Normally I drive 100 miles a day round trip to and from work. I have a great tendency to observe people when they are driving, while keeping an eye out on the road. I have noticed that women tend to touch their faces a great deal more while they drive than men do. I was wondering why this is so and what the rationale is? Is it a gender thing?
Are they touching their faces or brushing hair away from their faces? I get little tendrils-- sometimes a single strand --of hair tickling my face as I drive all the time, and it drives me (if you will) nuts.
Mainly they are touching their mouths and noses almost as if they will be safer doing that. Imagine that you are observing people watching a thriller on TV and the number of times that their hands approach their face in anticipation of some anxious moment. Maybe that is it. It may reduce tensions in that way. Men must do that with their gas petal foot.
Cripes, I hope it’s not strictly gender related. I tend to touch my face when fidgiting, driving, when bored, or posting on the SDMB.
Dunno about the rationale, I just do it out of habit. Yes, the occasional strand of hair (for a guy with short hair, I shed like a dog), but occasionally for an itch too.
Ok. Now I am going to have to pay attention.
It seems odd because I have always imagined that the use of makeup would discourage touching the face. At least, I always figured that if guys wore makeup, I would smear mine off in a half hour of face touching.
Could it be that you are simply being selective about who you look at? Perhaps delicate feminine drivers are more appealing then sweaty guys, so you spend far less time observing the sweaty guys and you don’t notice them doing the same thing?
I have acne, so I have trained myself to never touch my face. And I wear contacts, so I can’t rub my eyes. Perhaps all these other women know I am carefully not touching my face and are touching their own faces to “rub it in.” Even though they’re in another state and I will never see them. Spiteful bitches!
Or, maybe it’s because women don’t feel free, generally, to rub their chests and bellies they way men and boys do. And we don’t spend so much time scratching the backs of our necks.
Now, all you need to do is to convince them to touch YOUR face. 
Guilty! Actually I do it because the skin on my face feels really nice. I have excezma which has been treated recently by a Chinese herbalist - this has been the only treatment that’s done any good at all, and now my skin has an amount of moistness it’s never had before. I’m still kinda fascinated with the difference!
I don’t drive but I do touch my face quite a lot although I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the same reason as Felonious Mink in that my skin is soft and smooth - I don’t really know as I’ve never really thought about it. I have noticed however that men tend to pick their noses quite a lot when sitting in traffic. Now I wonder why that is?