To be a bit taken aback?

[Iveputmyselfonthenaughtystep]

Been going to my gym for a while now. Changing rooms are a mixed bag of women coyly retreating to cubicles, coyly wriggling under a towel in the open plan bit, semi-boldly stripping off to change but doing it very quickly and the odd octogenarian who obviously no longer gives any kind of a fuck and just gets undressed and dressed in her own good time.

All of these are fine and dandy and I do my best to give them privacy by keeping my eyes focused on my own stuff. This week though there was a woman who made me double take and then not know where to look.

Ignoring the fact that she left all her stuff laid out over an entire bench for the duration of her residency in the gym (ie - it was there when I got there. There when I went to change for the sauna and showers and there when I came out of the showers, so a good 90 minutes) she sauntered out of the shower with her towel wrapped round her head and flip flops on. Nowt else. Dries herself off thoroughly whilst admiring herself in the mirror. So far, so bold, fair play to her, though I wish she'd been a little more considerate of space.

This is the bit that flabbergasted me though and I genuinely want to know if I'm being unreasonable to have wished she'd kept it to home....

Still stark bollock naked she wanders over to the full length mirror in the centre of the changing rooms, which is in a central thoroughfare bit, so everyone has to go past relatively closely to move from one bit of the changing rooms to any other, holding a mitt and a bottle and proceeds to spend nearly 20 minutes applying fake tan to her naked self. I think the worst bit was glancing up as she bent over in front of me to do her legs. I mean, she had a nice figure, she obviously looks after herself, but there's some views that only intimate partners and gynaecologists should be privy to in my opinion, yet I was treated to a good old look.

Aibu to expect extensive nudity and fake tanning to be done in private? Am I a horrible old prude? I had a giggle about it afterwards but I do kind of hope I'm not subjected to that again as it made me rather uncomfortable.

You watched her for 20 minutes?

Its showing off, pure and simple. "Look how great I look, aren't you envious? Dont you wish you looked like me?!" and that little cloud of ego will carry her around until her next visit because she "knows" that everyone in the changing room was gazing in admiration at her perfection.

Poor cow.

You certainly had a jolly good look at her. 😬

Weird. Years ago at the local swimming pool 2 women spent ages blow drying their hair while completely naked, it was very much a change in cubicles sort of place so i thought that was odd, but the fake tan thing takes the biscuit.

was leaving the changing room a couple of months ago (I'm definitely a coy cubicle changer) and saw one woman topless with a towel on her head FaceTiming her husband/boyfriend while she was wandering around and faffing with her makeup

Erm...what?

If it happens again, please speak directly to her. Don’t wait until checkout.

“Do you have a live video connection? You need to take that outside the changing room. You’re invading everyone’s privacy.” Or something.

I don’t care what the gym rules are. That’s not on.

@FangsForTheMemory

She's an exhibitionist. I would have ostentatiously turned my back.

Ostentatiously 🤣

I remember being mortified as a child at seeing women shower naked in the horrible communal showers. The smell of WashnGo mixed with chlorine, being the wrong height to easily look away from certain things at eye level :-/

@Crunchymum

You watched her for 20 minutes?

Yes, op is the strange one in this scenario.

Absolutely gross. I do not want to see anyone naked, and certainly not in a public place.

@MaryAndGerryLivingInDerry

Changing rooms are a mixed bag of women coyly retreating to cubicles, coyly wriggling under a towel in the open plan bit, semi-boldly stripping off

Your language about women changing is strange.

It really isn't!

Walking around naked = fine if you must. Fake tanning in the changing rooms = absolutely not, it's not your flipping bathroom.

Nakedness I can cope with, bare bottoms or one foot on the bench/one on the floor eugh no
It's just no necessary in my book

@PyongyangKipperbang

Its showing off, pure and simple. "Look how great I look, aren't you envious? Dont you wish you looked like me?!" and that little cloud of ego will carry her around until her next visit because she "knows" that everyone in the changing room was gazing in admiration at her perfection.

Poor cow.

I’m a very conservative cubicle changer (not coy, urgh, hate that word in this context) but I don’t think she was necessarily showing off, she was just probably very comfortable in her body.

She shouldn’t have applied the fake tan or spread her stuff around, but no one forced OP to look up the woman’s labia minora.

YANBU sounds like she fancies herself.

@TannyFickler

I remember being mortified as a child at seeing women shower naked in the horrible communal showers. The smell of WashnGo mixed with chlorine, being the wrong height to easily look away from certain things at eye level :-/

Probably everyone is too young or British to remember, but there was an American comedian called George Carlin who had a joke about how being a child is overrated because “everything is a stiff neck and a crotch view.”

Meh, live and let live. The fake tan is odd but I have also seen someone wash a punnet of strawberries in the changing room shower then eat them while in the nip which was maybe weirder/at least on a par.

Naked women in the changing rooms helped me accept my body after years of eating disorders and misery. Funny enough went to a touristy spa in Sweden once. Lots of different languages being spoken in the changing rooms and the only women wriggling under towels to get changed were the British ones.

Aye right! Sure this happened. Very strange language for a woman to use!! Coyly changing!

As a PP poster mentioned sounds like how someone would imagine a female changing room to be like!

Let's hear all your stories of naked women in changing rooms. 🙄

It's wrong for people to apply fake tan or hair dye in the gym because of the mess - for a sign to be put up in the majority of local gyms I've been a member of, it must be a regular thing, too along with shaving all over in the showers which is also rank .

I'd definitely still prefer an unexpected eyeful of a woman than what was visible at the nearest local authority gym, though. They didn't have a door to the areas with the sinks, hairdryers and hand dryers (in the pursuit of providing disabled access) - so everybody who walked out of the female area was subjected to the sight of a small number of males in the corresponding male area drying more than their hands under them.

I quite like how the op described the changing room. Putting fake tan on is weird though, especially as it’s now November so there’s been nowt sun around for ages.

@ShagMeRiggins I am familiar with GC (no, not that GC) but hadn’t heard that line!

@Floundery

I apply fake tan at the gym - I'd rather their towels get Tango'ed than mine, frankly.

I do it in a cubicle though. No need to frighten the horses.

Your gym supplies towels?Wow!
One famous chain gym I had a one day pass for didn't even supply shower gel 😂 and the showers were communal..the OPs 'new friend' would have been beside herself ( sorry OP )

@SparklyDino

Aye right! Sure this happened. Very strange language for a woman to use!! Coyly changing!

As a PP poster mentioned sounds like how someone would imagine a female changing room to be like!

Let's hear all your stories of naked women in changing rooms. 🙄

My thoughts exactly

I thought you were being prudish til the fake tan

@SparklyDino

Aye right! Sure this happened. Very strange language for a woman to use!! Coyly changing!

As a PP poster mentioned sounds like how someone would imagine a female changing room to be like!

Let's hear all your stories of naked women in changing rooms. 🙄

Oh dear, do I need to post a photo of my bits to be believed? Get tae fuck, I'm a regular poster and name change occasionally but have more than enough posting history under this name if you feel the need to check on me.

Alternatively report me to mumsnet which is what you're supposed to do when you suspect troll.

Why the ageism? Aren't octogenarians allowed to take their time?

I agree with PP, you are using very strange language to describe what women do in a changing room.