Your Soap and Shampoo May Be Harming Your Skin
By Najla Zaidi | 22 Jul, 2025

Look for soaps and shampoos with shorter ingredient lists and avoid those containing sulfates, parabens, phthalates, triclosan, and synthetic fragrances.

Most people jump in the shower every day, lather up their hair and body and never consider that the soaps and shampoos they are using may be toxic and detrimental to their health.  Your skin is your largest organ and when you are trying to get squeaky clean, you may be doing more harm than good.

Our skin plays an integral role in keeping us healthy.   It protects us from disease and injury and helps regulate body temperature, so keeping our skin in great shape is vital to maintaining overall health.

We have been sold on the idea that soaps and shampoos are a must to exfoliate dead skin cells and remove oil and dirt, but the truth is conventional soaps can damage your skin.  It’s been well documented that soaps, which are made by mixing fat or oil with an alkali such as lye, can wreck skin by changing its pH, obliterating healthy bacteria, and stripping away vital oils.

Healthy skin pH is around 5.5, which is slightly acidic, but most conventional soaps have a much higher pH, sometimes as high as 11.  “When the skin’s pH is too high, your body produces excess sebum to fight back and restore its natural pH levels.  However, the soap residue ensures the disruptive pH is maintained,” says independent beauty chemist David Pollack.  “The end result is that skin can become too oily.  If that isn’t bad enough, soap residue emulsifies or binds to the skin’s lipid matrix.”

The time it takes to damage our skin’s acid mantle, a protective layer of oils, fatty acids, and amino acids can vary, but signs of damage include increased dryness, itching, irritation, and inflammation.  All this can also worsen skin conditions such as acne, eczema, dermatitis, and rosacea.  The very thing that would help these symptoms are the oils that soap strips away. 

The role of these natural oils is keeping skin moisturized and intact.  Without them, our skin becomes vulnerable to cracks, tears, and other irritation that can jeopardize its function as a protective barrier.  “When you rinse your skin, a layer of the protective barrier is actually washed away, leading to even drier skin,” adds Pollack. 

Bar soaps and liquid cleansers are designed with chemicals called surfactants.  Surfactants surround and dissolve dirt and oil so it's easier for water to wash them away.  They also remove dead skin cells from the epidermis, the outermost layer of skin and bind to and over-hydrate healthy proteins, making them swell with excess water.  The swelling allows the soap ingredients to easily penetrate the deeper layers of the skin.  This may sound like a good clean but in fact it’s more problematic.

Surfactants act as detergents, wetting agents, foaming agents, conditioners, and emulsifiers.  They're in soaps, facial cleansers, lotions, perfumes, shampoos, and a multitude of other hair and body products.  Surfactants are divided into two categories: soap-based surfactants and synthetic, detergent-based surfactants, also known as syndets, which is short for synthetic detergent.

Syndet products, such as liquid facial and body cleansers, are considered better for your skin, whereas the soap-based surfactants are more concerning.  Soap-based surfactants can cause dryness, redness, and irritation and strip away the skin’s natural moisturizing factor (NMF).  They can also undermine the skin’s natural barrier function.  When the skin barrier is compromised, it lets toxins, bacteria, and other unhealthy substances penetrate deeper into the skin, where they can do long-term damage. 

Your skin naturally hosts a variety of bacteria, viruses, fungi and other microbes which form a healthy microbiome.  The surfactants in conventional soaps lower your skin's pH, making it more acidic, and kill off a lot of the good bacteria, which allows the bad ones to flourish.  The beneficial bacteria also turn immune-system activity in the skin on and off.  When they're depleted, the immune system may not respond to infection, inflammation, and damage.  Essentially, when the microbiome is out of balance, your skin can't protect itself or heal.

But surfactants are not the only pollutants most commercially manufactured soaps and shampoos use.  Parabens are chemicals that are used to preserve cosmetics and personal care products, the same way chemical preservatives are used to keep foods from spoiling.  Research has raised concerns about parabens mimicking estrogen in the body, leading to hormonal disruptions, fertility issues, and even an increased risk of breast cancer.

The term “fragrance” or “parfum” on an ingredient label can hide hundreds of synthetic chemicals, many of which are linked to health problems like skin irritation, allergies, respiratory issues, and hormone disruption.  These can include phthalates, which are known to interfere with the endocrine system.   Additionally, they have been shown to cause damage to the liver, kidneys, lungs, and reproductive system, including the still-developing testes of male babies in utero.

1, 4-Dioxane is found in soaps, and it is created when common ingredients are mixed.  Because 1, 4-Dioxane is a byproduct of this process and not a separate ingredient the FDA doesn’t require that it be listed on labels.  The Environmental Working Group (EWG) notes that while 1, 4-Dioxane can easily be removed from products prior to packaging, it remains in up to 46% of personal care products on the market.  Even short-term exposure to the chemical can cause irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, as well as kidney and liver disease.  Long term exposure can cause cancer, and 1, 4-Dioxane is also known to pass through a mother’s breast milk. 

Healthy Alternatives

The good news is there are healthy alternatives to get clean without risking the hazards of soaps.

Just add water.  A quick wash down with warm water is all you need to maintain a healthy skin microbiome.  You can also choose a mild cleanser for your pits and privates if you feel it necessary, but a quick douse will do just fine.

Another great option is cleansing oil.  Slathering yourself in oil sounds counterintuitive but it’s much healthier than soaps.  Oil-based cleansers trap dirt and dead skin cells, allowing them to be rinsed without disrupting the oil barrier already in place. 

Dry brushing is another effective way to remove dead skin cells and dirt from the surface of your skin, while also promoting the production of healthy oils.  There’s also some evidence that brushing the skin helps to promote lymphatic drainage, thereby serving as a detox not just for your skin but for your whole body.

If you’re not quite ready to drop soap, consider a natural or handmade small-batch soap.  Handmade soaps tend to be less harsh than commercially produced bars and generally use higher-quality fats and oils during the saponification process.  Good ingredients like shea butter, coconut oil, or olive oil are often the base for these soaps, whereas commercially produced bars use harsh ingredients and low-quality oils and fats. 

Look at the list of ingredients and aim for products with fewer, natural ingredients.  A healthy and functioning microbiome is crucial to maintaining your skin.  By sticking to gentler, chemical-free options, your skin will become its own armor.