no-soap bathing

 

thirty years ago, a dentist told me that using toothpaste is totally useless for oral hygiene, and that the only benefit it brings is the slight fresh sensation that we feel in the mouth for a handful of minutes. from that day on, i stopped using it.
shortly after that i went a step further and gave up shampoo, bubble bath and deodorant as well, and for years the only product i used to wash myself was marseille soap.
twenty-one days ago i a stopped using that too. to wash myself i use just water and a rough towel to rub my skin. in these three weeks i have also taken a sand bath (yes, like hens). the 21-day deadline makes sense, as it's the time it takes for the skin to reestablish a physiological balance and the reconstitution of the skin microbiota, which soap destroys just as antibiotics destroy our intestinal microbiota.
without soap, the skin feels less dry, perhaps the first two or three days i observed an increase in sebaceous secretion, but then the situation stabilized. as for smelling, i didn't notice any difference. the weather is still cold round here but i work out hard every day so i sweat a lot, but i don't seem to smell any more than before.
happy with the result of this experiment, i can say that the necessity of using soap is another example of universally accepted and never questioned bullshit.