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Comment by kstenerud | Hacker News Reader

I stopped using soap a decade ago. The only time I use it now is for rare occasions where I get something on me that requires soap, such as motor oil or chemicals. I also only wash twice a week or so.

People always recoil when I tell them, but then I ask them what I smell like to them. They say I don't really smell like anything.

The first month was the worst, because my skin took time to adjust to not having its oils washed off every day. I felt REALLY greasy for a couple of weeks, like the feeling you get when you've worn a pair of jeans far too long between washes. Then as my skin adjusted things went back to normal.

The only real issue is hair; it becomes REALLY unmanageable without shampoo. So if you have long hair, just keep using shampoo.

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I also stopped using soap several years ago. I shower ~3 times a week, and still scrub areas like my armpits but only using water. As confirmed by friends and family, I don't smell. Granted, I've never had much body odor - I can't confirm this would work well if I naturally smelled more after heavy exercise.

I find it plausible that cleaning too much (or with chemicals that alter the microbiome) could be harmful and as such it doesn't seem worth it - following the precautionary principle - unless there were a specific indication to use soap for treating a disease or illness.

Soap isn't what gets things clean, anyway, water does. Soap merely lowers water surface tension, and making water molecules stick together less helps water clean more easily.

That's interesting. But soap also helps in surrounding fats with a water-soluble membrane, right?

I'm not sure why fats would be difficult to wash off, and soaps are made from fats through saponification.[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saponification

Fats and oils are hydrophobic.

the process of saponification adds a hydrophilic/water-soluble end to a hydrophobic molecule (fat - which is essentially a long hydrocarbon chain). The fatty end embeds itself in fats/oils which then form what are called micelles with the fatty tail and dissolved greasy molecules on the inside and the water-soluble bit on the outside. Thus it essentially packages up all the grime in little balls that act as if they are dissolved in water and can thus be washed down the drain.

To add a data point here...I've read studies on the effectiveness of handwashing for sterilization. Apparently it's simply the abrasion under water that removes pathogens from the skin. Studies found no difference in effectiveness of just water versus water+soap.

Same here, I wash twice a week (same as my son who had really bad eczema when he was kid, think hospitalization kind, now almost completely gone), stopped using shampoo and shower gel about maybe 2 years ago, don't really have any problems with body odor, don't smell like anything, if I get smelly it's only armpits (when hot) and despite having short hair (I usually trim it to like 3-9mm, then let it grow for at least 2 months except warm months), I don't really like oily and itchy hair after few days.

The reason I stopped were issues of my kids with eczema considering I had also a little bit of eczema (but nothing really bad, usually flared up only winter months) so after people doing this I decided to try and to my surprise I see no negative difference on my body and actually even on my hair, which became oily/itchy after few days no matter whether I used shampoo or not used it.

Though I've had test runs before when travelling around southeast asia for extended period when I took just daily shower without any soap and had no problems.

I've had really trouble through pandemic with mandatory disinfection to the point they didn't want to let me into kids kindergarten to accompany them despite having pretty bad eczema/skin issues on hands if I use anything irritating, this was resolved by wearing gloves and sprinkling stupid disinfectant on gloves or pretending to use the machine.

Disclaimer: I use shampoo (well it's actually shower gel) after trimming my hair (5-6 times a year), I use shower gel for my intimate parts at each shower (2x a week) and I wash my hands as usual with liquid soap after toilet or when dirty or prior/after cooking. My kids take shower twice a week and use fancy Bioderma shower oil though I am thinking also about giving up on using anything and see what happens with their skin.

> The only real issue is hair; it becomes REALLY unmanageable without shampoo. So if you have long hair, just keep using shampoo.

Huh, this is the complete opposite of my experience. I've had long hair from time to time, and the only time it has been unmanageable has been after washing it with shampoo.

The trick with hair is to not get your hair wet, and to brush it out to distribute the oils your scalp puts into your hair.

People used to avoid washing it very often back when soaps were harsher and conditioner wasn't really a thing. It's why shower caps exist.

I've read testimonials from women who had severe acne and cured the problem by stopping frequent washing of the face with soap. It that case, the restriction of soap usage clearly improved skin health.

May I ask why you stopped using soap?

I can imagine not using soap on arms, legs and torso, but not for intimate areas!

I’m intrigued for sure :)

I read an article about it and decided to try it (just look for "water only" washing - there are tons of articles and people talking about it on Reddit).

I too was worried about armpits and intimate areas at first, but my wife has no complaints (quite the opposite; she loves the way I smell. So does my cat for some reason).

For the first few years I used one of those crystal salt deodorants because I used to smell REALLY bad. But somewhere through the years that went away and I don't use it anymore. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say it has something to do with me changing my diet to remove highly processed foods, but we're also talking about a sample size of one so who knows... I do notice that my body smell changes slightly depending on what I eat, though.

How is the weather where you live? I can't imagine this working in a hot, humid tropical country.

I know there's variability in human body odor, like most Asians not needing deodorant, but I'm skeptical because some people do have a strong body odor they can't smell. I've known a few.

I've lived all over the place, from dry to wet-towel-in-your-face humid, from -25c to 45c. Even after an hour long workout dripping with sweat I don't really smell like anything.

The way to test your own body odor without asking other people is to take a deep whiff of yesterday's shirt when you wake up in the morning. Even better would be to walk around outside a bit before you smell your old shirt in order to keep a somewhat consistent calibration. But really, it's best to just ask someone you can trust to be truthful (most people will be truthful if you preface something by "I'm running an experiment").

or you could just ask your own (young) kids, they have no filter, sometimes when we lay in bed they tell me I stink, they mean armpits, not that it would be necessary, even I can smell it at that point if I try

Strong smells also can be associated to pleasant things. If your grampa smelled weird, but you loved him, you'll love the weird smell too after a while.

That's amazing if true, because that means your sweat is hostile to the kind of bacteria that produces the smell we associate with old sweat. It's impossible to sweat distilled water, but maybe it's possible to sweat salt water with low content of fats and proteins, I really don't know. Sloths, for example, are known for having no body odor, so it might be possible for some people.

I'd love to know the mechanism for inhibiting bacteria breeding in skin grease. PH level?

I will look it up for sure. Many thanks for sharing.

I only really use soap under my arms and mostly in summer. Otherwise it just isn’t needed.

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