Why do some people not like washing their hands

[SummersBreeze]

It's basic hygiene to protect yourself and others from illness. How hard is some basic hygiene?

I definitely wouldn't consider myself to be OCD but I do carry out appropriate hygiene - after going to the toilet, before eating, after handling meat, after coughing and sneezing, and after eating, after some dirty duties. The recommended times for hand washing.

I make an attempt to do it correctly too. It's not just for a few seconds like what you can see sometimes in some public bathrooms.

I have a friend who works in food and beverage. I am concerned to be honest. I can always see a layer of dirt under his nails and this indicates to me that he's not carrying out appropriate hand hygiene. I think it's wrong. I think it's wrong to work in food and beverage and care about hand hygiene.

He picked up a dose, possibly work. Probably due to poor hand hygiene.

He passed it around to all of his close contacts, unfortunately one of them me. It was an absolutely hideous dose. Vomiting and losing the bowels all at the same time.

I am just thinking, some illnesses can be prevented through appropriate hand hygiene.

Unfortunately I got very ill but I was able to keep it to myself and not pass it around at work or home.

What the hell is so wrong with washing hands?

So why not just not dry your hands? Give them a good shake and once you've walked around for a couple minutes they'd be dry?

It might be the idea of the dry hands afterwards. I always have a hand cream in my bag.

Though I always try not to touch public loo doors with my hands. An elbow will usually push a swing door open.

Touching any knitwear is the worst with dry hands. At least I think so.

A person can't be OCD ffs. A person has OCD. I didn't read past that bit.

I’m also a frequent hand washer, but I work in a lab so it’s a work hangover!

I call what my DH does 'wiping dirt on the towel' as he sticks hands briefly under the water the wipes them on the towel.

But then I'm fastidious about hand washing so maybe I'm the other end of the scale. 🤷‍♀️

Agree completely. What infuriates me even more is in public toilets ( usually supermarkets) when other women come next to me at the handryers, flick their wrists under for less than 5 seconds, then bugger off leaving the door handle dripping 😡
Hate handryers anyway, but I use them properly. Bring back paper towels! - the thick green ones of our schooldays 🤓

lanbro I didn't know that about the buzzer in McDonald's! Probably explains why in all the years I've been eating McDonald's stuff,I've never had even the hint of a dodgy stomach.

Wash hands after going to the lavatory and in public ones use a scarf/sleeve to open the door. At home, wash hands before starting cooking, and after handling raw meat/onions/garlic. By the time the food hits the table I'll have washed a few times.

What's the benefit to washing your hands after a meal?

I also don't wash my hands before eating as it's only me who'll be handling and consuming the food on my plate 🤷🏻‍♀️

I wash mine when they are dirty but I find it unpleasant and wouldn't wash them constantly. I dislike wet skin, particularly cold water, inefficient drying methods like crap hand dryers (the new extra powerful ones are OK but tend to scare small children) sleeves that get wet like someone said.

I'm not really overly worried about germs. I mainly wash my hands to get rid of oils or grease because I really hate that sensation on my hands. After using the toilet, touching something like raw meat, cleaning something (even putting washing in the machine). But I wouldn't wash them after touching a door handle, phone, money, etc. Sure there might be germs in those places but not likely in a number that would do me any harm.

I like the public toilets in Germany that have rolls of towel to dry your hands with! Every time they come out on reddit people have conniptions 😆but it's perfectly fine as the dirty part gets sucked back up into the machine and the whole roll gets taken out and washed - they aren't just a continuous loop like they were decades ago. Towel is my favourite way to dry my hands.

I wash my hands frequently, including when I first come into my flat.

I'm responsible for ordering the paper supplies at work, and can report that the paper towel dispenser and the soap dispenser in the Ladies loos need to be refilled much more often than the soap and paper towels in the men's loos. Make of that what you will.

In totally unrelated news, I'm not altogether sorry that shaking hands with male colleagues is something that has gone out of fashion since covid.

Because they are dirty antisocial bastards 🤷🏻‍♀️

If you've genuinely lost your bowels you should go to a&e, make sure to wash your hands before you set off though.

I’m so glad it’s not just me

The dirty nails bit is grim. But I don't wash my hands that much, I don't believe that you need to as much as some people do. Some seem obsessive. I didn't use hand sanitizer during covid either, only when someone made me - it dries my hands out and I don't think it's good for my hands. I have good hygiene, never ill, not ill with covid. So I can't grasp the complaint?

I wash my hands like you, except for cough/sneeze as I got into the habit of doing that in my elbow crease. I also wash my hands arriving home/to work/ someone's house and after touching 'outdoors' door handles.
People not washing their hands are disgusting, I work in the NHS (admin), my nurse colleagues are harping on about wearing masks but they never wash their hands when they arrive, eat at the keyboard without washing hands etc. Bleugh.

I wash them after I go to the loo but other than that I never really think about it.
I would wash them after meat prep, if I'm cooking a hot meal any bacteria off my hands would be dealt with in the process of cooking so can't say I worry about that either.
I don't use hand sanitiser as I don't feel the need.
The people that got struck down by the recent sick bug at work were all germ phobic, hand sanitiser users.....shockingly, despite my close contact with the infected people I didn't get sick.
Over cleaning everything is not good for us.

I have the same issue as the one mentioned, unfortunately, drying hands is the issue, once my hands are dry it takes a while before it feels right to touch paper again, I believe this has something to do with human skin oils but don’t quote me on this