Who actually uses HANDKERCHIEFS????? COME ON....

Its pretty revolting having a really snotty hanky in one's pocket. I mean sure, why waste paper, etc but bleuugh.

I know...and when I have to do my mom and step dad's laundry, there's always about 10 of them in a load...and he even has one with BLOOD on it...THROW IT AWAY! MY GOD!!!

Are you missing a "to" in that title?

Who actually comes on handkerchiefs???

http://manolomen.com/images/Mark%20Foley.jpg

http://www.nathanielturner.com/images/New_Folder/satchmorag.jpg

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Those are bandanas....

A bandana is a larger type of handkerchief often printed in a vibrant color and with a paisley pattern. Bandanas are most often used to hold hair back or to identify gang affiliation or used as a fashionable head accessory that may resemble how gangs may wear it but not all the time. In the US for instance, the Crips gang use blue handkerchiefs, and their rivals, the Bloods, use red, wearing the bandanas in various manners though generally not in the breast pocket of a jacket. Bandanas are also used for sanitary purposes, and because they are larger and not white (don't show stains as well), they are often used by those working outdoors or with machinery. Because they are connected to the working class they are also a symbol of working-class struggles, opposite of the cultured monied feel of a plain white handkerchief.

COME ON!!!

http://kingtom.thejamootz.com/img/gob.jpg

OMG!! Is that Patrick Wilson???

No, it's Will Arnett from Arrested Development. Although you're right, there is a bit of a similarity.

Oh...I recognize him now

i use handkerchiefs

Since my husband re-introduced them, I use'em more than tissues. Saves money (roffle) and... Well, I'm not sure why I use'em. I leave'em in my desk drawer. If anyone thinks that's icky, well you shouldn't have been rummaging in my drawer.

I think wads of tissue paper people keep in their pockets (and many people do use and reuse tissue paper) are much grosser than handkerchiefs. I like to carry a handkerchief (well actually a bandana) in my pocket in the summertime and dab at my sweaty brow. I don't wipe my nose with it, though. I use my sleeve or t-shirt for that.

a few houseshares ago one of the guys i lived with was kind of... icky. like, he was clean and good-hearted and clever and everything, but he was also a right-wing (i don't know how this reconciles with "kind-hearted", he was studying law and could argue his way into or out of any position) hardcore christian and always ate really foul-smelling cheap bacon. he used handkerchiefs. when taking his dry clothes off the rack to hang my own wet ones up, i found his handkerchiefs 1000x more gross and disquieting than his underpants.

Shoudl have seen the crotch, full of snot.

When I have a cold my nose goes red and raw after only a few blows with tissues. Would I save my fragile skin by using a hankie?

no, you need those special aloe-infused tissues for sissy-boys ;)

VASELINE IS WHAT YOU NEED

those fucking aloe-infused bleached tissues are the devil's work

stick vicks vaporub up your nostrils

Aja is back?

I use handkercheifs/bandanas for wiping sweat not blowing noses though.

When I have a cold my nose goes red and raw after only a few blows with tissues. Would I save my fragile skin by using a hankie?

I'm miserable with a cold right now and my nose is bright red!! Boo. I am going to go rummage in the bathroom for some vaseline now.

I just finished dabbing at my brow w/ an old embroidered handkerchief -- I keep about five of them in rotation all summer for un-sweating myself while trying to get to work in the AM. Not so successful this morning.

Down here in the more humid areas of the gulf states, people regularly walk around with washcloths and bandannas for this purpose. Not all flags you see hanging out of back pockets are for gang communication.

I was gonna post GOBsegway.jpg :(

I use a handkerchief.
What's the alternative, carry around a wad of tissues? Sure, it gets dirty, but then - I clean it!

handkerchiefs are useful in emergencies (small cuts, nosebleeds, surrendering, sneezing etc)

I use a handkerchief during my biannual colds that last 3 weeks long wherein I have t blow my nose every 4 minutes. It just gets impractical to carry round two boxes of tissue paper.

Yeah, this is what I'm wondering about tissue-users: what happens when you sneeze or get snotty when you're on the move (and you hadn't anticipated it by packing tissues). Snot on your sleeve?

Deli napkins.

There's always a crumpled wad of deli napkins in all my handbags -- they're technically "clean" (or they were before being in my purse for a month or two), just left over from getting coffee or a slice of pizza or whatev. They are my tissues in a pinch but tend to disintegrate under the assault of brow-sweat, which handkerchiefs handle much better.

i'm with ms. misery, handkerchiefs are necessary here in arkansas during summer.

some people here will not be surprised to know i carried a hankie from 1982 to 1996 (not the same one obv).

but i suddenly had a total ew! ew! ew! moment when i started thinking about all the Evil Germs i was carting around with me all day. so now it's aloe-infused pocket tissues all the way.

that said, i met one of my oldest and closest friends as a direct result of me carrying arounf a hankie (with a NAME-TAPE on it, no less), so they're obv not all bad!

Don't be so damn squeamish. When I blow my nose, I use a large bandana-style handkerchief. I have done this for about 35 years now. I almost never use dispoable tissues for this. As a result of this very practical habit, I have probably not-used something like 2000 boxes of tissues over that span (yes, I am a regular snot factory -- I have allergies).

When my current handkerchief gets grotty, I wash it. It is as simple as that. Sheesh. What will you do in the future when you have to change a diaper or wipe baby puke off your clothes?

This is a terrible confession. At night when I need to blow my nose I just use a pair of undies from the pile of dirty clothes on the floor beside the bed. It's going into the laundry anyway, so who cares? Besides, they're MY UNDERWEAR. It's not like I'm snotting on anyone else's clothes.

Beth, you are my hero.

Totally. I have a practically unlimited supply of white Tshirts that I sleep in/bum around in, they are generally all-purpose rags once worn, then go back into the laundry and are bleached.

Once I was on the outfield of a softball game so I couldnt go anywhere, and I had a big hayfever attack from the mown grass in the oval. I had nothing to blow my nose on and goo was streaming down my face.

So I blew my nose on a wad of clingfilm I happened to have left over from my lunch in my pocket.

i use SNOT ROCKETS and savor their every deployment

Sleeves come in handy. Also backs of winter gloves.

My dad, when he's doing construction, tilts his head forward 45º and blows the contents of his nose very forcefully onto the ground.

After a certain point in my biannual three-week-long colds, typically after the first week, my nose is so damned chapped that I have to use those like Aloe Fairycloud Gossamer Nosecomfort tissues, and yes, carry a whole box around with me all day to all my classes because hankies just hurt. It's so cumbersome and crappy.

A&D ointment smarmed around the nostrils is very soothing, plus it has that funky lanolin smell that I love.

I have a big nose, so the snot-rocket method doesn't work so well. I think you need a narrower gun-barrel. When I try to do it more times than not the snot just ends up all over my face.

well the key to a successful snot rocket launch is really pinching the other nostril shut with your finger. no points for grace here, it's strictly a utilitarian issue

if you smoke and get colds often and are tired of getting the colds then you should quit smoking because you'll find you don't get colds as often anymore not to mention you'll reduce your risk of lung cancer and save hella money (it is a good thing for anyone to do)

I just quit and I've been all having basically a week cough ever since stopping. Not that it will make me start up again. I did get a lot more colds while smoking, but I've been getting epic biannual colds since age 14.

week cough=weak cough, meaning like a low grade cough sickness

good for you, quittin like that

It was a semi-fortunate thing...I was in this horribly depressed state where I smoked a cigarette and was just suddenly like, "I HATE THIS. I HATE FEELING LIKE I'M DYING. I HATE BEING TRASHY." Past pseudo-epiphanies of this sort have stopped me from reading about records/musicians ever again and from wanting to be a teacher.

On bicycle rides, one is forced to "snot rocket", as iiiijjjjj calls it. Just gotta make sure there's no bros on yr back wheel.
I have also heard "snot rockets" referred to as "bushy blows".

no need to be modest Abbott, that's a bona-fide dyed-in-the-wool epiphany proper, one of the most rewarding caliber too

my father-in-law (Arkansas real estate agent) uses a confederate flag for a handkerchief

Whoa! Is he for or against it?

against, but for wiping snot all over it

That is the best thing I've heard to do with that flag.

i like the German word Taschentuecher (sorry to omit umlauts).

This is one of those things I may decide I do.

I usually have a cotton or linen pocket square in the breast pocket of my jacket. It's rare I use it to blow my nose but it has come in handy for blood, tears and, most often, to clean my glasses.

I've been thinking about getting some pocket squares so I don't have to come into direct contact with the handles on the metro.

Do you think a loosely woven square of cotton is good protection against germs? Better to just wash your hands afterward.

Plus then the germs are on the hankie and you're carrying it around all day. Will you make sure the "dirty" side faces the pole again on your commute home?

I don't really care about germs, it's just handy to have a cloth around, somethin to wipe my nose with. I don't carry a purse or buy packets of tissues so a hankie is the way to go, think I

You can usually get a pack of three at a men's clothier or haberdashery. I throw them in the wash at the weekend with my other cottons, and rarely bother to iron them, but three is usually enough to get through the week.

Do you think a loosely woven square of cotton is good protection against germs?

It's a good protection against a nasty, greasy stainless steel pole, that's for damn sure.

The nasty and greasy I can't speak for, I don't know what your trains are like. But stainless steel is pretty inhospitable for germs, cotton that's kept warm in your pocket has got to be a way better breeding ground? I mean, whatev, sometimes not having to touch the GREASE is the operative desire, germs notwithstanding.

The Washington Metrorail system is entirely nasty and dripping with goo. It's either some sort of barrier or learning how to balance real well.

Why on earth does anyone think it's perfectly acceptable to carry around their own snot? I feel like, "now dear, don't put boogers in your pocket" is some sort of matronly advice you never hear because that sounds CRAZY, because WHY WOULD I WANT BOOGERS IN MY POCKET, but in fact the reason you never hear it because it's been deemed by enough people as PERFECTLY OK and is actually practiced in real world reality. I even have a total mysophobe friend who carried a handkerchief and would use it on the floor of the grocery store we worked at, customers in the isle and everything, and would just fold it up and put it back in his pocket and proceed to fondling the canned goods.

i like the hand-tatted girly ornate ones. a friend of mine buys them for me from time to time at vintage stores.

He just used it when he was really sick, but that only heightened the total gross-out factor of it all. (xpost to me)

There is no way I would ever use a handkerchief bought from a vintage store.

News Flash: Washing Machines wash clothes.