Soap is a surfactant that is made of fat/oil + alkali (aka Draino). By it’s very nature, the pH of soap is quite alkaline, whereas the natural pH of skin is acidic (around 5, and neutral pH is 7). One of the biggest problems of using soap for face/body/hair is its high pH which disrupts the natural pH balance. Soap dries skin and frequently causes reddening due to it’s intrinsic high pH. Glycerin in soap has been shown to cause skin Soap also leaves ‘soap scum’ on face/body/hair which is undesirable. On the contrary, synthetic surfactants have been developed especially for personal care products that overcome the short fall of soap: pH around 5, extremely low skin irritation as demonstrated by testing, and is also readily bio-degradable. Furthermore, hair and high pH create brittle, frizzy, tangled hair that looks terrible. This type damage can be masked by silicone or heavy conditioners but once its damaged, only re-growing the hair can fix it.

A surfactant is the same as a detergent. The word itself is a compression of “Surface Active Agent.” Surfactants were developed in the first place because they clean and rinse better than soap in hard water. They usually are much more aggressive cleaners. Their virtue lies in all-purpose, industrial, and specialty cleaning applications. Unfortunately, they are often used in personal body washes, for which soap is superior.

The synthetic manufacture of many surfactants, especially those built from petroleum, generates undesirable waste. Surfactants also do not biodegrade as rapidly as does soap. However, within detergents, there is a wide range in both effectiveness and ecological impact. Renewable resource plant-based detergents usually have less ecological impact than those that are petroleum-based.