hair shampoo and greasy hands

Gee, 2 pages of hand washing with shampoo and no hairy palm jokes............ must just be me. :(

Laundry powders and dishwashing powders are made from so-called "alkaline salts". There's no way I would encourage anyone to use them to wash grease off their hands. They are not meant for prolonged skin contact, they are caustic and you could be setting someone up for severe eczema problems...
With the nasties in modern oils and lubricants, gloves are becoming a must...

I used to know a guy who had been through a colourful range of jobs, one of which was in a factory making hand cleaner, shampoos and a range of industrial and domestic cleaners.

He said the active ingredient (surfactant) came in concentrated 44 gallon drums, and the only difference between all the products the company produced was how much they diluted the surfactant, plus which perfumes, colouring, etc was added...