To be irrationally annoyed by women putting their make up on on trains?!

[stillstanding]

There is a woman who gets the same train as me in the mornings and every day she spends half an hour gazing into her mirror applying her make up and generally having a good look at herself. I find it incredibly annoying but I'm not sure quite why ... I just find grooming like this in public quite off-putting.

I mean, I know that it can be a huge rush in the morning to get out the door and I for one have certainly left the house with a naked face in my time but I then go to the loo at work and sort myself out. I wouldn't dream of doing it in front of a carriage load of onlookers and certainly not as daily ritual.

Anyone else feel like this or am I alone in my irrational pet hate??

[MillyR]

I put makeup on when I am on the train.

It is not my public face, it is my work face. I am not at work on the train, so I don't bother applying makeup before leaving the house.

I don't consider it a private activity. It is not dirty, smelly, sexually stimulating or revealing of intimacy between 2 lovers, so why does it require privacy?

It takes up no more space, movement, or elbow room than turning the pages of a newspaper.

So YABU.

[sparechange]

"As for the staring thing, if they bring it out in public then it's fair game to stare."

Does that extend to breastfeeding in public?
The whole 'they should go and do it in the toilet' 'why can't they do this at home, I don't want to see it in the morning' remind me of all the usual arguments rolled out by knuckledraggers everytime a woman is turfed out of a cafe for breastfeeding and there is a big debate in the press...

[AnotherBloodySugaBabe]

I can't believe people find it 'annoying'.

How easily annoyed you must be!

Personally, when I'm on the tube of a morning, I find the following annoying:

Having to stand
Having to stand an inch away from someone I dont know
Having to stand an inch away from someone I dont know who coughs intermittently without covering their mouth / stinks / talks to me

Make up? Pah. You bunch of lightweights.

[AnAuntieNotAMum]

YABU - I do it quite often as I'm a chronically late person. It's not anti-social, don't make noise, don't get in anyone's way, don't pluck eyebrows, don't file nails, don't squeeze spots or pick nose as many of my fellow tube travellers do.

[piprabbit]

Make-up on trains doesn't annoy me - but I do reserve the right to snigger (behind my paper).

[mehdismummy]

wow i am impressed by the christmas presents on her lap i cant even do it with a whole carpet full of space!!! i dont actually care what anyone else is doing on the train as long as it isnt harming myself or ds but heh we must be annoyed by something someone else is doing beacuse just minding our own business is just not cricket is it?

[trellism]

I sat next to a woman on the Tube who was putting her curlers in. Not taking them out, putting them in. I guess she figured that the 30 minute trip in the Northern Line fug would be the perfect climate to set her hair.

Not to mention the woman who sat down and proceeded to wrap (rather elaborately) several Christmas presents on her lap.

[piprabbit]

I think it's definitely a bit odd to apply make-up on a train. The women I used to commute with always seemed to feel they needed quite a lot of make-up and preparation (including eyelash curling, eyebrow tweezing etc.).

So, you are worried about your colleagues seeing your unmade-up face and can't risk popping into the loo on your way into the office.
Instead, you prefer to sit in front of dozens of strangers (but probably the same strangers that you catch the train with everyday), and let them watch you create the illusion that your skin is not blotchy and you lips are naturally pouty.
Well, I'll let you into a secret, you're not fooling us - we could see your face when you first sat down and know that those cheeckbones are just blusher....

[StableButDeluded]

I can't imagine why anyone would NEED to cut their toenails on a train anyway, though. Why was it so urgent it has to be done on a train, right there and then?

I only think putting make-up on in public is odd because I know I couldn't do it. I would keep thinking that everyone around me was watching and thinking 'Ooh, that lipstick is a horrid shade' or 'get her, trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear'

I clearly have self-esteem ishoos

[stainesmassif]

i once watched a woman applying her make up opposite me on the train. pretty intimate in a public space. hey ho.

she sneezed.
into her hand.
continued to apply foundation to her face with her hand.....bleurgh. sneeze face.

[bibbitybobbityhat]

I am intrigued by any job that is so good that you have to get up at 4.45am and commute 5 hours a day to do it.

[notcitrus]

I'm always fascinated by the women who spend half an hour on makeup, presumably every day. Especially when they look worse at the end than when they started!

Think of all the reading time they're eating into! (although seeing as most people are only reading the Metro, they aren't missing that much...)

Have to admit I did once cut my toenails on a tube, but I was the only person in the carriage and figured I had a 99% chance of remaining so for the next 3 stops, so it wasn't like anyone saw!

[JonahB]

OMG mrsS, that is truly horrid!!!

[JonahB]

I put my make-up on while I'm on the train. The train leaves at 6.10 and its a 2 1/2 hr journey. As it is, i have to get up at 4:45. There is no way on this planet i'm getting up 15 mins earlier to put my make-up on. I don't particularly like doing it on a train, but needs (and my sleep) take precedence.

[MrsSchadenfreude]

I do my make up in the car before getting on the train. There is someone on my train who has an entire briefcase of slap which she opens every morning (am v envious of her brush collection) and spends about half an hour transforming herself.

I don't mind that. I objected hugely to the woman in sandals who picked her feet - gouging at the hard bits of skin with a pair of nail scissors and then eating the bits that she had picked off. She was utterly engrossed in what she was doing and completely oblivious to the horror of those around her.

And I also objected to the man on my train who decided to floss his teeth and was spraying everyone nearby with bits of rotting food he was gouging out.

London Midland, Milton Keynes to Euston. We do see life.

[echt]

It looks common. This is what my mum told me, and it's true. As is doing one's hair in public.

[hatesponge]

YABU

• but then I would say that, because I do my make up on the train/tram every day, have done for as long as I can remember, even pre-DC I have no time to do if before I leave the house, I've always got more important stuff to do which I can't do on the journey into work, and once I get to work I'd rather get stright on with what I need to do, so that I can get home on time & sometimes even take a break for lunch.

As well as the make up, I have also been known to paint my nails on public transport, and occasionally file them as well, but only if I had just broken/caught one.

[valhala]

Somewhere in the depths of my memory is a story told to me by a teacher, oh, 35 years ago. Apparently it was back in the 1920s that an actress caused a storm in press and society by applying her lipstick in public.

In the hope that we've moved on I am not offended in the least by public make-up applying and will indulge in it myself if I have a meeting to attend and want my make-up to look fresh and not smudged and half-worn off.

But.... I think that YANBU as you didn't ask if making-up in public was ok, you said that this is an irrational pet hate. How can you be being unreasonable when you have already admittted to being irrational?!

I still don't understand what the heck it is that bugs you though!

[MrsMerryHenry]

"Intimate grooming" = shaving one's muff. Drying one's muff. Having a shower. Removing one's body hair. Applying body cream. Applying make-up simply doesn't compare.

[slyandgobbo]

I love watching people do makeup on trains. Am completely thrilled when i spot it happening and watch surreptitiously. Love seeing what makeup bags they have, what products they use, how they apply them one-handed, what tiny mirrors they employ. Actually go into a blissful sort of fugue state....

[nickytwotimes]

Balloon, you are not alone, no!

[nickytwotimes]

Yanbu.
Private activity imo.
However, you can just ignore.

[BalloonSlayer]

Talking of doing "intimate grooming" in public, am I the only person who cannot brush their teeth in front of anyone else?

I think it's the spitting bit.

I feel if I find anyone cleaning their teeth in the loo at work. And I know that is ridiculous.

Just thought I'd share ...

[opinionatedmother]

surely the point is that if you have dropped your baby off before boarding the train, you're best off doing make-up on he train to avoid lip-sticking your cherubs when you kis them bye-bye?

last time i was on a train, i did make up on it. It's harder to manage whilst cycling.