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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think filing nails on public transport is grim?

101 replies

nailsonthebus · 19/06/2023 09:22

I can understand makeup. I can't understand why anyone would think it ok to file their nails on a bus or train. The noise. The nail dust going everywhere. Just grim. aibu?

OP posts:
Mommasgotabrandnewbag · 19/06/2023 15:15

Saw a woman on a bus full on contour her face once. I was gobsmacked, not because of impropriety but because of how well and quickly she did it, on a moving bus.

She did look a bit bonkers for a few minutes though 😂 lines everywhere.

littleburn · 19/06/2023 15:18

YANBU. I also find people brushing (shedding!) their hair on public transport really grim too. Also people using hair spray, perfume/after shave and painting nails. It's a shared public space, not your bathroom. It's basic courtesy not to impose on your fellow travellers' space with stinky nail polish, dead hair and nail filings! 🤢

itshotontheplayground · 19/06/2023 15:19

Mommasgotabrandnewbag · 19/06/2023 15:15

Saw a woman on a bus full on contour her face once. I was gobsmacked, not because of impropriety but because of how well and quickly she did it, on a moving bus.

She did look a bit bonkers for a few minutes though 😂 lines everywhere.

These people must think they have an invisible shield, and that no one can see them make-up free or while they are putting it on 😂

It's so lazy, they could just as well do it at home privately!

Sussexcricket · 19/06/2023 16:35

Wouldn't bother me.
We shed stuff all the time surely 🤷‍♀️
Also not fussed about make up and hair brushing.
Who cares ?!

blahblahblah1654 · 19/06/2023 16:35

It's never bothered me. Public transport is filthy and germy whether someone is grooming themselves or not! I'd be more nirjeeed if someone was being aggressive and antisocial. No harm in someone minis if their own business filing their nails or doing their makeup.

blahblahblah1654 · 19/06/2023 16:36

I'd be more annoyed*! Silly sausage fingers.

Lemonyfuckit · 19/06/2023 16:41

Thingsthatgo · 19/06/2023 09:35

YANBU see also: painting nails, spraying perfume or using hairspray.

Yep and this. And eating strong smelling food (and don't get me started on playing music/videos/games without headphones).

No issue with doing makeup of course as has zero impact on fellow travellers.

CoffeeCantata · 19/06/2023 17:00

I've sat opposite someone doing their make-up on the tube and it's embarrassing. I didn't know where to look. I resented this person taking over the carriage as her personal boudoir, which is what it felt like.

You could wait to get off before filing a nail, surely? And find somewhere - work, public loo, seat in the park - to do it. Don't want to inhale powdered keratin, or get it on my clothes, thanks.

QueefQueen80s · 19/06/2023 17:00

Thepeopleversuswork · 19/06/2023 12:57

I have never really understood why people consider personal grooming in public so offensive and I have to say I think quite a lot of this is subconscious misogyny.

Why should discreetly applying make-up on a train be a sign of poor character or distracting? It's only distracting if you want people (and let's be honest we're talking about women here) to remain in neat, impassive and clean little boxes throughout all their interactions with no sign of divergence from this impassive and inoffensive behaviour.

Men routinely do far more irritating and offensive things on trains than applying make-up without passing comment. I had a bloke on a train this weekend fall literally fall asleep on my shoulder. I regularly sit in carriages with male mouth-breathers and manspreaders and people who reek of booze or eat smelly food or who listen to aggressively loud music or YouTube clips or shout at one another or have performative conversations with colleagues about work or sing football songs. Women (over the age of 25 anyway) rarely behave like this, they are cowed into not doing anything.

But silently applying a near-sterile and inoffensive substance that's designed to make you more personable on a train carriage is often called out as bad behaviour. I call sexism.

Brilliant post 🙌🏼

QueefQueen80s · 19/06/2023 17:01

CoffeeCantata · 19/06/2023 17:00

I've sat opposite someone doing their make-up on the tube and it's embarrassing. I didn't know where to look. I resented this person taking over the carriage as her personal boudoir, which is what it felt like.

You could wait to get off before filing a nail, surely? And find somewhere - work, public loo, seat in the park - to do it. Don't want to inhale powdered keratin, or get it on my clothes, thanks.

Embarrassing!? You sound insecure and weirdly involved in what others do. Just don't look.

QueefQueen80s · 19/06/2023 17:03

@Maztek That's awful, I will carry a roll-on in future.

Sigmama · 19/06/2023 17:05

Queefofqueens, its hard not to look if they're opposite you

Sigmama · 19/06/2023 17:06

Papareversuswirk, so make-up makes you look more 'personable'? Says who?

OriginalUsername2 · 19/06/2023 17:19

Riapia · 19/06/2023 13:57

Not at all surprising considering the class of person that uses public transport.
😉😁😁

Professionals in suits?

onlywayissussex · 19/06/2023 17:23

If you commute regularly, you'll see people applying make up all the time. I don't do it as people stare and I don't like that kind of attention

Sigmama · 19/06/2023 17:28

I guess they're exhibitionists

Original poster
nailsonthebus · 19/06/2023 17:32

Riapia · 19/06/2023 13:57

Not at all surprising considering the class of person that uses public transport.
😉😁😁

Bit rude

OP posts:
LaMaG · 19/06/2023 17:32

Make up wouldn't bother me unless it's powder everywhere. Filing nails - no way, all those bits of dust flying around. Same with brushing hair in a confined space, it's shocking what comes out of hair especially thick curly type hair. Spraying deodorant is often banned in public areas, I get a reaction to it like hay-fever type symptoms so I feel strongly about that one.

What about sun cream? I think no DH thinks yes. We were in a very upmarket place once at a cafe/ wine bar sitting outside and next thing he is slathering it on while people were eating around us. I was mortified, we looked like trashy tourist but he argued it's not a bathroom / private thing.

Original poster
nailsonthebus · 19/06/2023 17:33

Hmmmbetterchangethis · 19/06/2023 13:47

You wouldn’t get that on Swiss trains would you @nailsonthebus 😉☺️

Not been on one - are they clean?

OP posts:
Original poster
nailsonthebus · 19/06/2023 17:34

Fuchs1a · 19/06/2023 14:11

I used to get a train every morning with someone who would floss her teeth. Now that’s grim.

Envy
OP posts:
MyUsernameIsBetterThanYours · 19/06/2023 19:14

I do lots of things on public transport others clearly find grim:

  • makeup
  • eating food
  • getting on in my running clothes after having been for a run (I think I wouldn't if I thought I was going to honk)
But for some reason I'd draw the line at filing or cutting my nails. I don't think someone else filing would bother me but I think I'd find cutting nails a bit gross. Not enough to get my knickers in a twist about it though.
msmonstera · 19/06/2023 19:21

We too have communal women’s work deodorant… but it lives in the (one at a time) women’s loo!

GwinCoch · 19/06/2023 19:32

DappledThings · 19/06/2023 13:39

I can't see how it's that much. Even if it was the full ten nails then unless someone's taking them from 3 inch long talons to right down to the end of the white bit it's miniscule amounts of dust.

I would probably see someone filing their nails and assume they had some broken ones they wanted to deal with before they catch on something. Whereas applying make-up serves no such purpose and therefore irritates me.

I'm not claiming rationality here, just saying what I find annoying. In the hierarchy of annoyingness on trains I would go:

  1. playing music out loud including leaking through headphones
  2. talking on the phone for any length of time beyond about 1 minute essential conversation
  3. clacky laptop keyboards
  4. putting on make-up
  5. bags on seats/sitting on aisle seat when window seat is free

Smelly food rarely bothers me.

Show quote history

Mostly this - it’s about the social contract isn’t it?

  • Don’t do your whole manicure on the train, but by all means sort out one snagged nail
  • Don’t watch listen to a whole song on loudspeaker, but hey if you get sent a 30 second video then just turn it down but play it out
  • Do the last minute touches to makeup, but don’t open your palette on the train table and lay out all your brushes

We all have to live in this world. Do your minimum to impinge - there is a place where incongruous meets obnoxiousness.

Original poster
nailsonthebus · 19/06/2023 20:05

GwinCoch · 19/06/2023 19:32

Mostly this - it’s about the social contract isn’t it?

  • Don’t do your whole manicure on the train, but by all means sort out one snagged nail
  • Don’t watch listen to a whole song on loudspeaker, but hey if you get sent a 30 second video then just turn it down but play it out
  • Do the last minute touches to makeup, but don’t open your palette on the train table and lay out all your brushes

We all have to live in this world. Do your minimum to impinge - there is a place where incongruous meets obnoxiousness.

Show quote history

I mean if I'm honest I cranked the music up in my headphones to try and drown out the repeated scrape scrape as my teeth got set on edge. Then she brushed her nail dust off and someone unknowingly sat in it. I wanted to get off!

OP posts:
Original poster
nailsonthebus · 19/06/2023 20:07

I've no problem with make up as long as there's not powder involved as that seems a bit messy. Also I worry they'll poke their eye when they try mascara like they are in an episode of casualty.

OP posts: