Bathing in dettol

[Pinkerbells]

So I was chatting to my friend about what we were doing after work, (we work in a restaurant), and she said she was going home to have a dettol bath. I though she was kidding as she has a bug, but no. Turns out she has a 45 minute soak in dettol every night, then changes the water and has a 45 minute bath in 'normal' bathwater. Is this a thing??????? AIBU to think that's so bad for your skin and fufu. Dettol's website (of course) say it's fine, but surely your killing germs bad or good.

My nana had a bottle of fenjal in her bathroom w e were not allowed to touch it I am assuming it was just bubble bath?

I love a Dettol bath, about 5-7 capfuls in a really hot bath. The smell is lovely. I feel so clean after. Started doing it as a way of keeping my stitches clean after childbirth tears.

Devine!

Fenjal was a kind of bath oil if I remember right. So highly perfumed it made your nose bleed 😂 and you needed two plain baths afterwards to remove the oily film it left on your skin.

I'm a 60s/70s child & I've no memory of dettol baths I must ask my DM if we ever had them. I'm sure I'd remember the smell if we did.

Fenjal was a kind of bath oil if I remember right. So highly perfumed it made your nose bleed 😂 and you needed two plain baths afterwards to remove the oily film it left on your skin.

Clearly Nan was looking out for us that sounds like carnage

My mum still has them and only last week told me off for not using it regularly for my 9 year old.

I used to love the smell. It's very good for skin and eczema. People need to Google its benefits.

My gran brought a hospital-based strep infection into our house in the mid-80s which resulted in years of Dettol baths for us...

Boots and Waitrose still sell a big range of Fenjal products and I have a tube of Fenjal shower gel which I use for a sentimental hit every so often. When I grew up there were different colour Fenjal ranges in addition to the turquoise 'Classic' range, I would love to sniff the red one again, that would be a trip down memory lane...

It cannot be good for your vulva/ vagina (if in a bath) flora!

Hmmm - my phone doesn't have "vagina"'in its repertoire Had to insist that's what I wanted to write.

I had a friend whose mother used to use a scourer and Jif on her knees every week before her bath to 'bring up the colour'. She thought everyone did this and was when I told her my mum had never Jiffed my knees.

Ooh I'd forgotten about dettol baths. I love the smell. We definitely had these when I was younger (early 80s). I think I need to buy myself some. A capful in a bath won't be a problem, it's so dilute.

Another person who has never heard of this!

My GP told me to put a capful of Savlon in the bath after an op to help the wound to heal. And to use a gentle bath cream like Simple with it.

Having two baths one after another, every single day, is very odd.

Until i worked for the nhs i never heard of it but vvvvvvv common with elderly patients.

Child of the 90s here and I remember Dettol baths. Used to be a thing if I’d fallen in a patch of nettles or had a bad scrape. Might have to get a bottle just for the nostalgia!

Who has time for a bath every night for 1.5 hours. I certainly don't.

My Mum and Gran used to do this when bathing 5 kids in the tin bath.

I used to love the smell and used it regularly for cleaning around the house when I was in my early 20's and kids were little.

Then I went to do a temporary office assignment at a chemical company that made the active ingredient in Dettol...
Parachlorometaxylenol(PCMX) (aka Chloroxylenol).

The problem was that this stuff absolutely stank far worse that Dettol and permeated everything including any clothing worn to work.

I had to wash my clothes every time I came home and I had to have a shower to get the smell off my skin and hair.
It also had side effects on the workers who were in close proximity to the stuff!
I left after a month as I got a permanent position but I have never used Dettol since and cannot abide the the smell! Yuck!!

InspectorIkmen TCP is still a thing too, DH gargles with it as the stage of illness before the Dressing Gown of Doom comes out.

It's this dettol

You add a capful or two in the bath

oh my goodness, I'd forgotten all about this, I was another child of the dettol bath

My grandmother made us gargle with TCP after we brushed our teeth when we stayed with her!

And as well as the Dettol baths, we had to soak our feet in a washing up bowl of dettol and warm water after swimming to ‘stop verucas’

My Auntie made my cousins gargle with tcp after brushing their teeth too and you were scared to cough in her house incase she got the tcp out

So I can see how it'd be useful to control skin infections, prevent mrsa after hospital, protect wounds from infection.... but as an everyday thing? No, I like my skin biology as it is, thanks!

My mum used to do this with us. She still uses dettol to excess. Mind you she almost certainly has OCD. And used to dettol our library books.....