alright, i have yet to find an answer to a question i have had for a while so i decided maybe its better to ask the experts on everything, reddit (joking. but this is a genuine question!)
so obviously you are supposed to wash your ass. but when you wash your vulva you are only supposed to use soap for the outside and then gently wash inside your lips with a non-soapy washcloth, variations of this notwithstanding. my question is if you are not supposed to wash your mouth or your vagina/inner vulva parts with (regular) soap, why do we wash between our cheeks with (regular) soap? is that not damaging, shouldn’t we use sensitive soaps or just a washcloth for all of our holes? everyone says USE SOAP to wash your butt, and i do, but i’m curious.
Comments
Id say it’s bc that’s where the bacteria for poop comes out and it’s not sensitive skin like the front.
Putting soap inside your body is bad. Your cheeks aren’t inside your body. Washing deeper than the surface of the vulva with soap is like washing inside your asshole with soap.
Because your cheeks are normal skin. It’s like washing the outside of your car. Inside the vagina is mucous membranes that need to maintain a specific pH. It’s more like washing the inside of your computer, better to leave it be.
Betweek cheeks is same as armpit. Mouth and vagina is the same as in the asshole.
[deleted]
I just use soap for both and don’t get all up in there in the front if you know what I mean. I also use my hand not a wash cloth but that’s just personal preference
Your butthole is water-tight, and soapy water can’t reach your insides.
I use a soapy washcloth for anything external and have never had a problem. Just don’t get the soap inside your vagina at all, it can mess up the pH level.
Mouth, vagina, inside the butthole, all have mucous membranes than soap is too harsh to use on routinely. Mouth and vagina are easy to accidentally/purposefully get suds into, butthole clamps itself shut pretty efficiently. You need to make sure there’s no shit bits staying in your crack or it’ll bother your vagina.
That being said some people have sensitive skin, extra sensitive vulvae, and will use sensitive soap for both areas.
I use sensitive skin soap no matter what.
The ass is a closed sphincter, with skin extending inward to the dentate line. The vulva/vagina is an open microbiome.
Vagina is WAY more sensitive and complex than the outside of the butthole. There’s a pH balance and discharge that need consideration. Soap can go inside the vagina so it’s important that you assure it doesn’t happen. You don’t want that in your body. If you mess with your vaginal pH you can get infections and its high sensitivity can be irritated by fragrance.
The skin is different. Most skin cannot be wet 100% of the time, it will rot. You butt is that way. Your mouth and vagina are wet tissues and that environment is delicate and sensitive to PH changes. Your vagina is self cleaning and maintains its own hygiene, so the simplest splash of water is all that is really needed or really OK at all.
I’m so confused, inside your buttcheeks is still the outside of your ass… the equivalent would be jabbing the bar into your ass…. you aren’t doing that are you?
It is perfectly fine, and encouraged, to wash not just the ass crack and outer asshole with soap, but the vulva as well. No, you never put soap or cleansers up INSIDE the vaginal canal, but washing the inner labia folds with gentle soap and water is a very good thing. Not everybody does that. Some people use only water and they claim they have success. I am not a fan of using only water on my genitals, which produce discharge and blood and have the inevitable occasional cross-contamination of E coli from the butt area.
If somebody can’t find a cleanser that doesn’t irritate their vulva or cause a yeast imbalance, then more power to them using only water. If soap works just fine for you, then for the love of God use soap.
But for the people who use only water, I also don’t understand where the delineation is. Do you use soap on your asshole, but then stop at the taint? (Or do some of them never use soap in the entire genital / butt area at all? SHUDDER) What do they do for their female babies who wear diapers, where poop gets ALLLLL up in the labia and even up inside the vagina? They don’t use soap on the vulva?? It’s weird.
If soap works for you, use soap. If soap doesn’t work for you, try to use a non-soap cleanser. If non-soap cleansers don’t work for you, find another solution or, okay, use water. But there is no “you’re ‘not SUPPOSED’ to use soap on your vulva.” If you experience no repercussions of doing so, it’s perfectly fine and much cleaner. I’m a big fan of using soap and water in the whole area and have a perfectly balanced situation.
Your ass is not a mucous membrane. I’m sure you’ve got soap in your eye before, it does the same thing to your inner vulva, mouth, stomach etc. The outer labia is skin everywhere else, wash it with whatever. The inner labia is a mucous membrane though and is very sensitive. You actually can use soap on the inner labia and vulva but it needs to be extremely mild, unscented soap like baby shampoo, and you need to dilute it down to almost nothing, like, 1ml of soap in 125ml of water. As long as you do that it’s actually safer than a loofah or washcloth which will cause micro-tears on the vulva.
Maybe i am gay.
I think the cheeks and crack are fine as long as it’s not in the hole… also now I’m wondering if mouthwash is a good idea down there… (PROBABLY NOT!)
Use water your vagina cleaned itself
You can wash inside your lips with soap, but not inside your vagina.
I use a product specifically for washing fannies on both my “fanny” in the UK meaning and my “fanny” in the US meaning.
My reasoning is that the product might wash down to the front and I am sensitive down there.
I’m a dude, so feel free to ignore this. But I usually just use the suds left over from my shampoo to gently externally wash back there since it’s pretty mild. If analingus is possible post shower, I just gently wash the inner bit with water and a finger, then go back over the outer bits with the shampoo suds later.
Think of the butthole like the literal vagina, the birth canal, and the inbetweenthecheeks like lips lol. There to protect, still needs a surface wash tho.
Your asscheeks are not mucous membranes.
I wash my butt with a soapy hand, rinse off, then wash my crotch (taint, between the lips, around the clit), with a fresh soapy hand. Then rinse (obviously).
Man here. Just clicked out of curiosity.
Edit: but I’m going to guess it’s a pH thing. If booties had a pH, news to me. Actually. Now that I say that. They most definitely do. But not one that is in need of delicate maintenance like the front side. Just a guess tho. Note: not a booty guy. Front side 🫶
If washing your bits is just common sense, I wonder why bidets just aren’t a thing in Anglo countries. Woman from a bidet culture here who’s lived in the Anglo world for a third of my life, and I still can’t wrap my head around it.
I have never used a washcloth on my bits. That’s like spreading your traces to a cloth that probably retains some of those traces, and will be washed in a sink or washing machine where it spreads those traces everywhere.
Back home I use a shower attachment to wash front to back. The shower would have washed off most of the sticky bits so it would have been just as clean (actually, much cleaner) as having wiped with toilet paper, except that it’s wet instead of dry.
I don’t understand why some people think bidets are dirty. The bidet keeps your traces in the toilet and saves you from having to deal with dirty washcloths and spreading your traces. Even if sometimes there are splashes or spills, these would be on hard surfaces that are super easy to clean with a disinfectant spray (or even a bit of hand soap) and a piece of toilet paper.
Now that I live in a bidet free country, I keep a water scoop in the sink next to my toilet and pour water on myself to clean.
Then all I’d need a drop of mild soap, always the vulva first, rinse off, and then repeat with the anus.
As many people have said here, the vulva (your “lips,” including where your urethra is) and the anus (the outlet between your butt cheeks) are external body parts. The vagina and the rectum are internal, you should never wash inside.
Well, sometimes some people need enemas for medical reasons, but not douching because it messes up the vagina’s natural flora and pH. The vagina is a self cleaning organ, and the rectum does what it needs to do–get rid of waste–so all you really need to do is to keep your outlet clean and not spread your waste particles to your underwear, your clothes, your sex toys and God forbid, the things you sit on. Or your partner.
Vulvarine… Sorry had to do it
I only use soap on and in the folds, and my crack. I have a secondary handheld shower head, I’ll make sure the water is lukewarm and I just use water to clean a little more in depth. Don’t be gross people. Just the inner frontal area and with only water. Basically like using a bidet.