It’s been 40 years since I quit using soap on anything but my hands.

The idea began with a doctor who, in my 20s (50 years ago), told me to never use soap on intimate parts. “Your skin has oil ducts for a reason. Don’t use chemicals to remove what Nature designed. Just water.” So I quit using soap. End of problems.

One morning ten years later, in my 30s, as I used copious amounts of lotion all over my body, as I did every day, I wondered whether I could quit using soap all over me.

It would be totally contrary to every bath commercial I’d ever seen in my life, of watery soap bubbles running down the shoulders of a happy, beautiful naked woman.

I would see if I could go soapless on the whole of me. I would just use water and scrub with a loofah to remove dead skin cells, excess oil, other natural exudations, and dirt. And hope to feel a different sort of clean in my newly naturally cleaned skin. But I didn’t just feel as good; I felt much better.

Loofah is naturally antibacterial and smells like loofah even after a year, whereas a damp used washcloth can smell pretty terrible after a single day.

After the first day of using no soap, I knew I’d never subject myself to that habit again. (What has the culture been doing to us?!)

Next I tried quitting soap on the soles of my feet, using only water and a foot brush. My athletes foot went away forever.

For my armpits, I used a separate loofah and water. (Afterward, a sprinkle of baking soda, maybe essential oil, or nothing.) Totally fine.

Soap dries out our skin, creating microscopic cracks for bacteria to thrive in, excrete in, and make us stink. Healthy skin, allowed to do its natural thing, can heal those microscopic cracks, giving bacteria no easy home.

After that, I needed to decide whether to stop my daily face regimen. Since I was a teenager, with excessively oily skin, prone to acne, I’d used a dermabrasion treatment every day of my life. My skin stayed smooth and very young looking, because it had to constantly renew itself. I tried replacing the product with a scrubbing glove, but that seemed to require enough pressure to made me worry I’d stretch my skin too much. So I quit using the glove and returned to my daily dermabrasion – until I was a nomad and quit taking daily showers. Then I used it much less, but still used it.

I tried to quit using shampoo on my hair, as many women have successfully, and as was the norm before advertising, but I soon returned to it, enjoying the sensation of stripped locks. I satisfied myself that I was using it less.

My face and scalp were the only parts that did not go totally product-free; and to this day, my face and scalp have been the hardest to rid of Lyme Disease.

40 years, no soap.

I wish everyone could know how easy and inexpensive it is to heal their illnesses and irritations on their own.

While saving money on lotion, soap, laundry, medicines and doctor visits.

And be free of the fantasy that our medical, media, and education systems are actually working for our health.

Do less to your body, be healthier.