I’m a Black women 37 and recently married. My husband is white and he is a mechanic. When we first got togethr I could tell he was not accustomed to taking a shower before bed. Which I didn’t care because that is a requirement of being clean. Why would you want all the dirt of t he day in your bed? I change the sheets weekly too,which hed never heard of. He was married to someone from Equator for 13 years. He just dropped a bombshell ,that they never owned a washcloth! I was disgusted and appalled to say the least. They just used puffs and their hands and redistributed dirt around their bodies. So most whiite people don’t use washcloths. My previous boyfriend was white and he did,but he came from a higher background than my husband. So maybe it’s a class issue. And you don’t wash your butt then your face. Either you have a white one for your face and a color one for your body. Or you wash your face first then your body, and put it in the dirty clothes. Duh
After 13 years, I’m pretty sure this thread is washed up.
I know one white guy that uses a washcloth and bar soap.
Me.
I’ve used Dial Gold since early childhood. Except for a few weeks when I tried Irish Spring in high school. Didn’t take long for me to develop allergy symptoms (from the perfume scent) and I switched back.
Yeah, but what the hell…
White person here. I don’t use soap, I use a “skin cleanser” because of my dermatological issues. I squirt the liquid onto a washcloth and wash the crotch areas last. I’m not so much interested in the scrubbing power (unless I’m really dirty) so much as the use as a cleanser carrier. Then the cloth is first hung up to dry, then goes into the wash hamper. I use a new cloth for every shower. Yes, I own a lot of washcloths. I keep 'em in a stack by the shower.
I don’t use sponges or poofs or loofas because they’ll retain some bacteria and gunk whereas the clothes are washed between every use and can be sanitized by bleach if I feel the need. You can sanitize the other stuff, but I don’t know if people bother to do that or not between uses, or how often they replace them. I do know we sell a crapton of bath sponges and poofs where I work, so presumably there is some turnover.
White person here, always wet the brush, then add toothpaste. So even if white folks tend to paste-first-water-second it’s no way universal.
This whole thread is just begging for someone to demand PICTURES or it didn’t happen . . .
(But I’m not going to be the one to do it!)
<d&r>
My wife is a wash cloth user. In fact, she takes “sponge” baths, rather than showers, almost exclusively. Ditto for the stacks of wash cloths and single usage. White as rice.
Its a darn good thing you didn’t or I may have provided some.
Civilizations have fallen from less. 
The vast majority of the people I know are basically white and to the best of my knowledge none are without washcloths. In both my house and the house I grew up in they always outnumbered the towels by a significant number – say 2-1.
I take baths more than showers, I am a cloth user, with liquid soap. The reason I take baths a lot, is I put bath-oil on the tub water, I have very dry skin, I use an unbelievably small amount of soap. I don’t get really dirty, but cleanliness is important to me, so I endeavor to stay that way.
Why does anyone need a washcloth?
People wash their hands before they eat with “just soap”, and their hands probably have the most foreign germs as anywhere on they body.
But yet “just soap” is somehow not good enough for your shoulder or legs? That doesn’t make any sense.
When it comes to cleanliness, people operate on tradition and emotion, not logic.
I bring a roll of paper towels into the shower with me so I don’t have to worry about reusing dirty washcloths.
I see “bath tissue” in stores all the time. It kinda looks like toilet paper…
I think someone should bathe and use it as a washcloth and report the results.
You mean someone might touch one part of their body with another part of their body without a piece of cloth between the parts? ~faints~
This needs a “That’s not how any of this works” meme. If you use your hands, a wash cloth, or a puff the result will be the same. The dirt will be taken away by the water and go down the drain. I’ve been “Army living in the woods for a month” dirty and a good scrubbing feels good and is probably acting as an exfoliant but the actually dirt is taken care of by the soap and water.
Because I can no longer get my bare and/or soap covered hand over most of my back due to aging joints but the washcloth can reach those spots.
I use washclothes at hotels and if I am using shower gel on trips, but at home they are a waste. I use a bar of soap (and I am the only one that uses it as the others use shower gel). I am a computer guy, so I don’t usually get “dirty”, so scrubbing around with the bar of soap is fine.
I start with my face and head (I am bald) and work my way down. And rinse the bar of soap off prior to putting it on the shower shelf and then rinse me.
Not that it matters, but I do happen to be of Irish decent.
Best to wash down as far as possible, then wash up as far as possible, and lastly, wash possible.
So you don’t waste as much soap. I have used bars directly. And that always makes them wear down faster. After a couple showers the bar is already noticeably smaller. Not so if I use a cloth. And with liquid soap, I use as much as I used washing my hands for my entire body. Can’d do that if I just use the liquid by itself. I mean, if it washes off your hands so quickly, how do you expect it to last your whole body?
That said, I tend to prefer those little shower puffs now. Though they wind up being too efficient: I’ve checked, and I can wash my whole body 3 times with one of those guys, using the same amount of soap I’d put on a wash rag.
My wife still teases me because I can never remember what the fuck the difference is between a washcloth and a hand towel, and when she asks for one, I seem to hand over the wrong one. As for showering or bathing, I have never used towels or loofahs or any of that crap. Just bath liquid or straight soap.
I am confused. I get wet. I take the bar of soap and get lather on my hands. Or pour a bit of Dr. Bonner’s there and rub it up. Put the soap or the bottle down. I rub my bald head my face my arms my pits my trunk. Rinse my hands. Relather. Keep working my way down. Rinse off my whole body. Done.
Same soap used as two handwashings maybe three max. No need for a washcloth or a hand towel. (And what is the difference?)
If there is a racial difference does it have to do with “ash”? Does washing with a washcloth help to better exfoliate and avoid it? Without having to go all loofah?
I’m white, and I wash myself exclusively with Ass Germs.
Come over for dinner!