Comment on Why do we have shampoo, conditioner, and body wash soaps?

• Isolde@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Harsh chemicals like what? Your body is completely made up of harsh chemicals; so I’m not quite following what you mean.

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  • drosophila@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Chemicals like sodium lauryl sulfate and other fatty acids with organosulfate head groups, which are much more powerful surfactants than the fatty acid sodium salts you get by reacting lye with a fat (like vegetable oil). “Traditional” soaps like that also contain glycerol (formed when the lye cleaves the glycerol backbone off of a triglyceride), which acts as a humectant moisturizer.

    Technically, at least in the US, chemicals like SLS aren’t legally classified as soap, and must be called a detergent. Which is why so many products are called things like “body wash” and “body bar”, and you wont find the word “soap” on their packaging.

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    • Isolde@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Yes, but it has been used for so long to make lather; people feel as though other products aren’t effective if they don’t lather.

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