So what’s your take on this? When - if ever - is it appropriate to clip one’s nails in the presence of others? There’s one old guy at our church who apparently sees nothing wrong with snipping away during services. And I always get a tad sqwicked when folks do it on the commuter train.
Am I being overly squeamish?
If you encounter someone clipping their nails or doing other personal grooming in public, is it ever appropriate to ask them to stop?
Define personal grooming… am I supposed to go to the bathroom every time my hairband needs rearranging? It would be a nice excuse for a workout I suppose.
Nail clipping should be done in private.
It is never appropriate to clip your fingernails in public. Much less during a church service! Yuck.
On the other hand, unless it’s your kids, I don’t think it’s really appropriate to ask them to stop either.
I have a “nail thing” where as soon as my nails are long enough to click on something or even brush against a shirt or pant leg and snag a bit I have to clip them right away. I’m discreet about it when it happens in public or at work, I don’t send any flingers shooting off or anything, but it must be done or I will get a little nuts.
I don’t know about never, but in church? Ick! How rude - pay attention to the services, yo.
I do clip hangnails and jagged edges as soon as they occur, but I keep my fingernails long and don’t need to clip them in public. As long as you’re discreet I see no problem but if I was sitting in church and could hear you clipping while the preacher was talking, hell yeah, I’d ask you - politely - to wait until services were over. If you’re sitting in the back row and doing it politely, it’s OK…but clean up after yourself. It’s still littering, you know.
Yeee. I started a thread on this a few weeks ago. A guy does it here in my office, at least once a week. I want to scream every time he does.
Otherwise, he’s a very nice man.
Really? Guess I’m odd, then. Wouldn’t think twice about it.
I guess I was invitind folks to help define what is acceptable in terms of public grooming. For example, are there restrictions on hair combing/brushing?
I tend to think that activities such as hair brushing and nail clipping ought to be confined to private spaces due to the possibility that they might result in shedding a greater amount of personal detritus than usual. Regarding the guy in church, I’m not sure if I’m more surprised by the fact that this guy does it so regularly (it appears to be his standard clipping time) or that his wife just sits next to him and lets him. Heck, it’s not all that big of a church - I’m surprised the minister doesn’t just say, “Cut that out!”
Having never personally experienced a booger-emergency that couldn’t wait, I’m always a mite surprised when someone publicly picks their nose - even if done as discretely as possible with a handkerchief.
Sorry I missed your earlier thread, Ellen. This thread was inspired by the current “bad table manners” thread.
I do. NEVER.
Nail clipping, hair brushing, teeth and ear cleaning, scab picking, skin peeling, dandruff shaking etc. should be done in private, preferably at home, or at least in the restroom. No exceptions. There is **never ** a good reason to send little pieces of yourself flying into other people’s space.
Never acceptable. Excuse yourself to a restroom or a foyer or something in an emergency. I will trim and/or file my nails in my office when I am alone or when I’m backcountry where ettiquete doesn’t apply (if I’m pissing behind a fallen tree, I can trim my nails there, too!). I will ponytail my hair in public when outdoors or near a trashcan to discard stray hairs. I am bad about picking scabs/flaky skin, but when I realise I’m doing it, I stop. Nasal maintanance should only happen in personal spaces like unshared offices/cubicles, or bathrooms.
Well said 
I’m more puzzled by it than grossed out. Why *would * anyone wait until they’re in church or at work to clip their nails? I keep a nail file in my desk at work just case of the occasional snag or breakage, but it would never occur to me to just sit here and file away.
UGH I HATE it when people clip their nails in public. Hell, it annoys me when my family does it at home. It’s mainly that CLICK sound that unnerves me.
I’m sure I’ve told this story before, but…
There was a temp working in the Dean’s office here. She got up, borrowed another persons scissors, went back to her desk, removed her shoes and started cutting her toenails. In the front office. Of the Dean of Medicine.
She wasn’t asked back for another term.
To the OP - clipping should be done privately, alone, with no one else around. Ew.
Only in the bathroom, or if you’re a woman, if you can manage to clip them with both hands in your purse, like you’re looking for something. Otherwise, ew.
Another vote for “squicked out.” (Love the phrase, BTW.) And you can be as discreet about it as you want, but when I hear that tiny, tinny little [sub]click![/sub], I know what you’re doin’ over there. And in church?? Please!
All grooming should be done in private. I don’t even like to see a woman dabbing on some powder from a compact or redoing her lipstick at the table after dinner – and that’s lightyears better than shedding hair/nail schmutz around other people. If you need to fix yourself in ways big or small, find a private place to do it please.
Points at username 
Wow, I can’t imagine clipping my nails in church or on the train.
Once in awhile I’ve been guilty of a furtive lipstick touch-up after dinner, but only with good friends and at casual places. Maybe I should re-think even doing that.
But clipping nails, dealing with boogers, emergency or otherwise, these or the sort of things I’ve always done in private.
Well, I have clean hands and assume others do as well*, so I’m not sure what there is to be so disgusted by. While one would certainly keep tabs on the nails and not leave them in public, then I don’t see where the disgust comes from.
I subscribe to the notion that etiquette is for not making others uncomfortable, and I don’t see any reasonable justification for fingernails to be an object of disgust. Not everything falls into that category. Clipping toenails, for example, would fall into a different category, and would certainly require handwashing afterward. Chewing with one’s mouth open is another horrible habit, as is belching—even quitely—because the contents of one’s stomach do indeed have a quite unpleasant smell.
I don’t have any real issues with nose maintenance, provided it’s all kept behind the tissue. To me, it’s akin to getting something unpleasant in one’s food at the dinner table; it can be taken care of without causing a fuss. Although, tissue bookeeping, so to speak, is important. People shouldn’t have to handle another’s snot rag. (That’s not, “it’s okay to blow your nose over my omlette,” it’s “we’re all grown up enough to accept some of life’s realities.”) I think part of the reason may stem from simple logistics: a bad cold or allergies would require the sufferer to sequester herself from society for the no-nose-maintenance rule to apply.
One caveat, of course, is that I have a controlled clipping style, using a small pair of scissors; the problem of audible clicks and flying shrapnel are not part of the routine. If there were risk of a nail sailing past my ear, then I would consider the circumstances changed.
*I’m a hand washer, and I do take care to keep my hands clean. Why? Two reasons: I can’t keep my hands away from my face, and the habit was reinforced when I worked for a funeral home. Nonetheless, if I don’t assume some sort of basic standards, I’d never be able to survive in this world.
So he just leaves the discarded nail-bits on the floor? THAT is disgusting. The actual act I don’t see a problem with in public (although in church, I’d probably object) but only if you’re clipping them into a trashcan or something.
Ugh, I’ve known guys here at work to clip their nails with wire cutters. It squicks me out too. They will do it in their own office, but that noise is loud and obvious.