Posted November 1, 2012 By Presh Talwalkar. Read about me , or email me .

I like to think I pay careful attention to important decisions. And yet, there are some habits that I have never analyzed, like whether bar soap or body wash is better.

On the one hand, the choice of cleanser is a small decision. On the other hand, showering is a daily habit, and small decisions add up over time. For instance, I take a daily shower, meaning I’ve taken over 10,000 showers in my life.

Over 10,000 showers! And I’ve never thought carefully about bar soap versus body wash? Am I nuts?! Think about it: how many things in life will you do 10,000 times without doing a thorough analysis?

The situation was downright alarming and gave me urgency to find an answer. So I did some research on bar soap versus body wash.

I am not an expert and do not wish to suggest there is a “right” answer. Nevertheless, I was about to find some solid reasons for using one or the other.

Below I offer a brief guide to help you decide if bar soap or body wash is better.

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"All will be well if you use your mind for your decisions, and mind only your decisions." Since 2007, I have devoted my life to sharing the joy of game theory and mathematics. MindYourDecisions now has over 1,000 free articles with no ads thanks to community support! Help out and get early access to posts with a pledge on Patreon. .

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Historical matters

Bar soap is ancient; body wash is relatively new. Some people love to cling to tradition while others believe new products must be improvements.

As I’ll explain below, neither is the case. What we can say is that body wash has been growing in popularity.

In the book Brandwashed, marketing expert Martin Lindstrom describes some of the reasons why body wash is growing in popularity with males. The three reasons are: companies have marketed that that soap is dirtier, loofahs were given out for free, more families have single mothers so these kids grow up with Mom’s preference for body wash.

None of this has any bearing on whether bar soap or body wash is actually better. But it’s important to understand society’s perspective on the issue before getting to the cold, hard, facts.

Hygiene: does bar soap contaminate?

If people are ditching bar soap because it’s “dirtier,” we should examine whether this argument has any merit.

In the TV show Friends, there is a scene where they discuss the issue of sharing shower soap:

Joey: Hey, why can’t we use the same toothbrush, but we can use the same soap?

Chandler: Because soap is soap. It’s self-cleaning.

Joey: All right, well next time you take a shower, think about the last thing I wash and the first thing you wash.

Is there any truth to the fact that soap self-cleans? It turns out, yes, there is! In the study, Washing with contaminated bar soap is unlikely to transfer bacteria, researchers inoculated bar soap with E. Coli and P. Aeruginosa bacteria, and then they had 16 people wash their hands with the contaminated bars. None of the people had detectable levels of bacteria.

Though, one should take those results with a grain of salt. The study was done in 1991, and it was conducted by the Dial Corporation. That’s right, a study to investigate the safety of bar soap was done by a major company that makes bar soap.

But even with the study, body wash still is better overall for hygiene. Consider that:

–our very own government takes a more cautious route. The CDC website urges athletes not to share towels or bar soap for risk of spreading germs.

–bar soap can sit in water and get dirty

While bar soap is unlikely to be dirty or spread disease, it is probably a weakly better strategy to use body wash for hygienic reasons.

Environmental concerns

Body wash may be cleaner, but it does not win any environmental awards. I will summarize the points made on two “green living” blogs:

–Body wash is packaged in plastic bottles that often end up in landfills

–Body wash contains water, so you are paying for water

–Body wash is bulkier packaging = more transportation costs and worse “carbon footprint”

(Sources: The Daily Green and Practically Green)

Bar soap, by contrast, can be transported compactly, is sold without added water, and can have minimal packaging.

For the environmentally conscious, bar soap seems to have many advantages.

Moisture

This is one area that body wash tends to be an improvement. Bar soaps have traditionally had a high pH (around 9 or 10) which tends to dry out the skin. Body wash is typically pH balanced at around 5 so as not to irritate the skin.

One beauty blogger, Nicki Zevola, suggests sticking to body wash and moisturizing shower gels:

It’s best to select a body wash in the cool fall/winter and shower gel in the warm spring/summer, although “treatment” body washes for acne, eczema, psoriasis and the like will defy these rules altogether. (posted May 2012)

Some medical experts, however, offer a slightly different perspective. Jami Miller, MD, is quoted on the website Everyday Health that people can avoid skin dryness using a beauty bar soap with a moisturizer.

Bar soap companies have taken notice and improved their formulas. An October 2012 article in the New York Times quotes a dermatologist in New Orleans that many face bar soaps today have a pH of 5.5 to 7.

While bar soaps have advanced, they seem to be “catching up” to the level of moisture that many body washes already offer.

Cost

Finally, we must remember to include the price of the products!

The proof is in the numbers: Old-fashioned soap is just plain cheaper. A 10-ounce bottle of body wash will cost you approximately $0.17 per wash, while a single bar of soap will cost you just $0.012 per wash.

Those numbers for bar soap were using the Ivory brand. Let’s say one uses a more moisturizing “beauty” bar soap like Dove that could cost twice as much.

Using those estimates, bar soap will cost $10 a year. If you add on moisturizer–say $20 a year–that ends up being $30 a year.

This is much cheaper, about half the price, of body wash, which will run $60 a year.

For the frugal shopper, bar soap is typically the way to go.

In Conclusion

I feel all of the areas above are valid factors to make one decision or another. If your main concern is:

–the environment: bar soap fills fewer landfills

–dry skin: body wash is often more moisturizing

–hygiene: body wash tends to be better, but it’s close

–cost: bar soap is much cheaper

Of course, many of us care about several of these factors. It can be sensible to use a mixed strategy and rotate between the products to blend the negatives and positives of each–say by using a 50/50 mix of each product.

What method do you prefer?