To wonder why hankies haven't made a comeback?

[Eestar]

The world is so eco friendly and waste conscious now... plastic straws are out with the dinosaurs, light bulbs have completely changed since my childhood, and using plastic bags seems almost punishable by law... Some of my braver friends have even embraced cloth nappies.

With all of this in mind, using single-use paper tissues just to blow your nose seems such a waste, with an easy and obvious solution - so why are hankies not more of a 'thing' by now??

For me, the ick factor isn't them being reusable, it's the fact that they're used, carried around in a pocket or bag, then taken out and re-used (multiple times) before eventually getting washed.

Last I checked, nobody gets their dirty underwear out in public 🙃

My DH puts a fresh hanky in his pocket every morning. It’s what he was taught by his dad. I’ve never thought it was disgusting but I can understand that point of view.

Yes, but the stuff on my phone isn't cold and soggy and congealed.

For me, it's not a hygiene thing so much as a texture and sensory thing. I'm the same with damp socks, for example. It just makes me heave.

Blimey - people are sooo precious about 'icky' things.

How the fuck did the human race survive for the millenia before the last 80 years??

We have these things called washing machines now.

Also @BottleBlondeMachiavelli what she said

Yeah, for me it's not just about hygiene but also about the idea of carrying a cloth full of cold, congealed snot around in your pocket, and using it again to wipe your nose.

Washing machines don't make any difference to that!

Hankies have germs all over them. Why people tuck these germ laden damp snot rags in pockets and sleeves is incomprehensible.
It's far more hygienic to blow the contents of your nose into a paper tissue and dispose of it down the loo.
Yes kids have toileting accidents and for those clothes you can rinse under a hot water or soak prior to washing.

Also, people don't carry around their kids' soiled underwear in their pocket or shove them up their sleeves -_-

Is that option not open to you with hankies?

@Allseeingallknowing I can guarantee there are pplenty of people who don't do what you'd like to think they do.

Also, I wasn’t offering an opinion on whether or not it’s gross to use a hankie and then shove it up your sleeve, I was commenting specifically on your complaint about it being something that you wouldn’t deign to allow near your washing machine. I have no particular love of hankies as my FIL whips his out of his sleeve and uses them to wipe anything he spills on the table.

Perhaps I could but because the other option is far more hygienic I won't.

Ah yes sensory sensitivity I do get. For me it’s clothing labels and olives.

@BottleBlondeMachiavelli it's weird what triggers different people isn't it? I cut labels out of my clothes but love olives!

It’s just vile to blow your nose on a snot rag in front of other people. Disgusting. Agree with PP that the vaginal discharge argument is nonsensical because I don’t wave my knickers around…

@Eestar Cloth nappies when we used them in the 1980s were rinsed off in the loo, soaked in a solution that disinfected them, rinsed and then washed at 90C. We also used a nappy liner with them so the actual poo hardly went on the nappy.

How is that any worse than washing underwear that can have all sorts on them?

Oooh I've heard you do .

As in, that’s under layers of clothes, not held aloft and picked out of a sleeve and put back through the day. So so vile.

Tres mature!

And to PP, yes I only use one tissue per nose blow! Of course!

Again, other people don’t have to SEE those.

Me too. I couldn’t even finish a date with someone who used a hankie tbh…

If I’m ever single again I think I’ll up the hanky use just to weed out the neurotics.

The human race has been around for millennia. Disposable paper tissues have been with us for decades. Anyone over 40 or 45, must have used fabric handkerchiefs as children. The disgusted reactions are out of all proportion, considering this was until recently a societal norm.

The human race survived because we're all programmed to be disgusted by, and avoid, obvious indicators of ill health like snot, blood and vomit.

Anyone who snivelled so much that they needed to carry a cloth around with them every day would've been unwelcome in public until very recent times.

Anyone who snivelled so much that they needed to carry a cloth around with them every day would've been unwelcome in public until very recent times.

That is a very novel take on social history.

I expect the “coughs and sneezes spread diseases” campaign was a joke of some support.