PE wrote:
What are you talking about, Americans used to use handkerchiefs all the time, especially men.
Yeah, but hardly any Americans under the age of 60 have ever used a handkerchief in their life, so it's not really a matter of "going back" to it. For this generation it's something new.
PE wrote:
I think a way to bring it back is to emphasize how eco-friendly it is, since that's pretty hot in the market and people buy into that. But there's the whole "ew" factor now because seriously, sticking your face in snot all the time is not appealing. I understand wiping your sweat off but the snot thing is gross.
Yeah, but as we've seen here the eco-friendly factor won't resonate enough with most people. Hence the appeal to Hello Kitty XD. And you
don't "stick your face in snot" when you use a handkerchief! This is the big misconception that needs to be overcome.
I took some pictures to demonstrate how many fresh folds there are in a handkerchief.
This is where the non-saturation I was talking about comes into play. The snot never soaks through to the other side, so each fold is fresh and clean until you use it. The way I folded that one (which was pretty hastily), I counted 6 folds, 4 pockets, and the centerfold. That's 11 fresh places to blow your nose. And
none of it soaks through, so your pocket is going to stay clean and dry.
PE wrote:
And I think if you want people to use bidets, you'd have to show them that they NEED it somehow because no one's going to buy the combo or a separate bidet since people don't have that kind of money or space. You'd have to do all the plumbing work too or make sure it's near an outlet.
Those $40 attachments are electricity-free, so they don't need an outlet. The water hookup is simple enough that most people who know their way around a toolbox can do it themselves (or for you). If you hired a plumber, it would probably take them 10-15 minutes (but they might still charge you for the full hour lol).
I'm not going to be a huge advocate for those attachments until I try one myself, but they seem promising. I don't think $40 is too much considering how much we spend on toilet paper. Even if you still use toilet paper, it should at least cut down on your usage by 50% if not more. I think that, let alone the increased cleanliness of using a bidet, makes it a good investment.
PE wrote:
Does that really have to do with recycled paper though? South America has rough paper and they're mostly not eco friendly. XD China's the same. It's just cheaper to make and easier to mass produce...
Not all rough TP is recycled, yeah. But I read somewhere that Europe uses more recycled TP than the U.S. I think partly because they don't have such large forested areas to harvest from. That's probably also why Japan has gone the way of the bidet. They obviously don't have large enough forests to produce toilet paper for their country and they probably don't see the point in importing it from overseas when they can just use the bidet instead.
Also, I just came across this article from The Art of Manliness:
Why Every Man Should Carry a Handkerchief
The Art of Manliness wrote:
There is an inverse relationship between the handkerchief’s popularity and the rise of our germa-phobe culture. A society that sprays the air with disinfectant to rid it of those pesky bacterium and totes hand sanitizer on key chains looks eschew at the reusable tissue. I think hankie ignorance is partly to blame. Having not grown up around handkerchief-carrying men, it seems some people are under the impression that a hankie is used over and over again, all week long. But a man should take a clean handkerchief each day, and launder them weekly. It should go without saying that when offering a lady your handkerchief, it should always be an unused, clean one. You should probably tell her that when you hand it over, as to allay any fears she might have about what’s lurking in its folds.
And
here's a link to some artsy looking hankies.
I'm a dork, I know ::kisaki::