oils/mucous from places like the urethra/vagina/anus, causes problems with bacterial infection?

jeepers - assuming the OP is a grown woman not a school boy then I am staggered at the lack of clarity about the names of her own body parts, I really am. My 12 yo knows better! There is no need to be ignorant about this with the age of the internet - you don't have to put your hand up and be embarrassed in class or ask your mum who might not know/want to answer - you just google.

Did anyone see an episode of embarrassing bodies or something else with that irritating Dr Christian on - he went talking to women out clubbing, asking them about personal hygiene and an alarming number of them were douching and washing right up inside themselves to get "clean". no no no.

External washing with a gentle soap is necesary - hell yes, especially round the bum hole.

this isn't original or genuine enough to be in classics

just generally agree with the while be natural / wax all your muff hair off issue ....

You know what? All this talk of wax and vaginas has got me thinking. VAGINA CANDLES. Why aren't they a thing? We have ear candles, so why not vagina candles? Instead of wicking away the ear wax, they can wick away our natural odours!

I once accidentally sniffed another woman's knickers (don't ask)

don't ask ?? OF COURSE we will ask!!!

Neither, Mintyy.

Crossed wires, I hope :)

'MrsWedge I once accidentally sniffed another woman's knickers (don't ask). They did NOT smell like mine.'

I know you said don't ask.............but WHY did you sniff another woman's dirty gussett??

Bahahaha johnny you are hilarious!
Also the std nurse I love, 'hang a magic tree from your cervix'.
Ah, OP i thank you for this thread, has cheered me up no end! Been quite an education too. I am literally bemused that people dont wash their arses with soap!?
Also - a couple have posted about not needing to wash when in a bath, i still wash my bits and armpits with a lil extra soap when in a bath... Is that ott?

I think the question Squoosh is also under what circumstances?

This thread makes an interesting diversion from Bumsex. I fear OP may struggle geographically there too.

I'm afraid, peeps, that I honestly did not know the names of different parts of my fanjo. Apologies for my ignorance? But also thanks for educating me.

I still don't believe that I should wash any part down there with soap, but I also agree that I should not be telling anyone else what to do (I think my title was badly phrased or - rather - I took a while to work out what exactly I was pissed off about.)

I use my pubes to lather up the soap, so I must be a lost cause. A hairy soap user.

That's cool OP, but now please lets get back to Johnny

Bum holes should definitely be washed with soap. Poo is dirt!

Johnny, its like fresh sweat smells a bit different on everyone but you'd still know it was fresh sweat.

Wipes are used when waxing before and after...before to clean the area, both so that the wax sticks properly and actually removes hairs instead of just being a weird torture session that leaves you still hairy and to try and minimise the bacteria getting into the follicles to lessen the chances of boils and ingrown hairs and afterwards to remove the wax again because you've just had hairs ripped out leaving a small hole, but also because wax is sticky.

It's part of the waxing process - would you rather have it done without so that you leave half waxed and glued to your knickers?

I wash right up myself with whatever shower gel or soap I have handy. It's not something I ever remember being told to do or not do, I think I started doing it when I first got my period in the bath/shower. I will probably continue to do it as I'm nearly 40 and have never had a prob.

It's got nothing to do with wanting to smell like whatever soap is being used as I do rinse and it all washes off

The French (who else!) have a word for a woman's aroma, 'cassoulet'.

Although if I'm not mistaken that's also the name of their beany stew. Could lead to an awkward mix up!

Inded squoosh
"my favourite childhood memory is the comforting smell of my mothers beany soup" might have SS called in!

VAGINA CANDLES! VAGINA CANDLES!
I get in a right old lather about the BV gifting properties of bloody 'intimate washes', I'd finish my consultations like a dog with rabies if someone invented the vagina candles. I'd be raving and biting the chairs by the end of the first day they were out.

squoosh years ago I spent the weekend at a friend's, in his housemate's room (with her blessing). I'm not at all methodical when it comes to packing - I just scoop everything up and shove it in my bag. Which is exactly what I did when I left on the Sunday afternoon.

A couple of days later I was hoiking my clothes out of my holdall into the washing machine and spotted a pair of plain, black, multipack pants which were very much like my usuals but a bit different. And for some reason utterly beyond my understanding my method of identifying them as Not My Pants was to sniff them.

I then had the quandary - what to do with the stolen pants?

And i thought i was in for a boring night!

Perhaps if you used Hopi ear candles instead? Very carefully?
With a spritzer on hand in case of sudden, unintentional combustion.

I think I would have just binned the stolen pants.

I'm in the bath now. Oh what to do?! What to do?!

I don't think it's fair to expect a salon to wax a potentially dirty fanjo. You might clean yours, but they must see some horrific growlers in their line of business so it probably needs to be done as a policy. If someone had bacteria on their pubic area and then got an infection or rash on from getting germs in their open follicles then it would be the salon who got complaints/legal action thrown in their face.

So can see why they would HAVE to do it as a precaution and that's just a compromise waxers can't get around, and fair enough.

Also, I wouldn't feel comfortable not washing my bum with soap. Okay for fanjo (though I do that with soap anyway just because I prefer it) because urine is sterile unless you have a UTI, but your poo has nasty germs in it.

'I certainly agree that you shouldn't wash your fanjo with Original Source Tea tree and Mint shower gel.'

Why?

I do exactly that.

You must have a beaver of steel. It stings my flaps and makes me cry