Madeline is right......it's positively nasty when a woman doesn't wash her hands after using the facilities, don't be one of those because then you REALLY will get dirty looks (obviously bc that's nasty). Secondly, sitting on the toilet seat in a public restroom is gross and a disease waiting to happen. If you do it right, you 'hover' .  I can say that you will hear more noises of the like in bathrooms like in a walmart than you would at a nicer store like at the mall or even target.  I think women will actually wait until everyone leaves before doing the #2 business if they have to go so badly they can't wait until they get home.  Women do talk on their phones ALL the time while in the bathroom, I've done that on a number of occasions, also will talk between the stalls to each other.  If there isn't any toilet paper in your stall it's no big deal to ask the person 'next door' to hand you some under the divider! 

When I go, I don't worry about noises, its common body stuff and you are doing it in an appropriate location. Now I do not go #2 in a public restroom nor at work in our private one. That's one good thing about regularity that is good. I do cover the seat with a few layers of toilet paper though to keep my skin from touching the seat at all and then just knock it in the commode when I'm done and flush it away.

The public restroom at my work place is unisex and I've noticed that its the guys and old people that make the most mess around here. Poor aim and being restricted in movement in some way contributes to that it seems. I check it numerous times during my shift in case someone makes a mess because I don't like it when a customer has to come up and tell me its dirty. We get a lot of compliments on how clean it is from out of towners and I want it to stay that way. I bleach the hell out of it every evening too, even the door knobs, light switch and whatever else people touch because a lot of people can't be bothered to wash their germy little paws.

WOOT!

After reading the replies here, I've realized my bathroom behaviors are on the fem side...i wait until the facility is empty, if someone comes in, I halt progress, wipe front to back (my grandma taught me that when I was little), wash hands, and try not to handle the door on the way out...

Its amazing how many guys DON'T wash their hands...

To play devil's advocate, washing your hands is about as frivolous as using hand sanitizer, unless you miss and accidentally touch some poop. EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD is coated in bacteria, unless you're in a sterile lab. Touch a wall, a desk, someone else's hand, and your hands will be just as dirty as before. That is, if the bacteria on the rest of your body didn't already multiply to make up for the deficit of bacteria on you hand. 

Read a microbiology textbook and you'll see what I'm talking about. Talk about an eye-opener. 

Quote from: DianaP on December 27, 2012, 10:07:48 AM
To play devil's advocate, washing your hands is about as frivolous as using hand sanitizer, unless you miss and accidentally touch some poop. EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD is coated in bacteria, unless you're in a sterile lab. Touch a wall, a desk, someone else's hand, and your hands will be just as dirty as before. That is, if the bacteria on the rest of your body didn't already multiply to make up for the deficit of bacteria on you hand. 

Read a microbiology textbook and you'll see what I'm talking about. Talk about an eye-opener. 

If you wash and then use a hand drier you could even increase the germs on your hands, microbes love warmth and damp, and that's exactly what you're giving them.

Washing hands is effective at reducing bacteria...that's why surgeons and nurses do it.

I could be wrong, of course...but until a study comes out that refutes the usefulness of handwashing...I'll keep on doing it.

And fwiw, I prefer paper towels to the blow-dryers. :-)

Quote from: Beth Andrea on December 27, 2012, 02:14:53 PM
Washing hands is effective at reducing bacteria...that's why surgeons and nurses do it.

I could be wrong, of course...but until a study comes out that refutes the usefulness of handwashing...I'll keep on doing it.

And fwiw, I prefer paper towels to the blow-dryers. :-)

what surgeons do is majorly different to what the average person does. and I could almost guarantee that the soap isn't going to be the same quality as surgeons do either. I'm not saying don't wash, just that there's not that much point aslong as you're not peeing on your hands somehow or something crazy like that.

Quote from: Alex000000 on December 27, 2012, 04:38:51 PM

what surgeons do is majorly different to what the average person does. and I could almost guarantee that the soap isn't going to be the same quality as surgeons do either. I'm not saying don't wash, just that there's not that much point as long as you're not peeing on your hands somehow or something crazy like that.

I wash my hands to protect myself (not others). I use the paper towel I dried my hands off on to open the bathroom door when I exit as well. Then again I'm one of those germ-a-phobes who wipes off shopping cart handles with antibacterial wipes and uses hand sanitizer when in public. I worked in retail and restaurants for years and people are disgusting...their spawn is even worse and I hate getting sick.

Okay, call me disgusting, but in some places I don't bother washing my hands.

I get off the train almost every morning at a peak hour and use the restroom at the station, it's always sooo crowded around the sinks with people doing their hair and makeup (even though there's a special area for hair and makeup across from the sinks), and I am usually carrying a 30 pound bag, a purse, my lunch, and a textbook or two, that I just know I'll never be able to easily use the sink.

I don't think it makes that much of a difference, I hardly ever get sick so maybe it helps boost my immune system.

Well surgeons use high-quality soap, then walk into a well-cleaned environment, all while wearing rubber gloves. Coming out of the bathroom, you walk into the real world, which is much dirtier than an OR.

Anywho, just go into the bathroom, make all the noise you must, and make a quick exit. 

Since I was a kid, when having to go #2 in a public place (ESPECIALLY IN SCHOOL), it was hell for me. I'm super shy about that, or at least I was until now. At school, I maybe heard a girl fart once in the bathroom in all 12 years. In public restrooms, women let it rip. Seriously! Sometimes it smells terrible in women's bathrooms, more times than not. Just do what you need to do.

I just started using the guys bathroom, and it smells so much worse. There's ALWAYS a guy in there, grunting and farting and doing everything imaginable. The toilet seats are peed on all over, especially on the floor. It's disgusting.

Don't be shy about it. Those women don't care, they probably will never see you ever again, and even if they did, you're just doing a human thing.

I usually don't wash unless I do the second number.