Man, the references to Dr. Bronner’s soaps have sent me down memory lane. I used use their soaps for years. Now, because I’m a bit of a cheapskate, I stick to non-instantly-uniting-One-All-One-OK! soaps and shampoos. Not that they’re all that expensive, but the larger bottles are cheaper, ounce for ounce, but they’re hard to find outside of fancy health food stores. I just can’t abide buying the smaller, more expensive bottles at the local drug store.
Since those heady days, I’ve always used a cheap shampoo for a body wash. Used to for shampoo, too. But cheap shampoo doesn’t seem as good as it used to be for hair, so now I use something a tad more expensive.
My mind’s nose is nostalgically breathing in the peppermint-scented Dr. Bronner’s right now. Maybe I should get some for old time’s sake.
This is it, basically. Hand soap, , bath soap, detergent, shampoo, body wash, laundry soap … all pretty much the same basic ingredients for the cleaning part.
Hand soap has less water added, to keep it in a bar form. And often more pumice or similar ingredients to enhance scrubbing.
Bath soap is also less water, to stay in a bar form, but without as much scrubbing ingredients.
Body washes are mostly just watered-down bar soaps. Sometimes added oil so your skin doesn’t feel so dry.
Dish detergents have more water, to stay in a liquid form.
Laundry soap/detergents have ingredients added to brighten clothes after cleaning them. And sometimes anti-static ingredients.
Shampoos have added oils, to make your hair feel ‘silkier’ – completely clean hair will feel rough & dry. Especially ‘conditioner’ shampoos.
And, of course, they all have added stuff to give them a particular color or odor – often that’s the most distinctive item in them (and usually the most expensive).
But they all depend on similar basic ingredients of soap or detergent to do the cleaning work. And can pretty much be used interchangeably, especially if you run out.
Conversely, I’ve occasionally used bar soap as shaving soap - apply bar directly to wet face. It’s not ideal but it’s way better than an unlubricated shave.
Do you know if it’s made with sodium lauryl sulphate? I’m given to understand that a lot of those products are made with sodium lauryl sulphate, so they should be reasonably interchangeable.
I’ve been using thison my hair, body and face in the shower for several years. It works like a charm. Granted I’ve got pretty short hair, but it does what it needs to for me.
I don’t need no danged old flowery fruit squirts on my hair.
More or less… solid bar soap is typically sodium tallowate/sodium palm-kernelate, etc… basically saponified fats. Actual soap in the literal sense.
Shampoo, bodywash and liquid hand soap are typically primarily some combination of sodium lauryl sulfate, sodium laureth sulfate, cocamidopropyl betaine, and other detergents, but those 3 are the big ones. They’re in different concentrations, etc… for the various applications, but they’re more or less interchangeable.
The main thing to watch is that shampoos may differ in cleaning ability vs. body wash or soap, and using them interchangeably may leave you drier or more greasy/funky, depending on what you use where.
Dish detergent is typically a stronger mixture of detergents- primarily the sodium lauryl and laureth sulfates above, but also with solvents like phenoxyethanol and other grease fighting ingredients added.
I’d think that your best bet cost-wise, would be to get cheap bar soap and something like Prell, that you don’t need much of. I’m pretty sure that using shampoo as soap would actually be more expensive in the long haul than buying cheap bar soap and keeping the shampoo for your hair.
If your hair’s short enough, you can just use the bar soap on your head with no problems too.
