Culture

I am not a Millenial but I totally agree on not using bar soap

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I am a fairly proud generation Xer.   Although, sadly, we are currently the smallest generation. I guess our parents grew up wanting smaller families.  I only have one sibling and my son is an only child. I suppose I am keeping that tradition of small families going forward. I promised my son we would soon get a dog and this he won’t be an only child thereafter.  We can’t wait till we finish unpacking a bit more so that we can bring a new furry little creature into the mix. I daydream of new dogs in the house. Oh, my small dreams. At least, this dream I believe is attainable.  We all need those types of dreams.
I just came across a friend’s Facebook page where she posted an article about how Millenials are buying houses that fit their dogs.  Meaning, the house have enough space for the dogs to run around and about. Although, I am not a Millenial I can get behind that concept wholesale.

 

 

Another Millenial quirk that I can relate to?  Well, let me tell you. I hate bar soap. I can’t stand it all. It almost gives me the heebie jeebies. And while sales of soap and bath products continue to rise, sales of bar soap are sinking. Why? Because millenials hate bar soap. Go figure.  But why exactly? Well, apparently, Millennials believe bar soaps are covered in germs after they are used.  And, I have to agree. I may know better. I have seen some research data that says there are no demonstrable higher amounts of germs on bar soup, but I just can’t get past that concept.   You know how you probably don’t want to take a bath with a tub filled with ants? Well, that’s how I feel about bar soap.

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I once had a house guest who insisted on using our bar soap despite me giving her a nice liquid body soap bottle. She insisted that bar soap was better for her. I frowned and wondered why a house guest would be so picky about such a matter. I obviously let her use it and then discarded it.  I tossed it not because I found her dirty or disgusting, but because the bar soap sanctity had been violated. But in case you think I am being silly, let me note here that the Minnesota Health Department posted on its website guidance pertaining to using liquid soap versus bar soap. They landed on the liquid soap side.

 

 

The other part of liquid soap that I like is this: many come in cool bottles! I love collecting bottles and boxes.  Always have and now I have way too many cute boxes. I need to figure out what to put in them. They also tend to have moisturizers in them.  Its a win, win, win situation.

 

Any ardent bar soap supporters out there?

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Categories: Culture, current events, Health, Humor, identity, Psychology

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27 replies »

  1. Fellow generation x here. I really enjoy your blog. I wish you and your son great happiness in your new home with your new furry addition.
    On the subject at hand, I am the opposite. I only use bar soap. I like its simplicity. I find it super functional. I do not have the best motor skills in the world so simplicity is always my friend. Also I find there is a lot of waste with liquid soaps it can be slippy as it spills out of my hands before I get it onto my skin. I am conscious of the amount of needless packaging and the effects. I buy quality artisan soaps that have no packaging. I trust products with less packaging. It cuts out many of the middle men. I don’t see a problem with dirt or germs as long as no one else touches my soap. Thats my case for team soap.
    Thanks for sharing SP.

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  3. No – I have a small bar in my guest toilet but personally I don’t use it, just flannel. Also soap clogs the ubend in bath I noticed.
    Ps pleeeease get a rescue dog not one not from a ‘farm’.

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  4. One of the last of the boomers here. I don’t mind using bar soap but liquid soap is easier. The bar will squeeze out of your hand and fly places. It gets soft when wet and puddles in the soap dish. If I had a bar of soap, I would not bother replacing it.
    I guess that makes me “bi” wrt soap?

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  5. I do like bar soap, however I don’t like sharing bar soap. I prefer to have my own. I like it because especially somewhere like the gym I don’t have to lug along a wash cloth or loofah. I can just lather that sucker up and get clean, put it away in it’s little box and be done. My soap preference when at home is castile soap, and I find that I don’t go through the bar soap as fast as the liquid. However, when I’m at home, I do use a loofah with the bar castile soap, because it melts very fast and isn’t handler-friendly as it gets really slippery (even more than normal bar soap!). I feel like your house guest overstepped her bounds a little. If I felt the need to use bar soap at someone else’s house, I’d gladly bring my own. You handled it very well though, props for that!

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  7. I only like bar soap. My issue with it is not itching what is supposed to clean off so I’d be picky- i.e. I by dove free clear as my bar soap. I also like liquid as it’s faster but just as a shower isn’t a bath, these products don’t conjur the same liquid dsoap equal wing slime all over and I’ve had the misfortune of alkaline soap not just itchy but caustic. The goats milk ones smell nicely and if you’re not a sharer, sample motel pack stuff is a good choice and these days oo who has shower space for a library of product?? But, I like bar soap

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  8. Pingback: I am not a Millenial but I totally agree on not using bar soap | A Glimpse of Heaven: The Philosophy of True Health

  9. Oh my gosh this topic is so funny. I am like mom generation of genX and millennial kids, and I do remember the reaction of a great-aunt to bar soap while visiting calif from east coast (nj) when she said, “what! yooouuu don’t use body soap?” Since then I do hate that bar. Now I use Honest baby vanilla orange baby wash as shampoo and body wash. (Costco/2 lg bottles for $15) smells great, non toxic ingred’s and almost same but milder as in my dermatologist’s branded face wash ($86./per smaller bottle) Yes, I love the pretty seasonal foaming hand soap scents too.

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  10. We use liquid soap for washing hands, but bar soap in the showers. I don’t like the idea of so much plastic waste. And starting a nice new bar of fancy artisan soap is a great feeling. It is a nice reward after struggling for a few days with the old soap that has become wafer-thin.

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  11. With a soap bar, or bar soap, whichever, you pick it up when you’re dirty, use it. All the dirt is now off both you and the soap so you put it down clean in it’s dish (there is a clever solution to soap dish puddles… a soap dish with holes in the bottom…)
    With liquid soap, likely to be in a nasty plastic single-use container of some sort that’ll ends up in landfill when it’s empty for 500 years, every person who uses it touches the bottle when they are dirty, has to press the same pump dispenser thing and leave their dirt and germs all over the bottle. And there it sits, breeding little biological colonies to spread on to the next users hands. Nasty.
    Now, quite why I’ve been distracted enough from my morning coffee to comment on an article about bloody soap when I haven’t even brushed my teeth yet is another matter completely.

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  12. I’m pretty sure bar soap is not covered in germs BUT there better not be any hair to stuck to it. Just sayin’. You know IS covered in germs though is that DIY mold factory sponge thingy that we keep in the shower to use with liquid soap.

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  13. I stumbled across your post through the “more on WordPress.com” section. I actually do like bar soap, but only one particular brand. Tilton Hollow goat milk soap. I’m not a commercial bar soap fan – I find they dry my skin out and I just don’t like them. I was a liquid soap user for the longest time. Then, not quite a year ago, I discovered Tilton Hollow goat milk soap. It’s a small, family-owned company in Ohio. I love how natural and yet moisturizing their soap is. My acne has decreased significantly since I started using it. I feel like my skin is much softer and I don’t need lotion much. Even my nails seem a bit stronger since I started using it.

    I still have some liquid soap so I switch out now and then, but I always go back to my goat milk soap. I never thought I’d be a bar soap person again but I really love this stuff!

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  14. I am a Baby Boomer who, over time, has come to appreciate and incorporate some of the preferences of my millennial daughters, including liquid bath/shower soap. I’d noticed in my travels that some hotels and even motels offered wall mounted liquid soap dispensers in their showers, though interestingly not in their bathroom sinks. The liquid soap was identified as multipurpose, for both hair and body, which seemed like a great cost and space saving measure to me. Oddly, though, it seems that those dispensers did not achieve any popularity and I have not seem them anywhere in the past few years. Bummer!

    On the flip side, though, I have to say that I will never understand Millenials, or those of any generation, who look for houses that will work for their pets more than the bi-legged members of their family. I personally know some who have used that as a reason to move, when I know good and well it’s just an excuse they use to avoid walking their dogs and thereby getting a little exercise in themselves!

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