Let's talk about soaps

[QuarterMillionMan]

How far do you take your soap bar? When my shower soap bar gets too small I then use it for washing my hands and try to adhere it to the already small hand soap bar. And I use a new soap bar for the shower. And which brand do you use? I like Irish Spring Aloe.

[Tabs]

I just press my old bar into the new one while it's still wet and soapy. It will stick. I also like and use Irish Spring, but if anyone has a better suggestion, I am all ears.

[Nutria]

I just press my old bar into the new one while it's still wet and soapy. It will stick. I also like and use Irish Spring, but if anyone has a better suggestion, I am all ears.

I've found that liquid soap produces less of a ring in the tub.

[bjl584]

I just changed it out last night. Usually I'll keep it until it gets too hard to hang onto. If it breaks in half while using it, it is time to change it.

[TexasHusker]

actually this is a great topic. My wife gives me a hard time because I use a bar of soap to wash my hair. People can spend $ hundreds per year on bottles of fancy potions just to wash their hair. It's still just soap!

[james.hendrickson]

We use a ton of the small bars of complementary soap from our hotel stays. We also like to get soap from estate or garage sales - its usually dirt cheap when you buy it at estate sales.

[disneysteve]

When the bar in the shower gets too small, we move it to the soap dish at the sink to wash our hands. When that gets too small or starts to break apart, we toss it out.

We've found that the soap we use doesn't allow you to press bars together. It just won't adhere that way.

[Jluke]

Lever 2000...

when bar is small, gets pressed into the new bar. if it doesn't stick, I use old and new (one in each hand); eventually I'll just throw out the smaller one when it doesn't soap up well.

Great items to buy in bulk at BJs or Costco type stores.

[StressLess]

We used to use Irish Spring; my husband and I both liked the scent. But a few years back I noticed my skin was getting itchy, and I decided to try a different soap to see if it made a difference. It did--now we use Lever 2000. I think it's an age thing; my skin is apparently too dry now for the Irish Spring.


We move soap bar slivers to the sink for hand-washing, but if that one doesn't get used up before the next sliver arrives, one gets tossed. They don't seem to stick together well.



TexasHusker, if you can get away with using soap on your hair, good for you! I can't. Another old-lady thing, I think. My hair has always been fine, and now it's thinning, too. In the summer, Pert gives it some needed body. In the winter, it gets extremely fly-away and I have to switch to Infusium to weigh it down a little. I can't use the Infusium during the summer or it just looks slicked down and greasy.

[snafu]

Bar soap is too messy. I did my best to control that by cutting kitchen sponges to fit the bathrm soap dishes but eventually conceded failure. We use pump type dispenser refilled from large Costco liquid soap jug, in all shower stalls and sinks. It looks neat, uses less product and advances decor. It has been so efficient I decant dish soap into a pump dispenser for all those small clean-ups.

[disneysteve]

TexasHusker, if you can get away with using soap on your hair, good for you! I can't. Another old-lady thing, I think.

Not just an old lady thing. Both my wife and daughter have long, thick, curly hair. They've tried various brands of shampoo and conditioner before finding the one they're using now that seems to work best of the ones they've tried.

They aren't all the same at all and soap isn't even close. They contain completely different ingredients. Soap might technically clean your hair but that's about it. They would both be giant balls of frizz and knots without a good shampoo and conditioner.

Now I've got short hair. I could probably use almost anything, but even I do notice some difference depending on what I use. When we travel on short trips, I'll often leave my stuff at home and just use whatever the hotel provides but even after just a couple of days, I can tell a difference.

[phantom]

I can't stand bars of soap. I'm surprised to see so many people use them. Every brand of bar soap I've ever tried leaves my skin feeling waxy and weird. Some are less bad than others, but I like most liquid soaps better. I buy large containers that either come with pump dispensers or that I can put pump dispensers on. I don't generally think about the cost of the soap. But, I don't like to see anything go to waste, so I usually add water at the end of a bottle to get every last drop of soap out.

What I really need to do is get a fun dispenser for my kids' soap. My oldest is 3 and likes to get soap with fun characters on it. I'm on board with paying a little more for something that gets her excited about bath time. But, she likes to get the soap out herself, and with the control and motor skills of a three year old, always pours out way too much, which pains me a little each time.

[scfr]

I'm not a fan of soap scum so long ago I made the switch to body shampoo and never went back to bar soap.

But when I did use bar soap, I had a little covered soap box with a draining tray that I stored outside of the shower, to prevent soap from going needlessly down the drain. It was a holdover from my college dorm days when we took our "shower gear" in and out of the communal showers every day. Also, before I used a new big bar of soap I opened it and let it dry out for awhile before using so it would be harder and last longer. Brand was generic store brand. At the peak of frugality, I saved slivers of soap, grated them and hotel mini-bars down with a veggie peeler, added a bit of water, formed them in to soap balls, let them dry out, then used them.

[bennkar]

We use a ton of the small bars of complementary soap from our hotel stays. We also like to get soap from estate or garage sales - its usually dirt cheap when you buy it at estate sales.

This is how I am too. I also bought quantities of body wash when you could get them for free by rolling over CVS bucks so I am stocked for years. Also check free boxes at yard sales - I find a few bars each year. And I adhere old bars to new ones.

Funny story - two weeks ago I found an almost full large soap bar in my yard. Looked like an animal brought it and tried to gnaw on it and then thought better of it. Put it in a bucket of water and cleaned the dirt off. Presto - a new bar of soap for me.

[disneysteve]

two weeks ago I found an almost full large soap bar in my yard. Looked like an animal brought it and tried to gnaw on it and then thought better of it. Put it in a bucket of water and cleaned the dirt off. Presto - a new bar of soap for me.

Uh, really? I am totally not a germaphobe but that sounds pretty gross even to me. Finding a random bar of soap outdoors from god knows where that had been chewed on by an animal and you took it home and are using it to bathe? Just to save a dollar? I'll pass on that level of frugality.