It does take some getting used to, and the towels used to dry off will get dirty with body and coconut oils. Fun fact, body odor is primarily caused by aqueous dysbiosis of microbial balance in places made anaerobic by folds of skin with large numbers of glands that secrete body fluids. Soap perpetuates that cycle by removing the oil that occupies skin pores, oil microbes cannot live in, replaced with water based secretions that microbes can live in. The result is odor, so more products to fix a problem that wouldn’t exist without the soap interrupting the balance. Adolescence is a notable exception to the function of balance, teens stink for some evolutionary reasons…bring on the soap!
Discussion
the best soap for suds from one oil is tallow. castile soap was originally just olive oil, but it's basically impossible to find anyone selling it this way. it does a better job at cleaning without making you prone to body odor, because of the natural antioxidant elements in olive oil.
modern people are all used to detergents and the only thing that makes that is coconut oil, which is also no coincidence that the detergents are synthesised from coconut oil, at least originally (sulfonated so they are more amphoteric even when in acidic conditions).
I've used some pure olive oil soap a decade ago. It was nice, but gosh I don't want to pay for that now. LOL!
Interesting... Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
teens stink because hormones, same as fertile billy goats.
Neither smells good, teen feet being the worst.
that's a fungus. caused by lack of exfoliation and promoted by certain fabric materials.
not only does it make your toes stink, it makes you generally vulnerable to skin yeast infections, it distorts the growth of the nails, which can lead to chronic problems with pain walking.
i had this problem for years, and i saw many muslims in prison in bulgaria (illegal immigrants) who had really nasty smelling feet because of their 5x daily washing and then wearing the same dirty socks and shoes day in day out.
i had to take a really aggressive approach to it, got a nail brush, scrubbed the hell out of my noes and whole feet until there was no excess skin.
i don't have any problem with it now.
and this is a problrem you, as a father, can do to help your son.
Jesus washed the feet. You should wash the feet.
it's the easiest way to make sure it's clean. If he prefers, get Mom to do it, whatever it takes to let him have clean feet.
the other thing, buy an excess of socks, and at first bleach them frequently so they aren't carrying spores to reinfect.
it's an almost universal problem for men, the toes and the nether regions to not be properly cleaned. cleaning the rear parts also... it really helps a lot and as the bulgarian practise goes, there is special hoses that i've heard a guy from new jersey refer to as "butt guns" that do a great job of making sure there isn't any smell there either.
it's also something that high carb, seed oil ladened diets make worse by adding oxidation prone fats to the skin oils.
i'm pretty passionate about this stuff because i suffered quite badly with it.
i can't stand the smell of perfumes, and people would often insist i use them and my response was generally to increase my washing regime.
in the last few years, though, i've seemingly been surrounded by people who seem to not value good hygiene. the deprecation of bathtubs, which are not only a great way to get washed, they loosen the skin and help you exfoliate better, and at night, when you are having trouble sleeping, the heat slows down your metabolism.
Interesting outlook. I have always preferred sandals, though I’ve worn work boots most of my life out of necessity. Recently I discovered Crocs and I think they are the best thing I’ve ever worn. They are as close to being barefoot as I can get. I “wash” my feet with soil daily. I never wash them in the classical sense, fun fact, within five minutes of skin contact with soil, the microbiome on your skin begins to change in ways specific to the soil. Touching earth is critical to the balance of microbial cultures, eating it too, though I am not yet one of those people. 😁
Tried Earthrunners yet?
No, but I’ll be doing some looking into them. Thank you!
Took a look, but I don’t like straps between my toes. 😊
i'd like to add earthing to my vivobarefoot shoes but i'm a bit nervous about putting anything bumpy inside them... i really can feal the ground like my eyes are looking at it, in high resolution...
yeah, something i've not done a lot of in years. i'm in an environment now where i could get such contact. many of the "levadas" - aqueducts that route spring water from the north side to the south side of the island of Madeira, have nice flat dirt paths... it would be easy for me to find some places nearby where there'll be no residues of anything nasty and put a bit of clean soil bacteria in my gut and get my feet covered in it, and then finish up with washing my feet in the nearby stream.
i don't like crocs at all. plastic hipster garbage. but i get the point that they are letting dirt into your feet.
i wear a pair of minimal, african made Vivobarefoot shoes, for the biomechanical reasons. it's a little rough on the feet when most of the surfaces are dead flat pavement, but fortunately the portuguese tradition of mosaiced pavements gives a lot of areas where i can walk on very varied surfaces.
wait, you clean yourself with yoghurt?
that sounds like a fantastic idea, i've been thinking it might be good for that. perhaps if it was mixed with a bit of egg to provide a little lecithin to make it bite into the fats more.