Sharing Towels: Yay, Nay, or Just Okay?
I’m sort of fascinated with the different levels of comfort people have with each other regarding bathroom things.
For instance, there was the Hair on Soap.
Recently, I wondered about sharing bath towels.
I asked a few people and the reaction is all over the map.
Some people don’t care at all. Other people? Other people are downright violent about this topic.
SingleMomMindy said, “No WAY!” When I asked why, precisely, her response was to inform me that she “wouldn’t share underwear either.” I asked if she thought it was fair to compare a towel to underwear.
“I do.”
My friend, Bev, said she’d rather share a toothbrush than a bath towel!
Bath towel doesn’t really bother me. Whatever. At least they were clean when they used it, right? Underwear? Well, I assume by sharing underwear, you mean that you’d be putting it on clean – though it seems other issues at work with that one, aside from just sanitary ones. But toothbrush! That’s interesting to me.
So, I’m curious:
- What do you think about sharing a bath towel with your better half?
- Not right when they are done using it but after it has dried.and
- Which would you rather share with your better half? A toothbrush or a towel?
Just a random attorney writing about daily life with Little Filthy, my rotten dog.
February 16th, 2010 at 10:22 pm
Woot! I’ve arrived – I’m a blog topic!!
*bow down bitches*
February 16th, 2010 at 10:24 pm
- I just want to dry off. Unless you have open sores or something I’ll share your towel.
- Towel all the way. However, I have shared a toothbrush with my hubby. Not my preference but there has been a time or two when circumstances have demanded it.
February 16th, 2010 at 11:01 pm
People dry their faces, uglies, butts, armpits and feet on a bath towel. Thats like putting my face all up in all of the above. Why on earth would I want to do that ???? So no, I would not share a bath towel with anyone unless it’s my other half.
I don’t share toothbrushes either.
February 16th, 2010 at 11:22 pm
A bath towel for a body dry-off, yes, if I must. For my face/hair? No way. A washcloth? HELL NO! I am a germophobe.
February 16th, 2010 at 11:30 pm
well it depends. if we have just had sex then faces have probably already come in contact with (almost) all those places so it doesn’t phase me. however if no no nooky before hand then probably not- it would just make me feel pissy and irritable. Mind you to my hubby’s dismay I don’t like to reuse towels more than once like he does. They smell funny the next day.
February 16th, 2010 at 11:30 pm
I guess I’m a freak because none of thee above bug me. If the towel has been used like the day before and is dry…no issues. Previously just used and moist…no thanks, not unless I have no other option and that’s just cause it feels icky to use a moist towel.
Toothbrush…depends on who’s it is. Do I know you personally and can I vouch for the fact that you don’t have any really nasty cooties… again, not my first preference but if my option is fuzzy teeth and dragon breath or sharing a toothbrush, well put that Crest on that sucker and pass it my way.
Underwear? Clean, out of the wash? Sure, I’ve stolen my BLT’s boxers from his drawer and tossed them on instead of running past his room mate bare assed.
I mean really… if you’re intimate with someone you’ve likely put your mouth anywhere that towel, toothbrush, and undies have been so what’s the big deal?
February 16th, 2010 at 11:31 pm
But you didn’t tell us if you’re a towel share-er. Or a toothbrush share-er for that matter. Oh god, please say no!
February 16th, 2010 at 11:34 pm
Susan, that’s the kind of knowledge that only comes from sharing a bathroom with me.
-R.
February 16th, 2010 at 11:36 pm
lol, Touche’ Random…
February 17th, 2010 at 12:38 am
Not only would I not share a used towel with my husband, I maintain my own set of towels that he is not allowed to use at all.
I’m very squeamish about sweat and other bodily ickiness. I STILL can’t get your phrase “old man splatter sweat” out of my mind. I think about it every day at the gym. *gag*
Share a toothbrush? I’ll let my teeth fall out.
February 17th, 2010 at 3:19 am
I don’t mind sharing a (dry) towel with my hubby but I do object to a guest coming over and using it. Ew.
We always put out clean guest towels for visitors. When we lived in our old house we only had one bathroom…bad. Real bad. No matter how nice our guest towels were, the guests still used ours. NOT COOL.
February 17th, 2010 at 4:51 am
Would happily share a towel with my significant other. Hell, I’ve had a lot worse things of his on me than just a skin-flake or two.
heh.
Toothbrush? Not so much. If it were a desperate circumstance and I had absolutely no other options available to me, then I would…but it would have to be a desperate last resort.
February 17th, 2010 at 5:15 am
1. I’d reeeeally rather not. Reference Sandra’s comment about uglies and faces.
3. If I had to choose one, I’d go with toothbrush. I mean, that’s only in his mouth. Not his, you know, crevices.
February 17th, 2010 at 6:56 am
I guess I am gross because I always use my boyfriends bath towel after its dried. I mean there are usually two or three in the bathroom and I just use whichever is dry regardless of if he’s used it.
Toothbrush… eh… I would use it I guess if mine was missing or dropped in the toilet, and I had yet to get a fresh one. An emergency situation you know. But share one on a regular basis, no thanks.
February 17th, 2010 at 7:29 am
Sharing towels…it honestly doesn’t bother me that much. I use his deoderant too because, well, he has better deoderant. I even use his nose trimmer, which doesn’t really work anyways because I don’t have much nose hair.
February 17th, 2010 at 7:41 am
Oh come on! “No WAY!” is hardly a “violent” statement.
You do bring up a good point with the hair-in-the-soap issue. Soap is clean but you would not want to use it with a pube hair in ir or even remove the hair and then use it for the ick factor alone.
Sure, you exchange all kinds of bodily fluids and such with an SO but something about sharing a towel just doesnt seem the same at all. When I get out of the shower I’m all fresh and I want my own fresh towel!
I have used his toothbrush in a pinch but not crazy about that one either.
February 17th, 2010 at 8:28 am
towel = yes
deodorant= if needed
toothbrush = if an emergency
Underwear = if clean, but I don’t think i would ever do this
I have a HUGE problem with people, even a significant other, in the bathroom when I’m using it (except for a shower, I’ll always let a hot woman in the shower with me). I don’t even like people talking to me while I’m in the bathroom. I really don’t think anything can’t wait till after I am done.
February 17th, 2010 at 8:29 am
NO. No sharing. No towel shares, no toothbrush shares. Creeps me out. In an emergency I will do without. Will air dry. Will rub teeth with finger. No sharing. Of course I have only been with my guy for 39 years. Maybe when we get to know each other better. HA! No, not even then.
February 17th, 2010 at 10:15 am
no sharing!!!! No sharing any bathroom item. Pink loofa is for girls and blue loofa is for boys!!!!! Yuck!
February 17th, 2010 at 10:37 am
Toothbrush sharing over towel sharing?? REALLY???
Um no – not here. I have never thought sharing a towel (once its dry) to be at all icky. How is it different from sharing a bed? You are covering up in the same set of sheets.
February 17th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
I’m assuming that the person whose towel I would be sharing had just stepped out of the shower before using the towel, so there shouldn’t be anything on the towel, providing they actually cleaned themselves in the shower, so yes, I’d use a towel. I have never, and will never, share a toothbrush – my fingers do quite well, thank you.
February 17th, 2010 at 2:25 pm
I share everything – toothbrush, towels, and everything inbetween. Apparently I’m in the minority here.
I agree with Instigator – how is sharing a towel different from sharing sheets? And do I even need to point out what ELSE is shared between you and your significant other if you’ve been intimate? And yet, TOOTHBRUSHES gross people out? Oh, OK.
February 17th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
I agree that sharing a towel is no different than sharing sheets. I mean, my goodness, how many of you people have slept on “the wet spot”? How is that any better than sharing their towel after they got out of the shower clean?
February 17th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
It seems to me that the issue (for some who object to towel sharing) is not so much that the towel is FILTHY as it just simply isn’t 100% clean and the user, having just emerged from the shower, *is* totally clean and so they are, in a way, making themselves *less* clean by using a pre-used towel.
Is that correct?
February 17th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
How does using a clean towel on a clean body make it dirty, exactly? Do none of you people even re-use your towels? I’ll use a towel, hang it up to dry, and then use it again the same day.
Save the environment! Share your towels. It’s not icky. :-p
February 17th, 2010 at 7:21 pm
This is so funny to me, The Boyfriend and I had this discussion a few months back. We’ve been living together for three years last month. Occasionally we might run out of clean towels. So I told him to use my towel that was hanging on the hook on the bathroom. He looked at me and said “we can do that?”. He said he wasn’t sure what the rules were as to using other people’s towels. So apparently for the two years prior he’d been careful to notice which hook his towel was hung on and reuse THAT one (our towels are 90% identical) while I’d never given a flying fuck either way.
My 9 year old daughter won’t even reuse HER OWN towel no matter how much I threaten her.
My girlfriends and I have shared many toothbrushes, but I admit, as I’ve gotten older it grosses me out a little more.
February 17th, 2010 at 11:56 pm
I guess I really am in the minority. For the record this is all assuming I’m sharing the items of my BLT/SO and not some random stranger.
I figure if I’m willing to share your bed, your fork, your drink, your bodily fluids…well your toothbrush in an emergency isn’t going to have any more germs on it than those other situations.
The pink and blue loofa thing cracked me up. Are there more than one girl /boy in the family? If so, how is sharing a loofa between two females any different at all than sharing between a man and woman?
Being a germaphobe must be exhausting, I just can’t spend that much time worrying about germs, or skin flakes, or whatever…
February 18th, 2010 at 1:20 pm
ha! this is great. i have NO problem sharing towels with an SO. my bf has 2 identical towels in his bathroom, so we don’t even KNOW who has used which one – we just make sure whichever one we use is dry
i’m in the “whatever, we’re clean” camp – i mean, my face DOES go in his armpits and crevices; at least the towel only touches his CLEAN armpit and crevices!
toothbrush – meh. i wouldn’t necessarily want to (the thought of a toothbrush scrubbing all the plaque and guynk from between teeth is a very vivid image for me) but i wouldn’t NOT do it, if there were only 1 toothbrush for some reason.
February 18th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
I don’t even like using my OWN towel more than once before washing it again.
So yeah…I guess I’m apparently really weird like that.
February 20th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
no sharing loofas only one boy and one girl and one kitty cat
in my house…that is just how i explained it to my SO because i had a sneaking suspicion that he was using my off white loofa instead of his white one…so i bought pink and blue to avoid anyyyy confusion.
February 24th, 2010 at 8:38 pm
I am ok with sharing a towel with Ian or Casey but strangers/guest not so much. Toothbrush in a desperate measure yes, I would.