system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How do soap and shampoo clean your body?
gpt
At a molecular level, if you were to examine a molecule of soap you would see that it is not symmetrical, in fact it has two different "ends". One of these ends is strongly attracted to water molecules while the other one is strongly attracted to fat molecules.

So when you rub soap on your body, the fat-attracting end of the soap molecules binds to the grease and dirt on your skin. Then when you rinse with soap, the water-attracting part of the soap binds on to the water molecules, and as it gets washed away it carries with it the dirt and grease that it's previously "grabbed".