Quite likely. it is probably wishful thinking on my part as Rachel is much prettier the Joey.
I’ve never done that. I soap up a brush so it can reach everywhere. I’m not contorting myself with a slippery bar of soap to reach each part of my body. That’s just dumb.
OK, the actual scene was a little different than I remembered.
You’re diluting the soap with water no matter which form of it use. Foam soap is neither less nor more effective than other forms of soap.
The only caveat I can think of is that people may not rub their hands as much with foam soap because it comes out sudsy. Bar soap or liquid soap encourages more hand rubbing to work up a lather and that mechanical action of rubbing is an important part of hand washing. But as long as you rub your hands long enough, it doesn’t matter what kind of soap you use.
We may need a poll: How do you use soap in the shower? 1. Rub bar on body, 2. use washcloth, brush, sponge, or one of those sponge-like thingys after sudsing with the bar, 3. Rub liquid soap/shower gel directly on body, 4. use washcloth, brush, sponge, or one of those sponge-like thingys after sudsing with the liquid soap.
That may tell us a lot about most of us here. 
You forgot 5. Soap? Never use soap! only use !, 6. Shower? I only take baths!, 7. Pie, please, and 8. Wombats!
I use bar soap, specifically Irish Spring (cultural appropriation be damned). I don’t care if the soap is “dirty” after use, it’s my bathroom and nobody else should be in there!
This is turning into an IMHO thread now? Cool!
In the shower, I use Irish Spring bar soap as well. I use it directly on my body, no wash cloth involved. I use kayaker’s bar, and then I sneak it back into his bathroom, and he never notices. (No one else actually uses my bar. My wife is a loofah and liquid soap person.) For hands, liquid soap all the way. Both choices are made out of convenience.
My order of preference:
- Foamy soap.
- Regular liquid soap.
- Bar soap.
- Powdered soap.
My main criteria is how easy it is to get my hands lathered up without wasting soap. Foamy soap fits the bill. Just a small squirt on wet hands and with a little motion complete coverage of my hands with lather.
Note that this also turns out to help with following the rules on handwashing that are being touted. I can get my 20 seconds of actual washing in much faster with foamy soap.
I buy regular liquid soap, put some warm water in the dispenser, add about a squirt and a half of liquid soap, mix it up. So a bottle of liquid soap lasts a loooong time. We won’t have to worry about running out anytime soon.
I’ve not been in bars recently but I seem to recall the restrooms had mostly liquid or powdered soap dispensers.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a powdered soap dispenser in the United States. Are they common elsewhere?
I’ve not seen any in a few years, but they were somewhat common years ago.
[quote=“dougrb, post:5, topic:851657”]
Alton Brown’s take on it.
[/QUOTE]Thanks for the link, but can’t you give a one or two sentence summary so I don’t have to link chase?
Statements like this are silly to me. I’m curious to know the ages of anyone that says they would NEVER just rub a bar of soap on their skin like a savage! It’s my shower, my bar of soap. Yes there are sometimes when I just rub a bar of soap on the hairy parts and call it done. You know what else? I don’t always wash my feet! Oh, and I don’t use a scrub brush with a handle; so my back almost never gets washed.
Same here.
Not that anyone ought to be a curmudgeon, but how much actual effective soap do you get per $ in liquid form versus buying a 1 kg block of solid pure olive oil (say) soap? Maybe the difference between the two forms, not regarding people’s personal preferences, amounts to profit margin?
How intelligent are Wombats?
My findings:
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I like the “feel” and utility of foaming hand soaps, like B&BodyWorks, and they have a wide choice of fragrances. But in a recent experiment, I learned that a $4 bottle only lasts me about 6 weeks, at a sink where I use it perhaps 3x a day. My next experiment may be trying one of B&BW’s non-foaming soaps to see if I get significantly more longevity.
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For those averse to fragrance in liquid soaps, Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day pump-dispenser hand soaps seem to have very little fragrance.
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In the shower, Tone brand bar soap seems to dry out my skin less than other brands, but is sometimes hard to find in stores for some reason.
Premade foaming soaps would seem to be very costly - you’re basically paying soap prices for water and a little soap. If B&BW makes a regular liquid soap that you like, use it to refill that foaming dispenser (cut to about 1/4th or less with water) and see how that works for you.
We’ve just started using foaming soap dispensers with Dr. Bronner’s (not peppermint!!) for handwashing.
In about 3 weeks, we’ve gone through maybe 1/10th of a 32 ounce bottle. That’s with 3 adults washing hands multiple times a day.
I’m surprised at how little soap is required when refilling the pump bottle - maybe an ounce at most. I just have to remember to give multiple squirts when I use it, or there isn’t enough foam to really wash my hands thoroughly.
Any other liquid castile soap would do for the purpose. There might even be varieties that are OK for those with fragrance sensitivities.
Back to the OP: as long as you’re getting some soap in contact with the full surface of your hands, I doubt it matters whether it was sourced from bar soap or liquid. I’m actually really sensitive to textures, so it took me a long time to get over the squickiness of liquid soap, but of course the idea of picking up a soggy, mushy bar of hand soap also grosses me the hell out… I’d never really used a foaming dispenser before but the texture issue is a LOT less, so I’m sorry we didn’t make the switch before. It also seems to be chewing up my hands rather less than regular liquid soap: the first couple weeks of lockdown, with washing hands so much more frequently, my hands looked like I’d been using Brillo to clean them.