So is basic moisturizing lotion (or oil) and lip balm. Skin fissures and chapping are wounds.
Switch to bar soap. Why? it's less drying. Doesn't have to be fancy. Dove will do.
Wash hands after getting home from being out as well as before eating, before cooking, after bathroom, and all other normal times. Why? You just got back from touching a bunch of germ-covered surfaces. Washing hands as soon as you get in will keep them spreading through your house. It's also pretty refreshing tbh.
You only need to wash your face with soap once a day. You can splash your face as often as you like with plain water though. Why? The skin on your face is very thin and dries out easily. Soap, even bar soap, dries out that delicate skin if you use it more than once every 24 hours. Yes even if you're a teen with acne.
Consider using cold cream to clean your face rather than soap and water. Why? Cold cream is gentler and moisturises while it cleans. There's a reason it's been in use for over a century! And if you DO wear makeup, it removes even the heaviest makeups like greasepaint easily bc of the chemistry rule of Like Dissolves Like!
Please do not use soap on your genitals. Just use clean water. Why? Your genitals are not skin, they are mucous membranes. This means they are far, far more delicate than your skin, and can get injured way easier--and that they are self-cleaning! It also means that yeast and other infections can take root much easier if you pave the way by killing all the microbes that keep the yeast at bay. There is yeast on your skin, so it is always trying to get over that barrier and into your mucous membranes, because yeast likes where it is dark and moist and warm, and there is nowhere darker or moister or warmer than your genitals! If you want to clean the hairs and warm water isn't cutting it, use a conditioner without sulfates, like mane'n'tail original formula, because no matter how careful you are some of whatever you use to clean your hair is going to get on your genitals, and a conditioner without sulfates isn't going to do damage like any kind of soap would. And DON'T DOUCHE. EVER. NOT EVEN WITH PLAIN WATER. Your plumbing is self-cleaning! It is self-cleaning! The idea of douching is beauty industry propaganda too.
It would probably be a good idea to stop using antiperspirants, especially the traditional kind with aluminum in them. Why? Because they work by stopping you from perspiring by physically plugging up the sweat pores, sometimes for days at a time. This is not good, you have sweat pores for a reason. Sweating is how your body cools off. I know this is a controversial thing to say because so many of us were raised with the idea that sweat is disgusting and we should stop it by any means. This is one of the earliest beauty industry propagandas though. Sweating keeps us from overheating as easily and helps us cool down. We don't have to get in the water to cool off, like some other mammals do; we bring the water with us!
You don't need antibacterial or sanitizing soap unless you professionally work in food or medicine, or you have it prescribed to you.
(I added "Why" for all the autistic bitches like me that need a reason or we won't do it)
