By Matt Fuchs March 3, 2025 10:44 AM EST M ost Americans view soap as essential to bathing as water. The daily grind confronts us with dirt, germs, and sweat, and a soapy shower provides the simple, pleasurable antidote. Uncontroversial though soap may seem, some people are very troubled by your sudsy lather: dermatologists. “If you talk to most dermatologists, probably none of them use actual soap, except on their hands,” says Dr. Erin Chen, herself a dermatologist at Massachusetts General