Dishwashing liquids like Dawn make excellent shampoos.
Probably of no use to US readers, Choice (Australian Consumers’ Association) do an annual test of washing up liquids. They found a clear winner this year. A supermarket brand one third of the cost of Fairy (Dawn’s name in the UK and Australia). A link in the article to their testing method is interesting and there it is explained:
We originally started testing dishwashing liquids based on the industry standard which looked at how long their foam lasts, but soon realised that manufacturers were using cleaning agents (surfactants) that were better at creating foam rather than those that were better at removing grease.
This shift was because consumers are under the impression that more foam equates with better performance. But is this really the case?
I don’t know how relevant: but the firefighters I know always opt for Dawn when they have to simulate firefighting foam in training. Sometimes they even use it in place of the real stuff. (I don’t know enough about it to say when or why.)
I don’t use anything but Dawn. The cheapest Dawn. I’ve tried other things but they seriously don’t work. I use it to wash my doggos when we come back from hiking. It kills fleas and ticks immediately. A little Dawn and vinegar in a spray bottle in my shower? No soap scum. A little Dawn amid ammonia in my mop bucket? Super clean and no film. So, yeah, it might be hype but I think it’s the best.
I saw a youtube vid about the new Dawn stuff. I don’t remember the name, it comes in a special bottle, you’re supposed to spray it directly on all your dishes, it foams maniacally?
Anyhoo, this guy’s ‘expose’ was that you can take ordinary Dawn, dilute it with 40% water, and mix in a trivial amount of alcohol, like one Tablespoon I think it was, and you have created the equivalent of the new super Dawn for way, way less money.
Important points: you’re supposed to use gentle stirring motions when you mix in the water and alcohol or you’ll be left with premature foam ejaculation, plus you have to reuse the authentic super-version spray bottle. That’s where the magic comes from I guess.
Palmolive not up to the task? Ivory?
Palmolive is green!
Lighter fluid (the kind used in Zippos) does it in one, BTW.
Works even better if you put a match to the lighter fluid after applying it.
It does an excellent job cleaning brake dust and road grime off of wheels too.
Eeek. 
Not magical, but more the wonders of modern chemistry, Dawn is a powerful detergent that won’t also destroy your skin. That’s a fine line to walk.
Well, you wash your hair right afterward, but you’d be doing that anyway I suspect.
I had gum in my hair several times as a kid, and peanut butter was a terrible way to get it out. The lighter fluid would just dissolve it away and make it easier to get out, and a regular shampoo got the lighter fluid out without any fuss.
Remember back in the 1990s when every brand of dish soap and laundry detergent was switching to “ultra concentrated” versions? “Use 1/3 as much and get the same results!” Well I’m pretty sure Dawn still markets the old non-concentrated formula as a bargain version along side the 3x concentrated Dawn Ultra. I assumed that was the “cheaper Dawn” @PhillyGuy was referring to. It probably gets your dishes just as clean as the more concentrated formula, but you have to use three times as much soap to do it – the hole in the cap is bigger so 3x as much soap comes out per “squirt”. So even though it’s cheaper per bottle IMO it’s probably false economy.
The cheaper Dawn (US$1.24 for 7.5 fluid ounces), on the bottom shelf at our Walmart, still says Ultra in small letters. And beyond that, I believe it is the concentrated type because it works well.
The U.S. equivalent of Choice, Consumer Reports, seems not to have reviewed this product line since April 2011 – the approximate beginning of the Ultra era:
Googling finds U.S. web sites claiming to have done recent reliable testing and ranking, but I am not sure if claims like that can be trusted.
There may be good bargain brands – I recall using Ajax, within the the past decade, without difficulty. But I do not buy them being all the same.
Oh yeah, now they have “Dawn Platinum”, and I guess the Dawn Ultra is now the cheaper stuff. I’m not sure what’s supposed to be better about Dawn Platinum.
Shiny label?
Pretty!
It’s not the only one with good degreasers but I use it precisely because it does have them. I pre-spot my race-working clothes with them because oil happens.
A friend gave me some of her overflow of dish soap as a housewarming gift. She has a monthly subscription to the stuff and has far more than she can use. It doesn’t hold a candle to Dawn. But it is non-toxic. I use Dawn for the heavy cleaning and her stuff for the non-greasy dishes.
The New York Times’ Wirecutter site has a review of dish soaps dated March 2023; the top-rated product is the Seventh Generation Dish Soap, though Dawn Original was close behind.
Evil me was only thinking about cleaning power, although low price is good.
A unionized workforce also would be nice, but that’s apparently not the kind of social responsibility considered.