How to clean ourselves - Know about soaps

How should one bathe?
Should one use a body wash or a regular soap?
What kind of soap should one use?
Whether one should use soap or body wash depends on their skin?

So many questions arise in our mind, when caring of skin is concerned.
The skin on one’s body may be quite different from the skin on her face. It would be a good idea to check the skin on arms and legs. Even if the face has oily skin, arms and legs may be quite dry.

In Indian tropical weather conditions, one should bathe twice a day, morning and, using a cleansing agent and warm water. One should rinse thoroughly to prevent soap residue from getting deposited on the skin. Soap deposits may cause allergic reaction, and also lead to darkening of the skin. Always moisturize after cleaning the skin at night, even in summer.

It becomes confusing, what to use from so many cleaning agents available in the market. All of them are claiming their benefits. Let us know what we want for us and which will suit the best for our skin.


Choosing a Soap


If you have normal skin, these are the cleansing agents you should choose from:

Regular/traditional soaps:

These soaps are fine for normal skin, but may be irritating for dry skins.

Transparent soaps:

These are the best option for sensitive but oily skin.

Shower gels or body shampoos:

These have been recently introduced, and are often technically better than soaps.

If you have dry skin, these are the cleansing agents you should choose from:

Moisturizing or super fatted soaps:

These are good for those who have dry skin as they contain fatty ingredients and are pH neutral.

Body washes:

The moisturizing ones are especially good for dry skin.


Specialized kinds of soaps


Deodorant soaps:

Avoid using these on your face as the antiseptics can cause reactions.

Medicated soaps:

These can cause dryness, especially when used for long periods of time. Under no circumstances should you use a medicated soap for more than two months at a stretch.

Use a medicated soap only if:

*Spend a lot of time outdoors.
*You perspire due to strenuous skin.
*You have too much body odor.
*You have a skin infection.

pH of the soap is important:


pH is the approximate measure of acidity of a substance and is represented by a number. Seven is considered neutral, whereas less than seven is acidic. The higher numbers denote alkalinity.

Our skin is mildly acidic. Most of the ordinary soaps available in the market are alkaline. They react with the acidity of the skin and kill some superficial cells. These cells putrefy and cause more bad odor. More alkaline, and cheap is the soap, more damage will be done to the skin. Search for neutral pH soap for best results.

This article is republished at India Study Channel