Before I discuss the very important soap issue, and it's wider implications...Let me tell you about a little about my background.. (soap is not a topic that I ever thought I would be discussing...).
And also point out that this post is a serious look into the state that we find ourselves today...
(I just couldn't do a post about soap in a really serious tone, however.)
I grew up poor, in a farming family. We had to have baths - twice a week. Jumping in someone else's bathwater was not uncommon, or even an issue.. (no fancy showers or hygienically paranoid behaviors for us!)
It was basic soap, and that was it.
I never actually even used shower gel , until I had left the family home..
Ok, so that's the 'no nonsense' background that I'm coming from...
Moving on to today...
These last three or four months have been...financially frugal, shall we say. (i.e. - I was totally skint!).
At times like this, you have to 'cut your cloth to fit' so to speak, and as such, when on a diet ration regime, things like shower gels took second place to more important things - like a bag of rice for example..
(things are okay again now, btw, as I'm writing this- it's all finally getting back to normal)
Part of this cutback was buying cheap soap for showering, instead of 'fancy' shower gels.
No biggie, and absolutely no problem for myself.
I found I still didn't smell or anything! - just like when I used the 'fancy fragranced' shower gels...
OR SO I THOUGHT....
Wrong. Dead wrong.
Lucy pointed it out to me..(she's good like that).
Here is where it get's interesting...( I think so, anyway..)
After the financial problems were resolved, I treated myself to my shower gel once more. Woooohooo!
I felt successful again...lol
Until Lucy pointed out that my body odor was stronger...(not whiffy or offensive or anything... just stronger).
Me being me, thought about this change, and the why of it...and then it struck me. The only difference was my shift back to shower gel, from the old 'el cheapo' bar of soap..
(apologies for anyone offended at my cultural appropriation...or something..lol..)
So - me being me- decided to do a little experiment....
The results are in, and they are quite shocking!!!!
SHOCKING, I TELL YA'S!!
Only using 'el cheapo' soaps, my body odor was noticeably less, than when using expensive shower gels...
(not whiffy or offensive or anything - I feel the need to add that all the time for some reason.. it's a throwback from being young and paranoid, bathing and using soap only.)
I have performed this experiment over the last 3 weeks or so, and many times - and the results are unequivocal...
For the last 30 years or so, I have been sold on buying an inferior product, at higher prices, to fit some 'lifestyle' offered to me on the TV and billboard advertisements...
God, that pisses me off.!!!
How many things and products have we 'fell for' unwittingly, to profit the corporations?
Profit is good, and I'm not knocking that...
I'm knocking my own stupidity for accepting inferior products at higher prices.
I'm knocking my/our lack of discernment . Unable to see fantasy from reality...
If this 20 years of wasted money (fuck! fuck! fuck! fuck!) had been more intelligently allocated, who knows?
Butterfly effect and all that..
And this is just about a friggin' bar of soap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Calm down Patriot, calm down..........
So here is a challenge... to all you shower gel dupes out there.
( I can now look down from my intellectually superior hill, on which I am now sat. lol)
ALSO - ....I'm not discounting the fact that my experiment may just be applicable to myself, and is not, in fact - some multi million dollar, money sucking psi op....)
Here's the experiment I'd like to do...
Ditch the gels, buy some el cheapo bar of soap, and track any differences.
One week soap , one week gel. For four weeks..
Don't change any other actions. - if you use deodorant after your shower, keep using the same, etc...
And if - as I suspect - that the results are exactly the same as I have discovered...
Firstly...
I want some steem for all the money that I have just saved you in the years to come. ( and made you smell better!)
Secondly...
You will also have enough money left over to buy a pitchfork for when we march on the cosmetic companies for cheating us for decades.