posted 4 years ago
Back when I lived in the US, I'd get poison ivy about once a year. I usually got it on my face, because I like washing my hands with soap several times a day, but I don't use soap on my face. After I know I'm exposed, I change and wash my clothes, and use soap -- any kind, but thoroughly. And that has always prevented the rash when I knew I had been exposed. And doing a pretty detailed thinking about "contact tracing" (as we'd call it in 2020) and washing any items that might be carrying the urushiol oil. Unwitting exposure usually caused much smaller cases. By the way, it really doesn't require specially strong soap or detergent, but it does have to be a real soap or detergent, any common kind that cuts oils.
Washing with soap works so well that I am willing to yank up a poison ivy seedling with a bare hand, if I know I can then go directly to a sink with my hand held away from the rest of me.
Works at a residential alternative high school in the Himalayas SECMOL.org . "Back home" is Cape Cod, E Coast USA.