Hair on Soap and Nightcaps.
Let’s say you’re visiting someone and staying at their place. When you get into the shower, do you use their bar of soap?
I thought about this today while I was in the shower. (If you stay with Bev, FYI, she will have all new products on the bathroom counter for you to use like you’re showering next door to Target.) But some people aren’t as conscientious as that and sort of leave you to your own devices.
I don’t love the idea of using a bar of soap that my friend may have just used to wash his tackle but if I *must*, I can get over it because, really, once the soap is rinsed, it’s just sort of a new bar of soap again, right? (This is what I tell myself.) Of course, if I do use it, then I wonder if, the next time said friend get in the shower, does he or she wonder if I used it?
It’s really a vicious cycle. If you have guests, you should have liquid soap or place a new bar of soap on the clean towels you leave out. Anyway, back to the bar of soap.
While I may be able to get past using a pre-used bar of soap, I really can’t do it if there is a hair on the soap. A hair is sort of like a brand on cattle – it marks the soap as definitively belonging to someone else. You just can’t get past it. And, like a hair in food, it’s an all-bets-are-off sort of thing.
Besides, have you ever tried to remove a hair from a bar of soap? You can run it under water but that sometimes takes a while while the hair slides around a bit and just hides on the other side of the bar. Or it slides off of the soap and then down your arm and you have to watch it wiggle its way down your body in a stream of water. Or if you try to pick it out, you either end up with soap under your nails or you just drive the hair deeper into the soap.
One night, after a date, I was invited back to a young woman’s place for a nightcap. (Do people still say nightcap? That’s purely a movie thing, isn’t it? What the hell is a nightcap, anyway? ‘Nightcap’ makes me think of those hats you see in illustrations of The Night Before Christmas with some dude with a long cone-shaped droopy hat on his head. Which is sort of like pajamas for the head – and that means asking if someone would like to come in for a nightcap is like asking if they’d like head pajamas. I digress.)
Anyway, back to the story. I was at her place and I went to use the restroom. This is when things began to fall apart.
See, first of all, she didn’t have soap next to the sink to wash your hands. OR a hand towel. That right there makes you wonder. The shower curtain was open so I glanced in for soap. And there, sitting in the soap tray was a big ass bar of soap.
With a black hair on it.
Did I mention said young lady was blonde? A natural blonde?
This means said hair?
Not her hair.
It was a short night.
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Just a random attorney writing about daily life with Little Filthy, my rotten dog.
October 24th, 2009 at 10:26 am
People still use bars of soap?
When I travel I take my own little travel bottle of my bodywash with me, heh.
October 24th, 2009 at 10:26 am
1. Nightcap is very Cary Grant.
2. You use the term nightcap naturally.
3. Theory of transitivity: You are Cary Grant-like.
4. How do you know she was a natural blonde?
5. Being Cary Grant-like, you will not respond to item 4.
6. Musing on soap. I like it.
October 24th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
I have a very difficult time sharing anybody’s soap…even if it’s just hand soap after using the facilities.
Your story gave me chills. That’s just nasty.
October 24th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Hah! I wonder the same thing every time we visit the inlaws. Like where has that soap been? I try not to think about it since I’m not anal enough to bring my own soap.
So RE what do you do when faced with the bar of soap with the hair on it? Shower soapless? Flee?
October 24th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Sharing a bar of soap is icky. If you must share, it should go soap to hands, hands to bits, not soap directly to bits.
Maybe your date had a brunette merkin?
October 24th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Haha, this is a great post ! I’ve been wondering the same thing for a while now.
I usually bring my own soap. I don’t trust bars of soap. Plain and simple.
If a bar of soap is sitting there, I imagine it’s been used on someone’s privates or between their asscheeks. I know that’s extreme, but it does happen.
Sometimes I will see a curly sitting on a bar of soap, and when that happens I wanna hurl……………..
October 24th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
I always travel with my own soap. Chances are good that I’d be allergic to somebody else’s soap, or be forced to flee if there was a hair on it. Skeevy.
I like the word nightcap. It’s just slang for “come up and have sex” anyway, isn’t it? No one ever actually gets to the drink. In which case, head pajamas makes a certain amount of sense.
I always wondered though how Victorian men kept those hats on their heads as they slept.
October 24th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
Wow! Very random……I love it! I do carry a small package of soap leaves in my purse. Does that make me a freak? I despise having to just rinse my hands at a rest stop restroom. Soap is a must. I heart soap
Not hairy soap though~ Ewww…..I was just thinking about those pajama hats the other day and wondering why no one really wears them or if they ever did or if it was just for movies. I think I may rather like wearing a comfy hat to bed. Hmmm….
October 25th, 2009 at 8:35 am
Ew! That would seriously skeeve me out. I’ve had some interesting experiences at other people’s places which is why my guest bathroom is fully stocked (as RE mentioned) for guests. I don’t think I could use someone’s soap – even the thought of it right now gives me the shivers!
October 25th, 2009 at 8:45 am
I have to say, even natural blondes are often not blonde EVERYWHERE. Trust me.
October 25th, 2009 at 8:48 am
It’s rare that I use or even see a bar of soap anymore but I do remember feeling the same way about them pre-liquid soap, especially the hair thing – just gross!
And no soap by the sink? Ew!
October 25th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
If I’m going somewhere, I’m bringing my own soap.
If someone is staying with me, they’re using the guest bathroom and they will be provided with all manner of bath necessities.
I won’t leave my own hair on the soap even though I’m the only one using it. It’s icky.
Oh, and washing hands? Liquid soap.
Hairy soap. :shudder:
October 25th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
That’s why I always end up accumulating a few of those hotel soaps to travel with. That or I’m a klepto…
October 26th, 2009 at 6:55 am
When people say nightcap I feel like they are just trying to sound British or something. I kinda hate that word.
Yes, I will agree, that even the naturalist (word?) of blondes are not always blond down there. I had this horrifying realization when I was about 10. I’m sure there are the lucky few that are lighter but I would estimate that 90% are not.
I remember listening to Howard Stern one time when he was interviewing Pamela Anderson after a Playboy shoot she was in. He asked her if hers were really blonde. I’m not saying she’s a natural because who knows if she is or not. Anyways, she said that no, they weren’t. She explained how the hair or makeup people will dye or bleach it before the shoot. She said it sometimes looks a little brassy but in the pictures always comes out looking like normal blonde.
Anyways I heard that like 10 years ago and I still remember it so I thought I’d share.
October 26th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
CBG, I seem to recall you not having a problem sharing *MY* soap…..
I always always ALWAYS have liquid soap for handwashing in the bathroom. And as for bar soap in the shower, well, that’s just for me.
Except when CBG comes to visit. And then, apparently he’ll use my soap in a pinch but shudder afterwards.
heh.
October 26th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
I think the same thing when there is no soap by a sink in a bathroom. I sit across from the bathroom at work and can tell when people don’t wash their hands. Grosses me the F* out!!!!
October 26th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
I’m laughing at how CBG said it gives him chills and then MommaSunshine jumped in with the, “Ohhhh REALLY.”
@Instigator – If there is hair on the soap, I wash with shampoo.
@Krystie – I’m disturbed that you even know what a Merkin *is.*
@Susan – I think you’re exactly right. If a woman says, “Would you like to come in for coffee?” then I might suspect I’d actually be getting coffee. But if she asked me in for a nightcap, I’d pretty much think I was getting lucky.
@Simonne – Soap leaves?! Where does one get these things you speak of?
@Bev – dude, Bev, you had a basket on the counter that was like a Wal-mart in there. It was awesome. Best! Hostess! Ever!
@Jane Wonder – She was blonde down there. Trust me. gah.
@MissMegs – You kill me. What an enlightening story. heh.
Man, a lot of you bring soap with you everywhere. Now I feel downright dirty that I’ve simply been relying upon the soap of other people.
October 29th, 2009 at 2:44 am
RE, here’s soap leaves. Super thin sheets of soap! May you never have to use hairy soap again
http://www.letravelstore.com/193_092.html