Its poison ivy season here in New York and I thought I would share a old fashioned remedy. My great grandmother passed this down. Use Fels naptha laundry soap (a picture below), or as my family calls it 'the yellow soap', to wash yourself with after possible exposure. So instead of your bath bar/ liquid body wash, use this to wash with. Use the bar right on your skin I wouldn't recommend a washrag or a loofa. I sometimes use this first and then my regular bath wash but, that's really a mental thing. You may have some dry skin from washing with the fels naptha too regularly but its better than poison ivy. I use it a lot, in fact I keep some in my shower all spring/summer because of my gardening habits. I would assume this would work for poison oak, sumac and for those of us allergic to Virginia creeper.
If you already contracted poison ivy then dampen the area of the rash and rub the bar of soap on it. Don't rinse it off, let it flake off. Because this can be kind of gross looking and hard to leave alone, I recommend doing it at night closer to going to bed. The next day the rash will be dried up , the itching greatly reduced or not at all and the rash gone in a few days (it could be gone that day but if you scratched it the larger spots that opened need to heal). Poison ivy is just a allergic reaction to the plants oils. This bar is harsh so it helps to pull off/dry the oils on the skin causing the reaction.
Also, don't use lotion when you have poison ivy, because it holds the moisture/ oil that you need to dry up and can spread the rash.
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