Saving Money on Body Wash

Generally speaking, I think body wash is quite overpriced. Exfoliating beads and moisture ribbons aside, body wash is really just soap in a liquid form. Oddly enough, that’s basically what shampoo is as well, but for some reason, most shampoo is cheaper than body wash.

I don’t really know why this is, but I’m here to tell you that plain jane shampoo works just fine as a body wash stand-in, and depending on what type of body wash you’ve been using, you can save yourself some serious money by using cheap shampoo instead.

I almost always use Suave, but you can also use off-brand baby shampoo, or any other cheap shampoo. I buy Suave on sale when I have coupons, and so I rarely pay more then $.50 a bottle. Suave makes a body wash, but again, for some weird reason it’s more expensive per ounce than the shampoo is.

Most of the marketing for body washes focuses on exfoliation or moisturizing, two areas where shampoo admittedly falls short. However, I really think that exfoliating beads are unnecessary in body wash, because a pouf or a washcloth will provide most people with sufficient exfoliating action(and you can always get a stiffer pouf if you want to scrub your skin harder!).

Shampoo probably is more drying to skin than body wash is, but I haven’t had any difficulties with dry skin since I switched to using shampoo as a body wash. Dry skin isn’t at all a problem in the summertime for me, given the humid conditions in my area, but I am a little prone to it in the winter. To combat dryness during the colder months, I(and don’t be too grossed out here) don’t wash every square inch of my skin every day. Obviously, some parts need to be washed every day(think underarms, here!), but honestly most of my skin can only get so dirty in the winter. Very little dirt can reach me from the outside(only my face, part of my neck, and and my hands are exposed most of the time!), and the odds of me getting sweaty are virtually nil(who gets sweaty at 63-65 degrees??).

So, I just wash the parts of my body that are actually dirty, and the rest of me gets a rinse with water(and with whatever shampoo suds run down when I wash my hair). This means that I can get away with using only a small amount of shampoo on my pouf, and I can avoid drying out my skin.

I know that in our Western culture, the idea of not scrubbing oneself absolutely clean everyday is not normal, but I can tell you that my skin has never been healthier. I used to have chronic dry skin on my upper arms, and no amount of lotion fixed the problem. However, once I stopped scrubbing my arms every day, the skin there improved immensely. And in case you’re wondering, no, my skin doesn’t smell funky…in fact, it doesn’t smell any different than it used to(honestly!).

What about you? Any other ideas about reducing body wash costs(aside from giving up bathing entirely!)? Leave a comment. 😀