To be grossed out by this?

I empathise. Many years ago I was in a store restaurant with my mother. Two women were debating whether to have the soup. The soup was in a tureen with a large ladle at the side. One of the women opened the lid and looked in. She scooped out some soup,tasted it ,gave a taste to the other woman and put the ladle down.
I hate eating food unless it's prepared by close friends or family. I never have takeaway food. I am really only comfortable with food I cook myself ,and even then I wonder about how it has been handled prior to me buying it. Yes ,I know it's unreasonable !

How did she pluck a chin hair with her fingernails?

but even if you make it yourself there are people with low hygiene standards working in the factories preparing your ingredients…

It must be exhausting going around worrying about this kind of stuff all the time. It's presumably just a visceral disgust reaction rather than an actual belief that you are going to be made ill by any of these things? Because obviously you're not - otherwise you'd be constantly ill.

Gross 😝
Whilst loading my shopping onto the belt, the male cashier was sat in his chair clipping his finger nails 🤢
That little bit definitely didn't help!!
Some people are manky and shouldn't work with food or public

Hair - YABU

@Savingthehedgehogs x post.
My new paranoia pal 😊

Meh. People touch things, including their hair, face, clothes etc all the time. In reality it's hard not to, because they are often subconscious movements. There's no point in fretting about the examples you happen to notice, because there will be a gazillion other things you touch/buy/eat/drink day-in day-out that have been touched by umpteen other people whose hands might have been god knows where. That's what immune systems are for!

It doesn't bother me in the slightest, but then I spend all day in a school (dirty places!) and will happily eat cakes from bake sales made by grubby-fingered children. I've made it to the ripe old age of 53 without suffering any consequences.

Lord the older i get the worse i get the heebyjeebies about this sort of thing.

If i thought about it too much i'd never eat or drink anything i hadn't made myself.

So i'm not going to think about it .......
<leaves thread>

I can feel so grossed out if I really think about everything in detail, that I may never eat again.

Tap water is the worst…

AIBU to just be bloody amazed anyone could pluck out a chin hair with just fingers, no tweezers. Was it 6 inches long?

Yeah people shouldn’t do it but so many do. And those who claim not to touch their face probably do more than they think because most of the time it’s subconscious. Also fingernails, jewellery and stuff also harbour germs.

I'm with you OP. I wouldn't be able to eat the snacks I'd purchased from the van after that. I actually don't even like eating in other people's homes, or if a colleague brings something in that they've made. I know it's irrational (although there are some things that most people would consider gross) but I can't help it. It doesn't overly impact my life and I'm not young so I can't be arsed with therapy.

In a sandwich shop I asked a girl to wash her hands before making a sandwich as she was about to start just after handling coins at the till. She was outraged and refused to serve me. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Even those who claim not to give a shit would be put off by that surely?!

YANB to feel grossed, as you have better personal hygiene than these folk, as well as anxiety about it. i sympathise because I am the same. Someone serving food and drinks should be professional enough not to do what the woman did or the Costa guy did. In fact their employers should insist on good hand hygiene, and make them aware of unconscious tics.💐

Went to lidl yesterday and the man behind the bakery was coughing everywhere without a hand in sight.. I decided to swerve their offerings 😬

The hair plucking was unnecessary and gross. The ear thing I can kind of understand. I occasionally work on a busy till and it's really, really hard not to scratch an itch 😂 I do try if my nose is itching or ear etc but it's really hard and sometimes a reflex to scratch it

@Startinganew32
people shouldn’t be doing ANY of that stuff if they’re serving food. It really is that simple!

I wouldn’t notice this happening, I think you are hyper focusing on things which don’t really matter due to your anxiety. This is a feature of anxiety for me but about something different.

What do you think is the consequence of someone touching their face and then serving you a snack and hot drink? Do you think human skin is really dirty and laden with bacteria that will contaminate and cause infection and disease? And that that bacteria can traverse plastic packaging that your snack and drink was served in?

It’s not nice at all and it’s offputting, like finding a hair in your food. But, while I don’t want bits of someone’s body in/on my food, it’s unlikely to do any real harm. Coins are far more dirty than most people’s bodies and lots of things (maybe even coffee cups and lids) are made in dirty factories/travel in dirty vans/are stored in dirty cupboards. Unfortunately there was also probably more dirt under the lady’s finger nails than on her face or the hair she touched

@Startinganew32

I don’t touch my face all the time.
and yes I’d feel the same if it was eyelash.

It is kind of gross in an icky way, but it's not something I could get worked up about. People are always going to be touching some part of themselves consciously or unconsciously throughout the day. Personally I'm very diligent when I'm working in that kind of role or serving food etc. generally, but I am aware that little germ transferals and contamination happens aaaaaalllll the time, and it's probably good for my immune system.

Fair enough. But there’s so many things people do: stroking their beards, biting their nails, wiping their noses, touching or running hands through their hair, touching their clothing that has been in contact with germy places like toilets, adjusting their earrings, touching their shoes when doing up shoelaces. All of which are equally or more gross than flicking away chin hair.

Earwax yes, hair, not really. Most people constantly touch their faces subconsciously. Flicking away some hair isn’t that gross really. It’s not like picking your ears or nose where you get a substance on your fingers. Would you find it equally gross if someone realised they had an eyelash on their face and flicked it away with their fingers?