# Poll: How long from "hello" to "get a condom"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 1, 2007, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-from-hello-to-get-a-condom/421170 "2007-10-01T17:45:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Caffeine.addict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-from-hello-to-get-a-condom/421170/21 "2007-10-01T19:59:56Z")
Longest time, we were friends for a few months beforehand, so too long to calculate. Usually in relationships, about 8 to 10 hours. Shortest time was 3 hours from introduction to the sack. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-from-hello-to-get-a-condom/421170/22 "2007-10-01T20:25:03Z")
We knew each other for awhile as friends before we had sex. 4 months? I would say we saw each other an average of 3-4 hours per week (not counting classes we had together), and during winter vacation we didn’t see each other for like a month. So that’s like, what, 48 hours? I think my shortest was 3 hours, though. ---
**Author:** ![Yag\_Rannavach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/858c86/32.png) [@Yag\_Rannavach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yag_Rannavach)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-from-hello-to-get-a-condom/421170/23 "2007-10-01T20:40:02Z")
I seem to run into people with lots of free time. For me it’s somewhere around 16-18 hours, but that also happens to be the second date. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-from-hello-to-get-a-condom/421170/24 "2007-10-01T20:47:41Z")
[QUOTE=Yag Rannavach] I seem to run into people with lots of free time. For me it’s somewhere around 16-18 hours, but that also happens to be the second date. [/QUOTE] So your dates are around 8-9 hours long? ---
**Author:** ![cowgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-from-hello-to-get-a-condom/421170/25 "2007-10-01T20:52:27Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] We have enough responses, so I’ll just say it. I’ve heard that it normally takes 4 to 10 hours, with 7 being the average. Take out phone time, and that’s pretty consistantly true for me. [/QUOTE] Huh. Well, now that I understand the question, I am rather surprised because I thought I was something of a slut. Current partner: maybe eight instances of 4-6 hours of hanging out. Previous long-term partner: dozens of instances of that length (over the span of a few months). Long-term partners before that: even longer. I think that with the exception of the few, very shortest, courtships, I haven’t come anywhere close to 7 hours. I can rule someone out of condom territory within minutes, but it usually takes me a whole lot more time to rule them in. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-from-hello-to-get-a-condom/421170/26 "2007-10-01T20:59:17Z")
It’s funny, a few years back, I was dating someone who sort of considered herself a bit of a slut. Our time was pushing way past ten hours. Three of those hours were spent at a movie theatre. ---
**Author:** ![Yag\_Rannavach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/858c86/32.png) [@Yag\_Rannavach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yag_Rannavach)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-from-hello-to-get-a-condom/421170/27 "2007-10-01T21:02:48Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] So your dates are around 8-9 hours long? [/QUOTE] More like 12, but it doesn’t happen at the end of the second one. I’m not forcing the other person to stay or anything…One date was planned for about an hour, turned out the activity took about 3 hours instead of 1. Then we were going to go our separate ways, but she forgot something, so we chatted for another hour, drove around and chatted for an hour, and then I went over to her place for another 8 hours or so… The “date” started at 1-3pm and ended at 1-3 AM. ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-from-hello-to-get-a-condom/421170/28 "2007-10-01T21:14:13Z")
Once, it was two hours from first knowing of each other’s existence to getting down to business. The last person I had sex with I met online, and talked to for a couple of hours three times a week (on average) for six months before we met in person, so that’s about 150 hours, and from the time I met him in person, it was a little over three hours from meeting to mating. ---
**Author:** ![stolichnaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@stolichnaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolichnaya)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-from-hello-to-get-a-condom/421170/29 "2007-10-01T21:46:33Z")
Fascinating. OK, the “first meeting”, probably about an hour. The “movie date”, let’s say four hours. Random meet-up, about an hour. Dinner at the apartment (three hours, ka-ching) - priceless. Phone conversation only adds about two hours, I think. It _seemed_ like much longer than that. ---
**Author:** ![foxymoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d26b3c/32.png) [@foxymoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foxymoron)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-from-hello-to-get-a-condom/421170/30 "2007-10-01T21:50:39Z")
For this current relationship, intercourse occured about 3-4 hours after we met. Our 13th wedding anniversary is next month. ---
**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-from-hello-to-get-a-condom/421170/31 "2007-10-01T22:09:49Z")
Current (and only) relationship: Real time, about 5 years. How much time actually together is hard to say, but given that we hung out together 3-4 hours a week for most of those it could be over 1000 hours. Not a wait till marriage type. She was married when we started sleeping together, but not to me. ---
**Author:** ![stolichnaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@stolichnaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolichnaya)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-from-hello-to-get-a-condom/421170/32 "2007-10-01T22:32:25Z")
My Pharmacist: ten seconds. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-from-hello-to-get-a-condom/421170/33 "2007-10-01T22:53:58Z")
Well, with the last couple of guys, it was long enough to make sure I wasn’t getting a “hello, I’m a psychotic ax murderer” vibe off of them. Say, hour and a half for one, three hours for the other. Guy before that, four months of seeing each other at work four days a week. ---
**Author:** ![Zambini57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/4491bb/32.png) [@Zambini57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zambini57)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-from-hello-to-get-a-condom/421170/34 "2007-10-01T22:58:41Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] We have enough responses, so I’ll just say it. I’ve heard that it normally takes 4 to 10 hours, with 7 being the average. Take out phone time, and that’s pretty consistantly true for me. [/QUOTE] This IMHO, right? So my HO is :rolleyes: My opinion also is that you have started/posted to enough threads about not dating, being lonely, giving up etc. that leads me to think you should just go to Vegas and buy a whore for Christ’s sake. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-from-hello-to-get-a-condom/421170/35 "2007-10-01T23:57:50Z")
The circumstances of my current relationship are [somewhat unusual](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=427225), so I’m going to separate all the complicated long-distance time into different buckets. Met, hung out for a couple of days (say, 20-25 hours face to face); didn’t see each other for two years; met up again, saw a play (4 hours); had breakfast and bummed around town (another 8 hours). Note that all of that is in a group setting, not one-on-one. Then we separated from the group and went to a baseball game (5 hours, including pre and post game time). Then we met up with the group again (another 4 hours). Then she went back to the East Coast and we spent many hours on the phone for the next month (say, 50+). Then we met in New York, had a drink or three (3 hours), went up to the room, and thus begun the hot buttered monkeys. So total interactive time: 100 hours, maybe 125, something in that range, spread out over a couple of years. But limited to face-to-face one-on-one time, it’s around 8 hours. ---
**Author:** ![Defective\_Detective](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d2c977/32.png) [@Defective\_Detective](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defective_Detective)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-from-hello-to-get-a-condom/421170/36 "2007-10-02T03:32:22Z")
[QUOTE=Stolichnaya] My Pharmacist: ten seconds. [/QUOTE] Dayuuuuuum!! 🙂 Good work! ---
**Author:** ![Defective\_Detective](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d2c977/32.png) [@Defective\_Detective](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defective_Detective)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-from-hello-to-get-a-condom/421170/37 "2007-10-02T03:38:28Z")
My record would be about 30 minutes. AdultFriendFinder, I invited her over for dinner at my place. She jumped my bones before dinner was done. That was the only time I ever had any luck with an adult dating site, by the way, and I was a member for about 6 whole months. It was great sex though, damn… ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-from-hello-to-get-a-condom/421170/38 "2007-10-02T03:47:29Z")
[QUOTE=Zambini57] This IMHO, right? So my HO is :rolleyes: My opinion also is that you have started/posted to enough threads about not dating, being lonely, giving up etc. that leads me to think you should just go to Vegas and buy a whore for Christ’s sake. [/QUOTE] [Official Moderator Warning]This is _not_ The BBQ Pit-if you can’t be civil, be elsewhere.[/Official Moderator Warning] ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-from-hello-to-get-a-condom/421170/39 "2007-10-02T04:07:31Z")
What hello? I have been in bars here where a bargirl will jump out in front of me and say, “Fuck me NOW!” And mean it. I politely decline. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-from-hello-to-get-a-condom/421170/40 "2007-10-02T07:06:54Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] Yep. Friends first? [/QUOTE] Coworkers, then friends. Actually, 500 hours is probably low. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-from-hello-to-get-a-condom/421170.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-from-hello-to-get-a-condom/421170.md?page=3)