To consider flannels fucking revolting

[BelfryWitch]

Just use your hands! What's with dragging a manky rag all over your body and face about?

Or if you absolutely must have one, then it needs washing after every use. A sopping square of material draped over the bathtub to dry is just grim.

I find them rank but I am scarred by a childhood memory of 'the flannel' in our bathroom sink. Not even sure whose it was but the slimy squidge when you squeezed it has put me off for life. Just no. I am sure people wash them in the machine very day now... Possibly.

How can a clean piece of fabric be "rank"?

I have just had a nice soapy body wash in the sink this morning. I find showering every day too drying for my skin, and my hair only needs washed every other day. I love the feeling of the flannel on my face, it feels cleaner than if it's just rinsed off in the shower. My used flannel and a single hand towel are now in the laundry basket and will be washed later today.

I can't see what is rank about that.

Flannels only used to take makeup off faces in our house - nice fluffy white ones in hot water, lovely.

No body/bits flannels. Still traumatised from my sister staying with us and carefully draping her flannel over the bath each day. That thing went ages without needing a wash!

Nothing like a good soapy wash of the fanjo with a flannel.

YABU, a warm flannel is the best way to cleanse my face. I wash them after one use.

I don't use a flannel in the shower, though. Just soap up with hands and then rinse.

I'm warming to the idea of using flannels in the shower - the running water rinses out any nasties, so you are basically using a clean flannel each time on different aeas of the body.

But, filling a sink with lukewarm water and using that small amount of water to 'strip wash' the entire body still makes me heave.

Lets take this from the top:

You fill a basin with water and take a flannel.

a) Flannel is swiped across the face and picks up a load of makeup (if a man - you wipe across head quickly and the flannel also picks up hair grease and dandruff)
b) Flannel is then rinsed in basin and squeezed out.
c) Flannel containing traces of makeup and hair grease is then used to wash armpits, where it picks up a load of sweat.
d) Flannel is rinsed in basin.
e)Flannel containing makeup, hair grease and sweat is then used to wash your bits (which probably weren't even that dirty, but will be now).
f) Flannel is rinsed in basin.
g) Flannel containing makeup, hair grease, sweat and fanjo debri is then used to wipe round the back end.

I then presume you move down to the feet? At which stage it would probably be more hygienic to wee on them to get them clean than use the soup that is in the basin!

It's basically transferring dirt around onto different parts of the body. The only place that gets a good clean is the face.

I think this is why most Americans are disgusted at baths as a means of getting clean - really speaking, you are lying in your own filth.
A bath's OK for relaxing.

How dirty are you that a wash if your body would make the sink water 'soup'!? I don't do a strip wash in normal circumstances ( when travelling anything goes) , but I'm sure it doesn't make the water that filthy if I do!

It's hidden dirt. But it's still there.

jenen- you are being very precious.

I remove make-up in the evening. So no traces by the time I wash in the morning.

" makes me heave"

Lets not be so precious. My OH usually has his face buried in my fanjo on a Sunday morning- and shock horror- it hasn't been washed since the day before.

He doesn't seem to complain.

You could, I don't know, empty out and refill the basin if The water is really that dirty?

Precious, yes.
Strip washes are still gross.

As I said - Flannels in the shower aren't so bad.
I like running water. Running water gets you clean.

It's hidden dirt.

Ha ha- I have lots more to think about in my life than worrying about "hidden dirt" in a basin full of water.

He doesn't seem to complain.

and I bet he never gets spots either!

merrymouse, that would be the correct way - to refill the basin with clean water each time, but I have seen people using the same small basin of water to clean everything!
They don't empty it in etween. It's disgusting.

I still don't get how fanjo said get clean Jan shower without something to wash them! I can sort of see the rest of you, water runs over, rub soap on with hands (although a shower net uses less soap/gel) but your fanjo? The water doesn't run there...what are you using?

Shower gel + hands then water + hands.

and I bet he never gets spots either!

I have noticed he never gets chapped lips either!!

four, good for you.

(I at least hope he shaves first - that could be painful)

shaving stubble fanny rash. lovely

jenen- if you have a partner and sexual activity starts in the morning- would you insist that he goes for a shave?

I have seen people using the same small basin of water to clean everything!
They don't empty it in etween. It's disgusting.

Isn't washing usually a private business? I think your sample size is small and most people refill the basin if necessary.

Still traumatised from my sister staying with us and carefully draping her flannel over the bath each day. That thing went ages without needing a wash!

That was my mum's objection MadAngryGnome. She had a horror of people leaving them, not even draped but screwed up in soap scum and skin flakes by the side of the sink and rub them on their faces and bodies every day.

A friend came to stay with her flannel and I knew it wouldn't go down well .

What did it was she didn't have a washing machine for ages so flannels would have to be boiled on the hob and carefully dried. Fuck that when you're doing a load of other handwashing including shitty terry nappies.

So you can see she told us to use our hands to wash. If she'd have grown up with washing machines she probably wouldn't have hated them. I have but I just can't shake the idea that flannels are wrong.

I am dying at my desk reading this. Love how it has descended into a fanjo washing debate. MNers seem to love discussing fanny washing.

I bloody love a flannel. I only use them on my face. Clean one in the morning, use the same one at night, then in the wash. I use exfoliating gloves on my body and then hang them over the bath to dry. I also have a toilet brush, don't change my bed sheets weekly, wear jeans about 10 times before washing them and don't change my bra every day. Take THAT!

I wish my oven was as self cleaning as my fanjo.

It'll take more than a soapy flannel to get that off.

I use muslin cloths for washing my face - I'm a huge fan of Hot cloth polish cleanser and these are part of the routine. Other than that, a clean flannel every morning and evening doesn't take up much space in the washing pile and takes no time to dry!

If they're clean, fresh and dry what is the problem? If they were soggy and slimy and left dumped in the sink (my DH's trick) I'd understand.

We have flannels but they are only used once and then washed - OH uses them rinsed in cold water and wrung out then puts it across his forehead when he has a bad headache.