system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why do water and oil not mix, but water washes off detergent and detergent washes off oil?

Its like a big love triangle and detergent is the one in the middle. 

Bonus points if you can explain like I'm a chemist. (I'm not)
gpt
Because detergent sticks to both oil and water, while oil and water don't want to touch (oil is "hydrophobic" meaning it repels water, while water is hydrophilic, meaning it likes to stick to water - ie itself - and thus form water droplets even if nothing else is around).

Soaps have molecules with two different ends.  One end loves oil, the other loves water. So the detergent bonds to the oils on one side and the water on the other, which lets the water wash away the oil.