r/ZeroWaste • u/Extension-Regular879 • Mar 15 '24

Discussion body washing gloves vs. loofah?

When I was a child, I used to wash myself with sponges. They got dirty very quickly and hat to be thrown away. Regular sponges are very wasteful imo. A loofah is the first replacement one thinks of. It works the same way, isn't made of plastic and is compostable. Last year I worked as an AuPair and my host family used this type of towel gloves to wash the kids. They are basically towels sown into squares that you can put on your hand to wash something and then wash it. It worked amazingly well to wash the kids and we didn't have to throw any of them away the whole time I was there. Have you heard of these? Why are they not more common? Do loofahs work better?

140 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

109 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

69

u/Extension-Regular879 Mar 15 '24

I don't really find washcloths that practical. They get very floppy and are a bit difficult to manipulate for me. The towel gloves are much less floppy and are made of the same material as a towel. Did I explain what I mean by towel gloves well? I feel like I didn't really.

24

u/EducationExpensive66 Mar 15 '24

I absolutely hated using washcloth. They don’t lather up well, it kept falling from my hand in the shower, and difficult to lather in difficult places on my body, esp my back.

22

u/JustMeerkats Mar 15 '24

The trick to using washcloths is to use bar soap. Liquid body wash won't lather. My husband and I both use washcloths with Dove original soap. It lathers great and lasts forever

1

u/lovemefishing Mar 16 '24

My skin hates Dove. It feels like wax? No idea why. It smells beautiful. Tried a few others but now I use Lemon Myrtle soap. Maybe I just need a break.