That is a very good and logical statement and question. For those who do not know, here is what Anne Marie Helmenstine wrote: “Do you have hard water? If you do, you may have a water softener to help protect your plumbing from scale buildup, prevent soap scum, and lessen the amount of soap and detergent needed for cleaning. You’ve probably heard that cleaners work better in soft water than in hard water, but does that mean you will feel cleaner if you bathe in soft water? Actually, no. Rinsing in soft water may leave you feeling a little slippery and soapy, even after a thorough rinsing. Why? The answer lies in understanding the chemistry of soft water and soap. The Hard Facts of Hard Water Hard water contains calcium and magnesium ions. Water softeners remove those ions by exchanging them for sodium or potassium ions. Two factors contribute to that slippery-when-wet feeling you get after soaping up with soft water. First, soap lathers better in soft water than in hard water, so it’s easy to use too much. The more dissolved soap there is, the more water you need to rinse it away. Second, the ions in softened water lessen its ability to stick to the soap molecules, making it more difficult to rinse the cleanser off your body. Chemical Reaction The reaction between a triglyceride molecule (fat) and sodium hydroxide (lye) to make soap yields a molecule of glycerol with three ionically bonded molecules of sodium stearate (the soap part of soap). This sodium salt will give up the sodium ion to water, while the stearate ion will precipitate out of solution if it comes into contact with an ion that binds it more strongly than sodium (such as the magnesium or calcium in hard water). The magnesium stearate or calcium stearate is a waxy solid that you know as soap scum. It can form a ring in your tub, but it rinses off your body. The sodium or potassium in soft water makes it much more unfavorable for the sodium stearate to give up its sodium ion so that it can form an insoluble compound and get rinsed away. Instead, the stearate clings to the slightly charged surface of your skin. Essentially, soap would rather stick to you than get rinsed away in soft water. Addressing the Problem There are a few ways you can address the problem: You can use less soap, try a synthetic liquid body wash (synthetic detergent or syndet), or rinse with naturally soft water or rainwater, which probably won’t contain elevated levels of sodium or potassium.” There are no “absolutes,” especially when we are dealing with water. There is probably no such thing as 100% pure water, and it is likely that the sodium or potassium plays a role in creating a slick feeling. However, the fact remains that if you wash your hands with a bar of strong soap (such as Ivory) with soft water and hard water, you can still taste the soap on the hard water hand. The soap is still there. You cannot taste with when you rinse with soft water! It is apparent that there has to be much less soap on your skin when washed with softened water. People with Eczema are often “cured” when switching to soft water because more soap is being washed off. Maybe there is some left, but it has to be considerably less soap, which can be irritating to the skin.

I scrolled through all the comments and replies, and I kept seeing your idea about licking my hand.

Quite frankly, my experience has been the opposite. The house where I grew up (Crawford County, Wisconsin) had a private well in a limestone aquifer. We had our water tested, and the testing company said we had hard water. We didn’t do anything about it; we just wanted to make sure there weren’t any poisons (like trace amounts of lead or arsenic) in our well water. (Thankfully, there weren’t; we just had lime in the water like everyone else in the area.)

However, whenever I used soap, usually Irish Spring, but others also, I couldn’t taste or smell it on my hands after showering. (Please note I always rinsed thoroughly.)

But now, I live in a town, (New Holstein, Wisconsin) and the city processes the water. I’m not sure what they do, other than adding chlorine or fluoride, but they definitely add some chemical to the water.

I’ve tried Irish Spring, Dial, and Coast bar soaps. After using them, I have an incredibly difficult time getting rid of the slimy feeling. I wouldn’t describe it as silky. When I wipe my hand on my arm, it feels like there’s a layer of something between my hand and my arm. If that something wasn’t there, my hand would feel like sandpaper on my arm. I have rough hands and slightly hairy arms. If nothing else, I should feel my arm hairs resisting the movement of my hand. But my experience is more like there’s something between my hand and my arm. I don’t think the something is my skin’s natural oil. After all, I just washed that away. Isn’t that the point of using soap instead of using only water?

I’ve found that the only way to get rid of the “slimy” feeling is to use a rough washcloth and vigorously rub any area where I used soap. ONLY then does my skin return to the normal condition, not feeling slimy. The fact, though, that vigorously rubbing the soap off removes the slimy feeling disproves the idea that nothing was there. There was definitely something between my hand’s skin and my arm’s skin. And whatever was there caused my hand’s skin to not “stick” to my arm’s skin. But after vigorously rubbing with the washcloth, the “rubbery” feeling is restored.

I’ve tried the “licking” as you suggest, and I could taste the soap. The taste, and smell, remains until the soap is vigorously rubbed away with the washcloth. (If you want to claim I’m only tasting the perfumes or emulsifiers, I would reply by saying that everything in my bar of soap is soap. Sure, the soap might contain things, but I see it like this: “chemicals+perfumes+emulsifiers=soap” I don’t see it as if there’s a “soap part of soap,” and a “not soap” part of soap. A bar of soap is a bar of soap. It might be “cleaning agent+other stuff=soap” but soap is a bar of soap.) If you want to claim that something other than soap is left behind, then you must be saying one of two options:
1. The soap isn’t doing its job of removing contaminants. (skin oils, sweat, external contaminants, etc.)
2. The water isn’t doing its job of removing the soap.

I’m fine with either statement, so long as an alternative is suggested. If the soap isn’t removing everything it should, then please recommend a soap that will remove everything as it should. If the water isn’t removing the soap as it should, then suggest an alternative, please.

Lastly, your original article doesn’t explain the slimy feeling, as the title suggests. Instead, the article dismisses the claim, stating (not in these exact words) that the slimy feeling is only an opinion, rather than an actual experience that people have. I think that’s why you’re getting so much negative feedback; your article is basically calling everyone idiots if they think their experience is real.

I am not calling everyone idiots, but if the shoe fits, I guess you might as well wear it. You did not say that you have a water softener – you just say that the city puts something in the water that makes it feel slick. I suspect that it is some kind of polyphosphate, but I don’t really know. What I do know, is that it is too expensive for a city to soften the water with a salt-based water softener, so why are you wasting your time and mine talking about something that has nothing to do with your situation? It’s nonsense!

I just had a salt water softener installed I feel the slime feeling when rinsing so it a good thing ? so do i only put 1/2 is much soap in the dishwasher and washing machine Thanks

Yes, I feel it is “silky” not slimy. Be sure and use less shampoo, bath soap and laundry soap… at least 50% less!

Hi Tim, just curious, why does white vinegar gets rid of the "slick"feeling of the softened water? I moved into a house that’s got the system, but since I’m accustomed to using hard water, I’ve sprayed white vinegar on the counters, especially in the bathroom, to avoid white spots or residue developing….. so i keep doing it even now with the softened water, and when i wipe it off, the water does not feel"slick". What’s happening there? Thanx!

Vinegar is highly caustic so it literally “eats way” your own body oils and with these gone, you will not feel "slick. I would recommend not doing this!

We use potassium chloride in our water softener but our skin does not feel slimy, it feels sticky! What causes that??

It will have a slightly different feel and you must also use more potassium than you would salt. It takes about 112 pounds of Potassium to do what 100 pounds of Sodium does in softening.

Why can I still blow bubbles through my fingers after rinsing the soap off with softened water?

I tried it and could not do it. Maybe this is a talent that should be on America’s Got Talent?

The doctor is wrong. I was forced to shower with soft water for 2 years of Covid. I am covered with a white film. The film stuck all of my hair to my skin. I have recently moved to a home with normal water. I am slowly getting my hair back. I had no hair on legs and arms and private areas. My eyebrows were gone and I appeared to be going bald. I had many issues due to the hair spiraling in mounds behind my ears and on top of my temples. I had developed constant loud ear ringing and had lost my sense of smell. The spiralson my temples affected my sinuses causing headaches as well as the sinus issues. And my pours were full of white stuff, and swollen.

Soft water is slimy and Awful. A health hazard!

That is horrible, and I feel very bad for you, but there is nothing in soft water that can do that unless you have some sort of allergic reaction to trace amounts of sodium (which would likely prevent you from living). I am not a real doctor, but I would certainly consult one as there are other conditions that can cause this. Vitiligo is caused by the destruction of melanocytes and results in the appearance of white patches on any part of the body, while alopecia areata is characterized by patchy hair loss primarily on the scalp but may also involve other areas as well. Please seek professional help immediately.

I’ve been in a duplex, where we share a well with our neighbor…I only found this out through another neighbor informing me…We don’t share the water softener systems. I am renting a softener system from Culligan because the one the landlord provided made everything orange from rust. The one I rented still had rust coming out on the shower and clothes occasionally. So I upgraded to a higher-priced softener rental from Culligan recently. Now I break out and my skin is very oily with heavy hair. I’ve had the Culligan guys come out often and they can’t find the issue. The landlord finally replaced the prefilter and that helped some. It was caked with rust. Is there something else that could be affecting it to do this? Or is it possibly from the landlord not changing the prefilter often? He keeps saying it needs to be replaced every 3 months. But I usually have to remind him. The only reason he changed it this time is because the Culligan guy checked it and it was caked from rust. It had been in there only about 3 months though.

Water softeners are made to soften water, not remove rust (iron). Sometimes, they can remove rust if the conditions are right, but it sounds like you need an iron removal system ahead of the water softener. Also, I have found over the years that Culligan regenerates their softeners at 15 lbs/ per cu/ft of resin, which leaves more sodium in the water. I would suggest an iron removal system and a water softener set at 6 or 8 pounds of salt per cu/ft.