You’re not fully clean unless youre zestfully clean!
Not really. If you washed your hair with just soap, it would definitely remove all of the oil and dirt, but it would also leave your hair dull, dry, brittle, frizzy and hard to style. Also, shampoo has significantly lower percentage of surfactants than soap and even gels.
There was such a product back in the 1960s-70s, with the appropriate name of Turgasept.
Evidently, the basis for the spray’s antiseptic activity was that it smelled so bad, germs would curl up and die.
This is particularly true of modern shampoos. Decades ago, shampoos tended to have higher surfactant levels, in part because people washed their hair less often, and in part because many women used heavy-duty hairspray which needed to be cleared off via shampooing.
Prell, in particular, was known for its “deep cleaning” properties; I had a chemist at that job who referred to Prell this way: “it’s a stripper!” (as in, akin to a paint stripper).
The difference in surfactants is interesting.
To me, however, who doesn’t style his hair whatsoever aside from an occasional haircut, the difference is not noticeable.
I do have a fairly large, soft beard - but that gets normal soap too.
Maybe I should try an experiment with half my head and beard with shampoo and the other half as a control group and compare. But to be honest I don’t think I am sufficiently objective.
So, since we appear to have soap/cleaning experts here:
My wife has accumulated an enormous collection of cheap shampoo (a lot Suave, other brands) - buying it over the years when it was on sale (she has a pricey brand she uses - these were for me and our sons). Having recently run out of both my body wash and bar soap, I thought shampoo is soap (OK, that apparently isn’t strictly true), I’ll just start using it as a body wash.
It’s been a month or so, and I haven’t noticed any particular issues (my skin might be a bit dry?). Assuming I can live with dry skin, am I going to have any other problems?
Probably shouldn’t matter much. From what I can see, looking at a couple of product descriptions, shower gels which are advertised as “2 in 1” (body and hair) or “3 in 1” (body, face, hair) are typically detergents, not soaps, anyway.
Any time you see that one of the primary ingredients is “sodium laureth sulfate,” “sodium lauryl sulfate,” or “sodium pareth sulfate,” you’re dealing with a detergent, and one (or more) of those are used in pretty much all mass-market shampoos (and a lot of body washes), at least in the U.S.
Hmm. What if you start using mass-market conditioner instead of shampoo as the substitute for body wash or soap?
Thanks! I can now remove “buy bath soap” from my budget for the rest of my life (there are a lot of bottles of shampoo).
Conditioner doesn’t really have any significant cleaning properties – it functions to smooth and moisturize hair, and usually won’t have any significant levels of cleaning surfactants in it, unless it’s a “shampoo + conditioner” product.
Your skin might feel smooth and soft after using it (conditioner is more akin to skin lotion than it is to shampoo), but it probably won’t do much to remove dirt, beyond the fact that you’re in the shower, using water, and scrubbing.
I’ve been using shampoo for everything for the past 35 years, ever since being ordered to as a Navy recruit. They preferred the aforementioned Prell.
This reminds me of an old Golden Girls episode, where Blanche talks about getting her period. Paraphrased from memory,
She had heard the women in her family discuss “the curse”, but she still hadn’t gotten the curse. So when she was sixteen or so, her mom took her to the doctor.
The doctor said “So, Blanche, you still haven’t gotten your period?” “Of course I have periods, I’m not a child. It’s this “curse” that I don’t have yet”.
Ah, the straight dope: come for the rant, stay for the detergent discussion.
Took a look.
Reassuring can instructions:
“This product’s spray mist will not ignite.”
well, it did start at the [clearing-of-the-throat-noise] bottom
(it is right there in the subject)
Yep. I’m taking notes!
It’s just the updated version of “Do you ever have one of those times when you feel…not so fresh?”
I just wish we’d do away with prescription drug commercials.
Back when Dave Barry was writing his weekly column, I saw a story somewhere about some scientists who were trying to develop a standardized odor unit. I sent it to him and suggested that they count the smell rays. Don’t think it was used, but it was right up his alley.
As for buying diarrhea, the closest thing I can think of to that is Cologard. Yes, I have used it.
Unfortunately, Peyronie’s disease is a real condition. I first learned of it in the late 1990s, when I worked at a low-income health clinic that had a lot of Bosnian refugees, and the men ALL had it, because they had been tortured. Otherwise, it’s fairly uncommon in non-senior men.
Peyronie's disease - Symptoms and causes - Mayo Clinic(pay%2Droe%2DNEEZ,necessarily%20a%20cause%20for%20concern.
SNL addressed the “Vintage Kotex” thing a while back.
