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Questions about body wash. Im feeling so fed up.


Guest MFortunato

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Guest MFortunato

Alright so I basically go through a bottle of body wash to take my showers. I try using a little but then it wont lather alot? i dont understand how a little bit is supposed to be efficient at lathering your arms, stomach, back then all the otther places. Then I started using a loofah but god knows im a stupid ass and cant use it more then once cause i feel like its contaminated. and I like to scrub my pubic hair and what not and loofahs just dont do that well in my mind. What the **** do i do? cause its so expensive to buy that much body wash and so ******* stressfull having to deal with the shame of my mom buying them. I also will not take multiple showers in a day becuse one there so ******* long and two i use so much ******* BODY WASH. I just dont understand. Maby im not doing something right? i dont ******* know. alll i know is im just stressed. Anyone have any advice to this issue?

Edited by MFortunato
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You need about a tablespoon of body wash. That's it. You know that, I know that.

So what can you do? Start cutting down on the amount of body wash you are using...cut down drastically.

Will you feel good? Nope. Will you feel decontaminated? Nope.

But this is what you need to do to get to a different place than where you are presently. Eventually the anxiety you feel will go down.

P.S. You will be clean with only the tablespoon of body wash.

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Guest Sisyphus

Alright so I basically go through a bottle of body wash to take my showers. I try using a little but then it wont lather alot? i dont understand how a little bit is supposed to be efficient at lathering your arms, stomach, back then all the otther places. Then I started using a loofah but god knows im a stupid ass and cant use it more then once cause i feel like its contaminated. and I like to scrub my pubic hair and what not and loofahs just dont do that well in my mind. What the **** do i do? cause its so expensive to buy that much body wash and so ******* stressfull having to deal with the shame of my mom buying them. I also will not take multiple showers in a day becuse one there so ******* long and two i use so much ******* BODY WASH. I just dont understand. Maby im not doing something right? i dont ******* know. alll i know is im just stressed. Anyone have any advice to this issue?

Here's an idea for you M:

- stand under the shower to get wet

- stand away from the shower to apply some body wash to the area you're washing (so it doesn't get washed away under the shower jet)

- then stand back under the shower to rinse away again

- repeat for all the different areas you're washing

I find I use much less shower gel this way. Also I've survived for the best part of 30 years just using my hand to wash with so maybe try that and see how it goes. I wash my hands separately at the end, which is probably completely unnecessary to be fair as I've just covered them in soap for ages but you know how it is.

Also I heard a guy from the cracked podcast talking about how we over-wash and how we really only need to wash every 2 days. Something about how we used to be covered in this layer of "good" bacteria that protected us from various ailments. OK so maybe not the best place to mention that, and probably not a great idea to only wash every 2 days but yknow maybe it helps put it all in perspective a little bit. Maybe less is more when it comes to these things?

Edited by Sisyphus
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Guest Sally44

My son [13] is the same. But "bubbles" don't equal cleaning power. I make soap, so I know. I make soap the old fashioned way, using oils and mixing them with the right chemical so that they saponify and turn into soap. This type of soap is less likely to dry out your skin, but it depends on the soap maker, the ingredients and the PH of the soap.

In ancient Greece they used to clean themselves with olive oil. Rub it all over the body and then use something to scrape it off.

If you are using something, and lots of it, to make bubbles, then you will be just drying out your skin.

And the more you shower the more you remove of your protective skin layer, which is why you start to get things like fungal infections and septic spots [my son gets both these].

We use a time timer at home for him to try to complete his shower within that time.

He also washes his hands after he gets out the shower [seems to be a common OCD practice].

And it costs us alot in bubble bath, and also toilet wipes [we had to switch to toilet wipes because he kept blocking the toilet pipes with paper].

As you know the OCD will keep questioning whether you really are clean. When you are. When I was a child we had a bath once a week, and strip washes inbetween. We survived!

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Guest saffymar123

Try different ones or bars of soap. They definitely lather, and you'll see how just standing out the shower and lathering that over you once will be enough.

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Lots of us have been there, Ah! Just realised I missed that bit I'll have another squirt and so on :original:

Frankly though it is surprising how well a shower cleans you, If you wash your hair that cascades over you and as you work your way down to the naughty bits the soap is washing most areas before you get there.

I usually rely on my feet getting cleaned by the "run off" because in cases where I have perhaps got soil in my shoes and the feet are quite black I have found that by the time I get to them (and try to hold my balance in the slippery bath!) they are clean :original:

The advice is good about stepping back from the water to get a lather up then rinsing off. Like many people I do wash my hands after rinsing out the bath at the end as a final "well that's it " if it was a shower after some panic situation, but I have managed to stop doing it on normal days.

Good luck, I hope it helps you to know we understand how it feels.

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Remember that lather does not equate to clean. If you live in a smaller, rural area that relies on wells to bring water into houses, that well water is very hard. We have very hard water where I live (despite being in a large city), and if I fail to replenish the water softener, it can be almost impossible to build up any lather when I'm in the shower.

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Guest PaulM

I've had similar issues and at one time 1 new bar of soap wasn't enough to last a shower.

You could try cutting down bit by bit. How would you feel about doing a gradual reduction? You could take an empty bottle and fill it to a certain level for each stage of the reduction so you have a control on how much body wash is in the bottle.

This might be a bit much, but let's say you were to drop to 3/4 a bottle for a week or two. Then drop to half a bottle for another week or two. Then cut to half of that for a period of time, and then half of that, and so on. It could take a few months but you could drop the usage considerably.

Edited by PaulM
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I also find that if I am running short of time and need to get to an appointment, I am forced to put OCD issues to the back of my mind instead of carrying out the rituals. Just something to may be try so you dont have the luxury of time to hand.

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Guest MFortunato

So I have been forcing my self to only use a tablespoon of body wash each time I use it. It's going very well I had a shower and used only half a bottle!!!!!! Thanks for the motivation :) makes my showers longer tho

Edited by MFortunato
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