As a final experiment try something like traditional Aleppo soap whose ingredients are typically:
olive oil;
laurel oil;
water;
lye (typically extracted from plant ashes); and
nothing else.
This is then aged for years (I use 3-year aged, but you can find stuff that’s aged 10 years or more) which makes it even more mellow. The final result is a soap that is as gentle as it is possible to have an actual soap.
If that still gives you rashes, then yes, give up on soap forever because you can’t get anything less reactive. If not, however, I find that it’s one of the finest personal cleaning products I’ve ever used. (I use it for washing my hair, even, because the gentlest and most expensive of shampoos still cause that itchy, tiny-flake dandruff problem for me. Something about lauryl sulfates just don’t get along with my skin.)
Samesies. I even avoid regular soap, and use the washing products they sell for babies.
A lot of “regular soap” still has additives.
As a final experiment try something like traditional Aleppo soap whose ingredients are typically:
This is then aged for years (I use 3-year aged, but you can find stuff that’s aged 10 years or more) which makes it even more mellow. The final result is a soap that is as gentle as it is possible to have an actual soap.
If that still gives you rashes, then yes, give up on soap forever because you can’t get anything less reactive. If not, however, I find that it’s one of the finest personal cleaning products I’ve ever used. (I use it for washing my hair, even, because the gentlest and most expensive of shampoos still cause that itchy, tiny-flake dandruff problem for me. Something about lauryl sulfates just don’t get along with my skin.)