Soap instead of shower gel

[Firstaidnovice]

Just wanted to say that based on a thread I read on here probably a few months ago, I swapped my shower gel for soap (I think the original thread was about deodorant, as OP felt a bit whiffy not long after showering, but lots of people recommended switching shower gel for soap instead).
Anyway, the difference is remarkable! I went to a stupidly hot soft play with DS at the weekend, where I had to follow him round the bloody playframe for an hour, (which is a whole other thread!), and still felt pretty fresh that evening, which I never would have been before. Same for the mornings, I usually wake up feeling a bit stinky because I seem to get very hot overnight, but no more! I'm just using Simple soap bars, two for £1. Amazing!

onlyonaTuesday may I recommend a I Love Juicy shampoo by Lush? It makes my admittedly greasy hair very very clean.

Am running low on shower gel, I might treat myself to some soap too. Make flying with hand luggage loads easier

Approximately 1/3 of people are colonised with MRSA and it does them no harm at all. The issue is when there is loss of skin integrity and risk to joints etc during surgery or to the frail elderly and neonate.

Soap is excellent antibacterial but in hospital people didn't spend the time to wash hands properly using it and it was left sitting around in a squidgy puddle of water. Hand wash dispensers can be operated without touching them and are much quicker to use.

Waitrose usd to do amazing pure white soaps in amazing fragrances but they stopped doing them last year

Noooooooooo!!! I buy them in bulk as they're so cheap so am working my way through what I have atm . Oh bugger

Soap dishes that attach to the wall have already been mentioned - they're free draining to so ideal for showers.

For the side of the bath I have a lovely but simple John Lewis Cubi soap dish - but I can't find it on the website, at the moment - seems ot have been removed for the time being but is usually available at sale time in some colour or other. It keeps DS1's lush solid shampoo and conditioner nicely dry with little effort.

Found it on google images
i.pinimg.com/736x/45/2f/ff/452fffaae33f07c365917d4de864c43f--buy-house-soap-dishes.jpg

The big square bits hold the bar up quite high, so no soggy bottom, so long as you check it at the end of the day for having been used as a boat.

Hand wash dispensers can be operated without touching them and are much quicker to use.

Not the ones in our GP surgery. They're minging.

I am surprised to hear some people soap themselves everywhere. I only use soap or shower gel on armpits and privates. Plus shampoo on my hair. The rest just plain water. Anybody similar?

Can someone link to the thread people are mentioning please

I swapped from "whatever's on offer" shower gel to the expensive SLS/paraben free types about a year ago in an effort to sort my dry skin. Then realised lots of bar soaps had far fewer synthetic chemicals in for a fraction of the price and used less packaging, so made the change on that basis. Recently ran out of soap and used a hotel bottle of shower gel for a couple days - definitely woke up feeling less fresh. Will go back to soap asap! I like the Faith in Nature ones and the Little Soap Company.

Shower bottles are recyclable though.

I've always used bars under my arms. I suffer with overactive sweat glands under armpits and I was whiffy through my teens. I'm always conscious of myself. (Typical Mother - did not help me out nor point me in the right direction for me to try and control my problem off my own back.)
I did work out that by using soap in conjunction with gels, I fared marginally better than using gels alone and I've kept up the habit to this day. I'm trialling soap only cleansing as of tomorrow because of this thread. I had no idea about residue, interesting. Nothing to lose anyway.

I remember getting really embarrassed once. I was shopping with MIL years ago and I was in the toiletries isle. I picked up soap off thr shelf and she laughed at me. She asked, "you use soap?" I nodded. She looked really incredulous/found it funny/looked at me like I had two heads and said, "why?!". I didn't want to admit it was to help curb my smelliness from sweaty pits so I mumbled some kind of vague excuse of.. can't actually remember what I said. It kind of solidified my self consciousness and feelings of being unnormal to other people. A little while after that I had a lightbulb moment and thought to Google and it was then I learnt that my problem was a common and real issue and relatively easily managed with specific prescribed treatments! That felt like a revelation to me, I tell you. Before then, I had NO idea. Just thought I was a freak.
I still suffer from it but I can now manage to keep on top of it - although it's never perfect. I relate to everything others have shared regarding clothes/ineffective deodorants /changing tops/etc. Im eager to ditch the gels now.

Mil is absolutely amazing by the way. We get on really well. She didn't mean anything intentionally. It just took her back I think. She is someone who never ever ever smells. Very clean, amazing skin, amazing slim figure, fit, healthy, barely sweats, never had bad breath. Very She's how I imagine she's the Gwen Paltrow of MIL's! She uses a slap of shower gel and that does for her, always has I think.

There's something very satisfying about a solid unused bar. Sometimes I contemplate biting into it

They're not all recyclable. Very few plastic bottles are because as soon as any colour is added into the plastic, that taints what it can be made into.

And some of them can't even be separated into bottle and lid, have silicone valves welded to plastic lids....

Nazdarovye Some people will definitely think this is minging but I only soap my whole body after a workout (or anything else that gets me really sweaty ). For a daily wash I only soap my armpits and the outside of my privates; water everywhere else. Surely your elbows / boobs / legs don't get that dirty unless you're doing a lot of physical activity or in a job where you're exposed to bodily fluids, paint etc?!

@Dairymilkmuncher to keep it from going soggy, Imperial Leather should be kept with the label side on the bottom. It forms a little platform so the soap stays dry underneath.

Always used soap here, highly recommend Dr Bronner's which lathers well, never goes gloopy and lasts forever.

Fernanie I've taught soap dodging DS1 the pits, sack and crack wash. it definitely does for most days.

It will be hard work for bacteria to grow on soap. For bacteria to grow that need nutrients and water.
I don't think there are any nutrients for bacteria to grow on soap.
My microbiology is rusty so am prepared to be corrected on this.

I use shower gel all over, maybe it's a perimenopause thing but I get sweaty all over!
I'm a sheep too this thread inspired me to buy Shield soap in Sainsburys tonight am looking forward to my shower tomorrow morning.
Off to Google to see if you can still buy lemon zest soap, I used to live that one.

Ref the M&S Rose soap I mentioned earlier it's often on 342 plus slightly off topic the roll on deodrant is equally lovely and keeps me lovely smelling even in hot weather- often M&S outlets have it on sale too

I bought shield soap last week in Asda. £1.50 for 4 bar pack.

catbas this was the first thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/style_and_beauty/3032440-Help-from-anyone-else-whiffy-of-armpit

And then there was an update thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/style_and_beauty/3034615-Whiffy-armpit-update

How times have changed and obviously showing my age but I remember when I was younger (in the roman times according to my daughter!) there used to be a whole section on soaps in supermarkets. When I went into Sainsburys last week they had Pears, Imperial Leather and maybe a couple of other brands.

I bet after theses threads and the sudden run on soaps their buying departments won't know what's going on.

Hopefully we may even see more choice in supermarkets.

On another note I remember having the choice between Vosene or Haed and Shoulders for shampoo until the Timotei ad. Then we all wanted long blond hair washed in a wooden bucket in a meadow. Now we have a million and one shampoos to choose from.

*head

www.marksandspencer.com/rose-trio-of-soaps/p/p22460580?&mcptredirect

Is it this stuff? Good price!

I'm kind of amazed by this thread bc I honestly didn't realise the extent to which shower gel had pushed soap right out of most people's routine. I remember noticing in the late 1990s that one couple we stayed with had no soap anywhere, only shower gel (in "man" and "woman" fragrances...) and thinking how odd/incomplete that seemed.

Generational, I guess? I'm 43 though, so if I am old enough to be part of the soap-is-standard generation, I am struggling to understand how anyone old enough to be the MiL in a pp's anecdote could be so surprised by a person using soap that they'd actually comment on it and laugh .

Anyway. I grew up using yellow "Tone" brand soap in the US, Imperial Leather when in the UK. I like the C&E avocado one now, or the shell-shaped jojoba.