SKIDDY POO:
A friend asked this simple, but telling question to me and one other:

After using the toilet in a public restroom where you have the option of drying your freshly washed hands with paper towels or the air blower, which would you pick?

All 3 of us agreed that we'd pick the paper towels. One friend and I said that the towel is quicker, so we were picking for convenience. However, the other friend said that the paper towel is preferred because the air blower blows germs around. Interesting ... different strokes for different folks.

So I ask the same question, when confronted with a choice between the paper towel and the air blower, which do you choose to use to dry your freshly washed hands? And what is your rationale for not picking the other one?

TRASHCANMAN:
"Blow germs around?" Strange, but woefully untrue. Air dryers are even filtered. they're the same as using a blow dryer. I have perfected a method of using water to my advantage. I use the air, first off, it gives shameful shitters a chance to fart, and second it doesn't waste paper. What I do, is load my hands with water, soap and wash. Then I leave a trace of soap on my hands, and get them wet. I go, press the dryer button, and leave just enough moisture to lube the hand. Then, on the way out, I can touch the door, and swirl the soap around, and finish the job. Door handles in bathrooms are sick. You might be suprised to find out how many people don't wash their hands. I never did until I was at least seven, EVEN AFTER POOPING!

DISCO POO:
I use paper, mainly for the speed factor. Plus you can use paper to open the filthy door.

AssBlaster2000:
Seven? Most adults I know don't wash their hands! Yuk! Anyway, usually I choose the paper, but I don't really have a problem with the dryer; it just takes a little longer. If I'm in a dirty bathroom, such as the ones at my local hick hangout the Q-mart I use the dryer for sure. And in any bathroom which enables me to do so I open the door with my elbow or go out backwards and open it with my ass. I don't want anyone else's ass germs on my hands, especially at work, since we make the cartons for over-the-counter medication and I'd sure hate to contaminate something I know will likely be handled by a sick person.

CHIP BROWN:
I prefer paper myself. The air dryers are annoying. It does some almost futile to even wash your hands and then open the bathroom door. I think the the sink should be outside the bathroom so you don't have to dirty your hands on the shit encrusted door knob. But then again, I use my left hand for opening the door and I reserve my right hand for picking my nose and teeth. This way I avoid cross contamination.

ARTFUL DODGER:
I always choose the paper since it's always convenient to use it to open the door. A long time ago, I was exiting a public restroom and saw a shit streak on the handle. I cannot fathom how it got there, but ever since I refuse to touch the door with my bare hands.

LADYBUG:
I use paper towel, and hate when not given the option. I find that it is more sanitary...not that I think the air dryer blows germs around but with the paper towel you can, after drying your hands use the towel to turn off the faucet, and then open the door.

BROWN STREAK:
Paper towel. The air dryers take too fucking long and just aren't as satisfying as the feeling of paper against the skin. I, too, use the paper towel if I have to touch the door handle. If it opens outward, I just kick the door open, so there is no hand contact. For this reason, bathroom doors should all be made to open outward, especially at restaurants. The one at work opens inward, so I do the paper towel thing. Then I have to carry the towel around until I can find a trash can as there isn't one anywhere near the bathroom.

DAKOTA6941:
Yeah, I also prefer the paper to dry my hands. I don't like those air dryers - they don't work real well. Also, if you folks are worried about the handle to the restroom door, what about the control button on the nonautomatic air dryer? I also just give the restroom door a shove with my shoulder or kick it open if it opens out. I've never used paper to open it though.

BROWN STREAK:
I'll admit I've thought about the button on the hand dryer. It's usually dripping wet so I really don't like to touch it. When I was a kid my parents, especially my dad, gave me the whole lecture on how you don't touch things in a public bathroom and how you could catch something awful.

dave:
I like paper. The blower takes too long. I wonder which is a bigger waste of resources... the electricity used to power the blower, or the paper wasted when washing one's hands.

The secretary at my work gets pissed because people wash their hands, use the towel they wipe their hands with to open the bathroom door, and then throw the contaminated towel in the trashbasket by her desk.

SOFTPOOPER:
If given a choice I usually use paper (over here it's always made of recycled paper anyway, so it doesn't seem like such an environmental sin) unless I'm in a bathroom I use regularly and know that the blower dryer really works well. My local Burger King has a great dryer (good soap too, not too much foam but good washability) and no alternative anyway. In Germany there are almost no switch-on dryers left, they're all automatic, but sometimes they work real bad - you put your hand under, nothing happens. You try again. The same result. Next, you wave your hands around where you think the dryer might notice you exist and sometimes it works. If not, then you need to deploy Plan D (for drastic) which is to bring your hands up so close to the dryer's filth-encrusted lasers/sensors that you are going to risk touching the dryer's hidden-from-view and definitely grimy underside. By this time your hands are dry anyway...

A third option to paper and electric heat which may not exist over there but does over here is the electric roller towel. A large electric-driven holder thingy on the wall contains a very long roll of laundry-cleaned cotton (or something like it) towel. You either just pull on the towel or hold your hand near a sensor on the holder in the place indicated by a small sign and a certain length of fresh towel unrolls for you. You dry your hands on this and after say 10 or 15 seconds (never long enough for me) the towel you used is automatically pulled back into the holder in the other direction from where it came. Cool, except that the amount of towel given to each user can be kind of ungenerous, and of course when the roll is finished you have a sad soggy towel hanging down from the machine, which then everyone is using to dry their hands on...! EEeewww.

BROWN STREAK:
We used to have manually operated cloth roller towels at Shakey's Pizza when I was a kid. My dad taught me to never touch the wet part and to advance the cloth to the point where the usable part was all dry. When confronted with no paper towels and a non-functional air dryer, I usually either let my hands dry on their own or wipe them on the sides of my jeans.

Editor's Note: So, with the exception of Softpooper, the overwhelming majority of us seem to exclusively prefer towels to hand dryers. Yet so many public bathrooms install dryers, when the public is clearly against them. Is it a cost vs. public utility issue? Do the needs and wants of the consumer mean nothing? I promise a full PoopReport investigation!