Ever met anyone who won't touch bar soap because it could be "dirty"?

I never really met someone who have that phobia of 'dirty' soap. Actually I never even considered it myself until I read this discussion. Though my ex-boyfriend had this thing along the same lines. Whenever he was using a shower that wasn't his, like say he spent the night at a friend's. He would be sure to remind whoever owned the shower that he was going to rub the soap in his hands then use just his hands to wash himself. Very considerate of him, no cooties or anything of the sort from him left behind. Must be a jail thing.

I actually never met anyone who is afraid to touch a bar of soap. I come from a country wherein not taking a bath at least once a day is unthinkable. I also don't think that a bar of soap is dirty since they actually contain ingredients that kills germs and drying on the skin.

Yeah I don't like to touch the handles or stuff like that rather than be worried ovr a bar of soar. heh

I like liquid soap because it is much more convenient and you don't get that slimy scum that you do under the bar soap. Other than that, I don't put much stock in the "germ infested bar of soap" theory. How ridiculous is that? As you said, people have been living for centuries without liquid soap without any adverse consequences, and it is easy enough to wash the bar of soap off along with your hands. It has been proven that the faucets and door handles in public restrooms are cesspools for germs. In nursing school we are taught to turn faucets on with our elbows and to use the paper towel to turn off the faucet and to open the door, discarding the towel outside of the room. Out of habit, this is how I do it whenever I am in any public restroom.

Yes, I noticed this very thing in my mother recently. She wouldn't touch the bar of soap at our house because it was "germ-infested" so she wanted to know where our liquid soap was. We have three small boys who won't leave liquid soap alone and in its container. It's just tempting them to get in trouble to have it out for them to use so we use bar soap. At least when they do weird things to it, like soap sculpting, it's cheaper to replace! Anyway, mom won't touch our bar soap and I thought the same thing, why don't you just wash it first, then wash your hands? But no, she wouldn't do it, she had to hunt through our stuff for some liquid soap that we had hidden from the boys. She didn't hide it back when she was done either because then it had germs. This mother is not the same one that I grew up with [well, she is but she acts so bizarrely different now!]. When my brother and I were growing up, we always used bar soap. No one ever had liquid soap in our house. And mother smoked and drank and did other things too and she never worried about those germs and she was out there getting those germs too! So I don't understand this new germophobic attitude that she has. Like I said, it's all very bizarre.