Wall-mounted soap: not as dirty as you think?

Wall-mounted soap is used at a public bathroom in Hongik University Station, Jan. 24. Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar

A foreigner walks into a public washroom at a Korean train station. On the way out, he is horrified to find no soap at the sinks. Then he witnesses a Korean next to him grab a blue knob that's affixed to the wall by a metal rod, and perform what to the foreigner appears to be a vulgar gesture. That's the soap! Is it even sanitary?

This blue wall-mounted soap, manufactured in Korea by Yeremy, has inspired discussions on various online foreign communities over the decades.

"I like it because it doesn't walk away," said one Canadian long-term resident of Korea. "I am pretty sure it is less wasteful than liquid soap... but I always also think it looks a little dirty to rub your hand up and down to soap up your hands."

"Ah yes, the jerk-off soap," said a British former resident of Korea.

A South African resident of Korea put it more bluntly: "Jerk the smurf."

"Man, I miss the sex toys of Korea," added a Canadian who used to live in Korea.

But is it really that unclean? Or are these people overreacting because they find the soap too sexually suggestive?

"You're forced to choose: Don't use and have dirty hands, or use it and have clean hands, but feel dirty," said a Canadian living in Seoul.

Soap is mounted to the wall in a men's public bathroom near Ewha Woman's University, Jan. 28. Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar

There are clear reasons why this style of soap is superior to a regular bar of soap sitting in a dish. If you're afraid of germs, it turns out the best breeding environment for them is a wet soap dish.

“As long as you make sure it hasn’t been sitting in sludge, using regular bar soap works perfectly well,” Elaine Larson, associate dean for research and professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s School of Nursing, told Vice Magazine in a 2018 article on the advantages of bar soap over liquid soap.

A dish is placed under a liquid soap dispenser at a subway station men's bathroom in Seoul, Jan. 23. Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar

Yes, there are likely to be bacteria on the surface of a bar of soap, and each user's hands are still likely to pick up a few of those germs, as well as depositing their own for the next user to touch. But then the contaminants are washed off the hands when rinsed properly in water.

"Soap acts as a surfactant, not as a sterile media, and doesn't need to be sterile to be effective," pointed out a former U.S. Army combat medic.

Soap is mounted to the wall at Uiwang Station on Seoul Metro Line 1, Dec. 2, 2023. Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar

An official at Yeremy pointed to the scientific evidence backing up the product's hygiene.

"When soap is left unattended, carbon dioxide is released into the air, causing sodium hydroxide, the main ingredient of soap, to turn into sodium carbonate," the official said. "This weakens the basicity of the soap, which can cause bacteria to grow and multiply. In the case of a soap dish, moisture and water can create an environment where bacteria can proliferate. However, Yeremy soap is more hygienic as it is placed in the air, rather than in a soap dish."

Yeremy's wall-mounted soap is recognized by various agencies, including the Incheon Airport Corp., KORAIL and Korea Expressway Corp., for its quality and eco-friendliness. The Yeremy website also touts the product's longevity, as it is not lost until it is all used up. Its rotatability helps ensure that the soap is used up evenly and prevents moisture from pooling on its surface.

At the same time, the Yeremy official admitted, "The hygiene of Yeremy soap can seem differently according to one’s perspective and culture."

The official added that Yeremy has rejected offers to import other custom hygienic items that it claimed display "embarrassing patterns."

The official also pointed to other false controversies in the news, including an uproar over a proposed ban on Jollypong, a puffed-wheat snack that somewhat resembles a part of the female anatomy, and the Sonata 3, both of which turned out to be false.

Wall-mounted soap's overseas origin

Many who have encountered the blue wand over a public bathroom sink might be surprised to learn this style of soap originates in France. According to multiple online stores, wall-mounted soap was first introduced in the 1950s by Provendi.

"First created in the 1950s, the wall mounted soap holder was designed to make using soap easier, especially in schools and public places. A rotating soap holder is easier to handle, more pleasing on the eye and cleaner. No more worrying about soap slipping through your fingers!" said one website selling Provendi's rotating wall soap and brass wall arm.

Wall-mounted soap products are offered for sale online. Screenshot from Chateau du Savon

It also claims that one 295 gram bar of wall soap can last about 800 washes, calling it "the perfect combination of useful, stylish and long lasting."

Wall-mounted soap can even be seen in the kitchen of British celebrity chef James Martin, host of BBC TV shows such as "Home Comforts" and "James Martin's Saturday Morning." Its appearance has caused quite a stir, leaving viewers guessing what it is.

A yellow bar of soap is mounted on the wall of British celebrity chef James Martin's kitchen. Courtesy of James Martin's Saturday Morning

French residents of Korea contacted by The Korea Times said they remembered using this soap back in their home country, but they also linked it with their childhoods back in the past — possibly because of the soap's use in France mainly in schools.

"Typically, when I was in kindergarten, we would have a whole row of them to wash our hands en masse," said Stephane, a French long-term resident, who added that he was a kindergartener in the early 1970s. "Wall soaps are far less common these days, with their vintage and weird look, but they can be more hygienic than the soap holder method. You won't see wall soaps in fancy spots, but it's not just about user experience, and you should also take into account the manager's point of view."

He stressed the durability of wall-mounted soap, as well as ease of use and maintenance, while adding that he is "not particularly a fan" of it.

"I guess some may prefer this system for facilities coping with a lot of careless visitors, where they can't send staff every other hour to clean things up," he said.

"Used them every day in my childhood, all was good for me," said Romain, another French resident of Seoul who remembers seeing wall-mounted soap as recently as 2004. "However I don’t recall having seen any on my last trip to France last year."

He expressed amusement at reading others' complaints about this type of soap, which reveal a lot of phallacies about hygiene and how soap works. "In fact I find it quite funny to try and understand how-why one would thing think that," he said.

"Overall I thought (wall-mounted soap) was a good idea except when the soap is mostly gone and you have to rub the pastic holder more to get anything remotely bubbly," he said. "There probably is a financial good side to them as well against pumping liquids — you can’t really overuse them so they must need less frequent replacement."

Bars of soap that are intended to be mounted to the wall are lying in soap dishes at a women's washroom in Donghae, Gangwon Province, Feb. 6. Courtesy of Erin Olga Kim

It also appears that wall-mounted soap has appeared in even more countries. A Brazilian resident of Seoul reported seeing it in use in her home country in the 1980s, adding "I find it disgusting..."

Most people who commented on the wall-mounted soap, whether they were in favor of it, titillated or grossed out, could agree on one thing: it is better than no soap at all.

Korea Times intern Ryu Su-jin contributed to this article.