My position on this topic is that soaking is, for the most part, at best unnecessary and at worst stressful and dangerous. They just don't need baths. If they don't need it, why waste my time?

As far as shedding goes, the concept that water removes the oil between layers of skin is actually not true. Ball pythons don't even have the glands to produce such oils, so no such oil exists. Shedding is done through an entirely different biological process. You may even find in my old posts talk about such oils, but I was mistaken. Even this old dog can learn new tricks! If someone feels a snake needs to be soaked before a shed to help it along, there are likely a host of other husbandry issues that need to be addressed. Good sheds are not the result of what happens right before they shed - they are the cumulative result of everything in the snake's life between sheds.

If my snakes play Pablo Poo-casso, they get wiped down with a damp cloth. If they have the rare rough shed, they get a quick dip in a sealed, but not air-tight, tub with a small amount of temperature appropriate water for a bit to help things along (only after it becomes obvious they don't be able to do it on their own). There's a pretty good guide here on this forum about that process. That's the extent of the "water-torture" (OK, I'm over exaggerating) I do in my collection.