Personal cleanliness has often been considered, rightly or wrongly, as something essential to really getting on in life. While it is entirely possible to pursue a full and satisfying existence without the use of things like water and soap¹   it can be pretty much taken for granted that the most successful people, with real lives and friends, at least run through a shower every couple of weeks. The fact that people don’t necessarily feel that bathing or showering is honestly a good use of their precious time has led some large chemical and pharmaceutical companies to seek ways to keep us entertained long enough to make the experience relatively painless.

Soap You Can Grow At Home

One such company - Tobar Ltd. of St. Margaret, Harleston in the United Kingdom - has decided the best way to entice people into the idea of using soap and water is to make the soap as compelling and amusing as practically possible. The result is the "Amazing Hair-Growing Cat Soap", a piece of unperfumed soap about three inches tall in the approximate shape of a cute cat²   that, when removed from it’s vacuum-sealed plastic packet³   , starts growing wispy hair within 12 hours which continues to grow for more than a week, up to 10 millimetres in length.

The shape and general endearing qualities of the cat are a winner. There are a lot of people who like cats or find small, cute ornaments incredibly compelling - and those who don't wash a lot amongst them might be teased into doing so with this new bathing companion. However, much fun can be had in just letting the cat's soapy hair grow until it has run it's course.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Once the hair has grown to it’s fullest extent the soap cat takes on a slightly disturbing appearance⁴   that usually will result in it being consigned to the darkest and most infrequently visited edge of your desk or house. The hair is rather like the stuff that gets caught on sticky-tape when dragged across clothing after a particularly amorous encounter with a domestic pet, and if a few strands are rubbed between the fingers actually proves to be simple, white, slightly-waxy soap. Touching the cat’s skin results in almost immediate hair loss in that area, damaging the fur which will never grow again.

Soap Dissection

For those of a slightly sadistic bent the soap has a final twist to its (short-lived) entertainment value. A spot of amateur vivisection with a suitable sharp device, or a spot of sudden violence with a blunt device like a paperweight, book or shoe, will reveal a small, hidden plastic mouse. Nothing more than a droplet-shaped piece of red plastic it may briefly provide some form of pleasure for those who appreciate the small print on cans of soup or staying up to listen to the closing down announcement on BBC1.