To think hygiene standards are low in Britain?

[castemary]

This obviously does not apply to everyone. But in Britain, I think there is a general acceptance of fairly low hygiene standards. I see it in several areas.
With individuals you have people telling everyone they do not wash bras for months, do not clean their teeth every day, do not wash face masks every day.
In public areas, offices and shops the cleaning often consist of no more than a quick hoover occasionally, a mop and a bit of damp wiping. Apart from toilets, places are rarely properly cleaned.
I think most people simply do not realise how unhygienic Britain is until they go to countries that do have a good standard of hygiene. There seems to be a lot of emphasis in Britain on superficial things that make places look good such as scatter cushions or make-up, and not on basic hygiene and cleanliness.
AIBU?

@Kisskiss

I was complaining to an Italian friend , because my British husband doesn’t shower every day .. I find this really unhygienic/off-putting . She admitted that she only washes in bits , No daily shower . So a wipe down of certain areas with a towel!! This a very well put together woman btw , you would have no idea..

Just because you find it off-putting doesn't make it objectively unhygienic though.

Lots of people don't sweat much and don't need to shower their whole body every single day to stay clean.

Many people these days over-wash their bodies, which is bad for both our skin/ hair and the environment.

Well, if you don’t like it here OP, why not just fuck off to somewhere else?

@Nannewnannew

I kissed my dogs, when I had them, but I must admit I don’t like seeing dogs being allowed to lick peoples faces, particularly children. 🤢

I don’t either. I kiss the top of my dog’s head, she’s not allowed to lick faces.

i worked in close proximity with someone who only washed her hair once a week at the very most and often less than that.
She also did not believe in deodorant and did not wash her clothes enough. And believe me, you could tell all of that without needing to be told.

There were lots of days when she really smelled very strongly. Her nails were never particularly clean yet she had perfect make-up and manicured eyebrows daily.

She was married with 2 very young children too. I often used to wonder about the hygiene of the wider family. She always shirked communal cleaning up in the shared office kitchen.

We all shower daily here and have clean underwear and close contact clothing (vest / tshirts etc) every day. DD gets an entire clean uniform daily. Beds are changed weekly and towels / tea-towels after each use.
From the day she was born dd was bathed daily and had her hair washed and clean clothes and she has carried on in this vein, showering every evening before bed. Her skin is blemish free and always has been. She never once had nappy rash either.

I think it's a complete myth that washing children frequently gives them skin issues, in fact I think most children I have encountered could stand to being washed FAR more frequently than they are.

So many children reek of oily unwashed hair and have very grubby finger nails...

I mean, if Japan is the only place you count as clean (admittedly it is spectacularly clean in most places), then I can understand why you would be disappointed everywhere else. Some parts of Seoul are very clean too. And Singapore. Though none of these are in South Asia.

It’s mostly because it’s so cold here isn’t it (haven’t RTFT). Am amazed at how many people have voted YABU 😯

When I go to horse riding competitions I'm often away Friday to Sunday. Most of have trailers, not nice lorries, and we sleep in the trailer that the horse has travelled in. Usually we are camping in a field with portaloos and a trough as the only facilities and have to take all water for human use with us. Food storage for the whole weekend is a cool box. By and large it's the healthiest group of people I have ever met

Sounds fabulous.

@castemary

This obviously does not apply to everyone. But in Britain, I think there is a general acceptance of fairly low hygiene standards. I see it in several areas. With individuals you have people telling everyone they do not wash bras for months, do not clean their teeth every day, do not wash face masks every day. In public areas, offices and shops the cleaning often consist of no more than a quick hoover occasionally, a mop and a bit of damp wiping. Apart from toilets, places are rarely properly cleaned. I think most people simply do not realise how unhygienic Britain is until they go to countries that do have a good standard of hygiene. There seems to be a lot of emphasis in Britain on superficial things that make places look good such as scatter cushions or make-up, and not on basic hygiene and cleanliness. AIBU?

I bet this ends up in the DMail later this week. 'Half of UK Mum's aren't bothered/are obsessed with hygiene'

For us, we wash chicken - we've done so for generations and I know no one in my culture who doesn't wash theirs. We're all still alive and very rarely have food-related illness. Well, I don't really wash mine now and I know it would blow people's minds back home but everything here has been stripped, processed to eternity and packaged, I can see why they don't need washing.

Where I'm from, we wash food to rinse off grains of sand, stone or anything that may be on them before cooking, not to scrub clean with soap but because they come straight from the farms to the markets/shops. Even if packaged, you don't expect workers to have cleaned them enough. We couldn't imagine cooking chicken with sand, dust, tiny stones and particles, like marinating in the bath in one's own filth.

We also wash beans and rice for the same reason. You can always tell when someone didn't pick/wash their rice or beans enough while eating.

I would probably be cleaner and more hygienic.. IF I DIDN’T HAVE A LIFE!

I’d be really interested to know which countries you are taking about - there can’t be many! The UK has far higher hygiene standards than many European countries and certainly higher than many in the developing world, where very sadly health and quality of life can be affected by poor sanitation. We are actually really lucky.

If you’re comparing the UK with places like Switzerland, Germany, Japan, and other places with a very high GDP you may be right. But obviously it’s all relative.

It's always a depressing experience using the toilet for the first time after returning from Japan. The realisation that toilet seats in the UK don't automatically heat up when you sit down is a bitter pill to swallow - especially in winter.

@UniBallEye

i worked in close proximity with someone who only washed her hair once a week at the very most and often less than that. She also did not believe in deodorant and did not wash her clothes enough. And believe me, you could tell all of that without needing to be told.

There were lots of days when she really smelled very strongly. Her nails were never particularly clean yet she had perfect make-up and manicured eyebrows daily.

She was married with 2 very young children too. I often used to wonder about the hygiene of the wider family. She always shirked communal cleaning up in the shared office kitchen.

We all shower daily here and have clean underwear and close contact clothing (vest / tshirts etc) every day. DD gets an entire clean uniform daily. Beds are changed weekly and towels / tea-towels after each use.
From the day she was born dd was bathed daily and had her hair washed and clean clothes and she has carried on in this vein, showering every evening before bed. Her skin is blemish free and always has been. She never once had nappy rash either.

I think it's a complete myth that washing children frequently gives them skin issues, in fact I think most children I have encountered could stand to being washed FAR more frequently than they are.

So many children reek of oily unwashed hair and have very grubby finger nails...

I guess they probably do by your standards....

But have you considered that they are just your standards? And that they are actually quite high? And that unwashed hair/ grubby fingernails aren't actually making those children ill?

Everyone is different. As long as there's no neglect/ abuse, live and let live.

You might want to have a think about the environmental impact vs. benefits of washing your towels so much though!

OP:
You’re talking nonsense. When we return to a UK airport, I am struck by the clean loos which do not stink. At other European airports, you don’t have to wander around trying to locate the loos. Why? Because you can SMELL them. Ugh. Both female and male loos are awful.

Haven’t read beyond your first post, incidentally. I know how this will develop and I have no wish to waste my time. You are wrong. The loos at Chania bus station in Crete are actually unusable and would be more fitting in a 1930s farmyard. I just couldn’t use the drains of horror. Dear god, talk about uncivilised.

@TheSugarRefiner You sit on public toilets? I once wondered why when I started doing squats that I found them quite easy. Turns out since I was a child I was an excellent hoverer, thus my thigh muscles helped when squatting - sitting on a public toilet makes my stomach turn.

East asian countries like South Korea and Japan definitely have better standards. I come from SE asia and yes the standards are lower when it comes to poor areas of the country but not when it comes to personal hygiene especially for the richer and middle class people I think. Personally I was surprised when I first came here to know that people don't wash their bum after a poo, take their shoes inside the house, not wash everyday, wear work clothes inside the house until bedtime, etc. The trains are really horrible and during winter (pre-pandemic), it's normal to be just coughing everywhere on the train! No wonder why everyone is sick during winter!

Similarly people on public transport in the UK do not reek of BO.

Personally I think cleanliness is highly over rated - there's a reason that children living on farms are the healthiest. Most cleaning products are hazardous, awful for the environment, awful for your skin if they get on there, awful for you to breathe in.
Constantly washing is really not good for your skin either, water is very drying especially hard water and a lot of the products we wash with are full of chemicals too. Washing liquid/tabs are often really horrible, just the smell of them makes me feel ill they have such an unnatural perfume smell.

@nancywhitehead, we use small towels, not huge bath sheets for this very purpose and we have a large drum washing machine so generally | can wash all the towels once a week, pretty much the same as someone reusing all their large towels and washing once a week...

We prefer this option in order to have clean towels.

I think this is a sweeping statement OP. Just because some people are not clean does not mean the whole nation is like that! I’ve travelled the world and lived on 4 continents including years in America. I am always struck by how clean and orderly the British Isles is when I return.
You obviously know some unclean people and have worked for some companies with dubious cleanliness - please don’t put us all in that same boat.

@mimi0708

East asian countries like South Korea and Japan definitely have better standards. I come from SE asia and yes the standards are lower when it comes to poor areas of the country but not when it comes to personal hygiene especially for the richer and middle class people I think. Personally I was surprised when I first came here to know that people don't wash their bum after a poo, take their shoes inside the house, not wash everyday, wear work clothes inside the house until bedtime, etc. The trains are really horrible and during winter (pre-pandemic), it's normal to be just coughing everywhere on the train! No wonder why everyone is sick during winter!

What? This just is not true! Not washing after going to the toilet, wearing outdoor work clothes. Not washing daily etc... etc... who have you been talking to? This is not a trend across the nation. Maybe question who told you this, they were maybe simply speaking for themselves. They don’t speak for me or people I know.

I have lived in Scandinavian countries in the past and they are so much cleaner than in Britain; Iceland and Norway especially so.

For a start, everyone takes their outdoor shoes off when going into a building, in Iceland it's any building at all, not just homes. Children wear little indoor slippers in school, no-one would come walking filthy outdoor shoes into anyone's home they were visiting.
If you go to Svalbard (OK, I accept that not many people do!) you even take you shoes off at door of many shops and always when entering the pub for an evening. No bringing outdoor germs, grit and dust into a building.

The British (in general, although I accept it's a generalisation and many individuals will do otherwise) do not wash their hands enough, do not keep their kitchens and bathrooms scrupulously clean, do not change their bed sheets and towels enough, and some wear clothes more than once before washing them.

And that's before I even get started on the lack of hygiene in some British shops, offices and even restaurant kitchens......!

I really couldn’t give a shit how often anyone washes their bra or whatever, but the standard of cleanliness in public toilets and offices is definitely higher in some other eu countries.

I’m not sure where in the country you live or what company you keep but it’s not normal to not brush yourself teeth twice a day. That’s basic hygiene.