I used to work in a microbiology lab which equals lots of dishes. The soap we used, Alconox, was apparently so universal, that members of the family who manufactured it used it to wash their hair as well as their dishes. Our grad student suffered no ill effects when he tried the same.
-Lil
No. Shampoo is mostly just soap, with added fragrance. It’s only function is to strip the dirt and oils (that collect dirt and odors) from your hair shaft. The kicker is that these oils keep your hair from becoming brittle and dried out, which is why we have conditioner, to add clean nice-smelling oil back to the hair. So unless you are using some sort of extremely caustic lye soap on your hair, it’s not going to hurt it any more than shampoo would. If it’s okay on your skin, it’s okay for your hair. It’s the conditioner you want to be sure not to skip, especially if you wash your hair every day.
Is head hair different from body hair?
What is in shampoo that isnt in Soap?
Having said that though, Im sure shampoo is better… but that does not mean soap is “bad”.
At the end of the day… its Soap. Soap is going to be wrong for something?
How do you wash down water, when water sticks to your throat?
When I get a Buzz cut… I use the soap too… Easier and faster.
Don’t see anything wrong with it.
I had always heard that soaps tend to leave a film while shampoo rinses away without film.
I think the film comes from the minerals in “hard” water. Maybe shampoos contain some kind of water softener to cut down on the film. They also might have more detergent action since hair can be quite oily at times.
When I used bar soap on my thick, naturally wavy hair, I found it stripped out enough oil to make the stuff unmanageable. Not as badly as dusting repeatedly with powdered chalk, but enough to merit the purchase of a bottle of cheap shampoo. The utility of bar soap likely varies with the type of hair it’s used on.
Aren’t shampoos detergents? Sodium benzoates and stuffs. They’re not soaps and won’t form scum in hard water, and probably strip away less oil as well.
Yes, yes it is. Shampoo is detergent-it washes away the dirt. Soap will simply build up and leave a film on your hair. Don’t do it.
Of course, if your hair is short and thin enough that you don’t mind a flim on it, go ahead. It’s not going to damage the root or anything. It just makes it dull and unmanageable for anyone with enough hair to notice.
Actually, detergents are used for the purpose of removing the oil so that the water can wash away the dirt. Detergents, are among other things, emulsifiers that break the oil up into tiny droplets and hold it in suspension.
For the record - what is the distinction between a soap and a detergent??
Detergents are sort of soaps on steroids. Soaps are also emulsifiers but not as good as detergents. Detergents also contain wetting agents.
Soaps are essentially sodium or potassium salts of fatty acids.
Detergents are various forms of water soluble organic compounds.
Detergent and soap are both “wetting agents” (surfactants) because they decrease the surface tension of water. (To demonstrate this sprinkle black pepper on some water and touch the surface of the water with a small piece of soap. Thank you, Miss Gloria, my 1st grade Science teacher!)
Detergent is basically any cleaning agent epecially oother than soap. Soap has a specific chemical structure, being the salt of a fatty acid, and is made by mixing oil or fat with an alkali such as lye or potash.
Yes, you are. Of course, it takes a while for damage to become severe, by that time all the “injured” hair has been swept up by your barber.
Soap will strip away too much of your hair’s natural oils, making it less manageable and more prone to damage. Shampoos have additives to keep hair in good condition, soaps have no such additives.
The shortness of your haircut makes all this moot, though, so do whatever makes you happiest.
I also think (keep me honest here) that many “soaps” are detergents anyway, just because it’s in a bar doesn’t mean it’s a natural soap.
I use Ivory bars on my hair quite ofetn. It tends to dry it out a bit, but as I have rather oily hair, this is a positive thing.
I alternate with various shampoos.
Hijack–the best anti-dandruff shampoo ever is Walgreen’s house brand coal tar medicated shampoo.
[slight hijack]
Honest. I really really really tried to ignore this.
But I just couldn’t do it.
Sorry.
:eek: 
[/slight hijack]
Soaps - actual fat and lye soaps, as opposed to detergents in bar form - tend to have quite a high pH compared to shampoos. Most shampoos have a pH in the 5-6 range whereas bar soaps are often over 9. The higher pH can cause the keratin plates on the outside of the hair strand to swell up, making the hair duller and less manageable; this is one of the reasons hair dyes contain very strong bases, because the keratin plates swell so much they stick up, allowing chemicals to penetrate the hair strand.
But if your hair looks fine, it’s not really a concern. It’s not going to make you go bald or something.
I asked a woman I know–who makes soap and shampoo herself–what the difference was between the two. She said that she used a really mild oil, I think it was castor oil, in the shampoo, and something else in the soap.
Then her shampoo is soap. No commercial shampoo is made of soap - they’re all made out of detergents.