I get how soap works by breaking down outer layers of cells, especially in viruses and bacteria, which is how it protects us (correct me if I’m wrong). My question is why does everyone, including surgeons scrubbing in for surgery, massage the soap around their hands and arms? Couldn’t we just apply the soap, wait 20 seconds, then rinse it off? Maybe it’s a surface area thing, making sure soap is applied everywhere?
In: 24
Scrubbing helps break up dirt and oils on our skin. This ensures that everything can be washed off. Soap basically makes water ‘wetter’, more able to pull stuff off our skin and into solution/suspension with the water.
A lot of the ‘dirt’ on your hands isn’t actually killed or neutralized by soap…it’s dissolved into the water and washed away. You need friction to make this process happen.
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