Timeline for Why can't I wash away soapy hands?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
24 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 2, 2023 at 20:29 | comment | added | Darrel Hoffman | I've noticed this problem specifically with glycerin-based soaps, which I now avoid purchasing for that reason. Oddly, I've not had a problem with Dove which several other people have mentioned. But I usually get Dove in bar-form. The ones that I have a problem with are glycerin-based liquid soaps. | |
| Jun 2, 2023 at 17:52 | answer | added | Weather Vane | timeline score: 0 | |
| Jun 2, 2023 at 10:05 | comment | added | EarlGrey | @JoL I see, well, different soaps have different compositions. Soft and hard waters are not too dissimilar: they differ only for some 0.1% of their composition (soft water = 0 to 60 mg-CaCO3 per liter, hard water 120 to 180 mg-CaCO3 per liter) so it may well be that different soaps may or may not have excess of stearate ions to build the "slippery" layer. | |
| Jun 2, 2023 at 8:46 | comment | added | EarlGrey | @JoL different faucets in the house may have strikingly different water quality. | |
| Jun 1, 2023 at 17:02 | vote | accept | AnyDisplayName | ||
| Jun 1, 2023 at 14:25 | comment | added | justhalf | @JoL Funny that you mentioned Dove, those are too the soaps that I also now avoid after experiences in the past where it left slipperiness feeling, which doesn't happen with other soaps. | |
| Jun 1, 2023 at 8:18 | answer | added | Dmitry Grigoryev | timeline score: 8 | |
| Jun 1, 2023 at 2:26 | comment | added | JoL | I got the idea that it's a moisturizing effect from Dove commercials that advertised their soaps as moisturizing and for "delicate" skin. Dove soaps are (or were, idk) some of the more expensive soaps, and I remember hating how slippery they left my skin feeling, how hard it was to completely wash off. I figure that characteristic is what they were advertising. Those commercials and my trying them was possibly in the 90's or early 2000's, so I don't know if they've changed from then. | |
| Jun 1, 2023 at 2:05 | comment | added | JoL | Differences in hardness of water may be one answer, but in my home with its one water supply, I've experienced this difference with different soaps. I've always understood it to be a difference in a moisturizing effect in the soap, as in a feature for some people with dryer skin that may like that feeling of having slippery skin or that it may help them avoid their skin cracking as often. I could be wrong on this, so I'm not providing this as an answer. It's just that I'm not convinced that the current one is sufficient to explain this, given my having only one water supply and still seeing it | |
| S May 31, 2023 at 19:49 | history | suggested | CommunityBot | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
removed fluff
|
| May 31, 2023 at 19:42 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S May 31, 2023 at 19:49 | |||||
| May 31, 2023 at 19:36 | comment | added | Mazura | Go find the garden hose spigot outside. There's less chance that they're softening that water. Having grown up spoiled in Chicago, now with a summer home in rural MI on well water... there's a second faucet on the laundry sink that is not softened explicitly for washing your hands (and watering plants because it's slightly salty). | |
| May 31, 2023 at 18:26 | comment | added | AnyDisplayName | @pacoverflow Yeah, I thought that was a possible reason as well, until I started carrying around my own soap. | |
| May 31, 2023 at 18:02 | answer | added | MTA | timeline score: 13 | |
| May 31, 2023 at 18:02 | comment | added | pacoverflow | I always assumed this was because a lot of hotels give you really cheap soap. | |
| May 31, 2023 at 16:35 | comment | added | AnyDisplayName | @TannerSwett That is a good question as well, but, personally, I just fell very uneasy with the slipperiness, even if my hands would be technically clean after a few seconds. | |
| May 31, 2023 at 16:34 | comment | added | AnyDisplayName | @oliver Will do! | |
| May 31, 2023 at 16:33 | comment | added | AnyDisplayName | @kopaka I guess my family just doesn't wash their hands very well... | |
| May 31, 2023 at 12:46 | comment | added | oliver | Had this experience (soap doesn't rinse off) only in one area so far; and I think it helped to use warm/hot water for rinsing. Give it a try and report back! | |
| May 31, 2023 at 11:38 | comment | added | Sophie Swett | When we wash our hands, is it necessary (or even beneficial at all) to keep rinsing until the slipperiness goes away, or is it fine to just rinse for, say, 10 seconds and then stop? | |
| May 31, 2023 at 11:30 | comment | added | kopaka | Just to put some perspective on the last paragraph: You're not alone, I feel exactly the same need to rinse my hands until it does not feel slippery anymore. Sometimes it takes much much more time and it drives me crazy, and while I always thought the reason might just be the "amount of water", now I finally have a satisfying answer! | |
| May 31, 2023 at 7:18 | answer | added | John Rennie | timeline score: 146 | |
| May 31, 2023 at 6:27 | history | became hot network question | |||
| May 30, 2023 at 22:27 | history | asked | AnyDisplayName | CC BY-SA 4.0 |