The benefits and harms of soap

Soap - what a common everyday toilet item it is, but how much do you know about it? But it, like other hygiene and beauty products, has its own beneficial and harmful properties. We will tell you about them, and also give advice on how to choose the right soap.

Types of soap

The main types of soap include:

• Toilet soap.
• Antibacterial soap.
• Tar soap.
• Laundry soap.
• Intimate soap.
• Liquid soap.
• Handmade soap.

Benefits of soap

First of all, this is the final cleansing. No newfangled product can clean like the most ordinary bar of soap. It is impossible to speak generally about the benefits, because such qualities are obtained due to the presence of certain components in the detergent.

• glycerin is responsible for high-quality hydration;
• the presence of honey makes the skin velvety and soft;
• fir promotes rapid regeneration and helps wounds heal, preventing the appearance of acne;
• chamomile soothes and prevents the skin from drying out;
• extracts of St. John's wort, pine and eucalyptus have an antiseptic effect.

This list can be continued for a long time, because as many ingredients as there are different benefits. However, the benefit will only be if the soap contains natural extracts and not simple flavors. And this applies in most cases to handmade soap; mass-produced products, unfortunately, are stuffed with chemicals.

Special attention should be paid to laundry soap, which is often ignored by everyone, but it can do a lot. Let's look at some facts:

• Even surgeons admit that laundry soap can be used instead of gloves. To do this, you need to soap your hands and let them dry. In this case, even through the resulting cuts, there is very little chance of infection.
• To prevent irritation after epilation, you need to soap the treated area and everything will go smoothly. 
• To disinfect your toothbrush, you need to soap it generously with laundry soap at night.
• An incipient runny nose can be prevented. To do this, the nasal sinuses need to be slightly treated with an aqueous solution of laundry soap. At first it may sting a little, but after 2-3 such procedures you will forget about your runny nose for a long time.
• Laundry soap will also help get rid of cracked heels and corns. To do this, you need to dissolve a large spoonful of grated laundry soap and a small spoonful of soda in two liters of water. Beat all this well and carry out baths for 15 minutes.
• To prevent a bruise from appearing after an injury, you need to immediately lubricate the affected area with laundry soap.
• The surest remedy for hair loss is laundry soap. To do this, it is enough to wash your hair with it once or twice a week.

It has a lot of advantages and it’s difficult to list them all. However, there is no doubt that it is very useful.

The harm of soap

Until a certain time, no significance was attached to the concept of the harm of soap, and what’s more, people could not even imagine that this harmless piece could do anything bad. All this propaganda became very popular at the end of the 20th century, when Yuri Lozovsky published a scientific article that spoke in black and white about the dangers of soap.

His work began to be heavily criticized, but the professor was never convinced. All his assurances are based on the ability of soap to wash away the fat layer, which serves to protect the skin from bacteria. But judge for yourself, does anyone say that soap is the only way to care for the body and that moisturizing is strictly prohibited? No, the task of soap is to cleanse the skin, remove the layer of sebum on which there are bacteria that have “stick” during the day. After washing with soap, the old, already removed layer of fat is replaced, and the skin begins to develop a new protective barrier. This can be compared to replacing the filter in a unit. Yes, sometimes they are simply washed under water, but there comes a time when this filter needs to be replaced with a new one. Therefore, it cannot be said that soap itself is harmful; on the contrary, its quality is rather beneficial.

The only thing you should protect from is the frequent use of soap. You can’t be overzealous with it so as not to dry out the skin. One evening wash will be enough.

The real harm can be caused by the components of the soap, or rather the dyes and flavors of the detergent. These are the ones that can cause irritation and allergic reactions. To avoid such an unpleasant phenomenon, especially if you are prone to such reactions, it is better to choose a children's version of the detergent. The composition of baby soap is one of the most natural, and some types are made without fragrances. This soap will not cause any harm. The same can be said about laundry and tar soap.

How to choose soap

There is no special list of rules that would allow you to buy quality soap. But there are several recommendations that will help you make your choice.

• You should stop buying antibacterial soap. The fact is that its basic principle of operation is similar to how classic soap works. However, it is the antibacterial variety that creates resistant bacteria on the body.
• According to experts, when choosing between liquid and solid soap, it is better to give preference to liquid soap. This is explained simply - there is no contact of hands with soap. It’s hard to believe, but when soap comes into contact with your hands, all the bacteria from the latter transfer to the soap and successfully live and multiply there.
• As for flavorings, there are no requirements as such. The experts left this up to the consumer to decide, since there are no special criteria in this area.