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What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

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Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#411

Post by andrepd »

tikkabhuna wrote: post #401
reolbox wrote: post #300

For 22 years I used toilet paper until I traveled to South East Asia where every toilet has a seperate sprinkler. After a few toilet visits I decided to give it a GO. Man, toilet paper feels strange and plain stupid now. Water is way cheaper, doesn't hurt your "behind" and I feel cleaner afterwards. Paper seems an invention to sell something we really don't need (by Mad Men :-)).

After our trip to Cambodia we wanted to bring the "Bum Gun" to the UK. For those who haven't tried it, it's the weirdest thing and sounds disgusting. To quote a crazy Canadian we met, "if you had poo on your arm and you wiped it off with toilet paper, would you say its clean?" That said, SE Asia really lends itself to the Bum Gun. Its warm and can be humid, so you're not really worried about being a bit damp afterwar…

>if you had poo on your arm and you wiped it off with toilet paper, would you say its clean?

Whoa...

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#413

Post by distances »

4ad wrote: post #381
krageon wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The high end ones take maybe 20s to dry your hands off. Properly drying your hands with paper towels takes at least as long and it wastes paper. What is your problem with an air dryer?

No, it doesn't take 20 seconds, even a 2 (two!) second wipe job does a better job at drying than 30s of air. Apart from that, air driers are incredibly unsanitary, spreading stuff everywhere. https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/news/20141121/restroom-h... Also see this episode of mythbusters, which goes into much more depth than the synopsis on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters_(2013_season)#Epis..…

> And the high-end ones, which are only marginally better, are very, very loud. Loud enough to trigger tinnitus in myself, for example.

I basically don't use air dryers any more due to the infernal noise of the new ones. I'd rather go with wet hands.

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#414

Post by ivanche »

carlmr wrote: post #341
nerdwaller wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After traveling through a decent portion of China I tend to agree. The design of the “facilities” (e.g. “squatty potty”) in a lot of locations made a few in my group question toilet paper all together. Though being back in the states there are a lot of weird looks trying to find ways to mimic the stance... A few years after my time there I saw the “Squatty Potty”[0] on Shark Tank, but haven’t tried it. Anyone with th…

I like Chinese toilets as well, but I think they're a hard sell here. They're more hygienic (no touching), better for health (in terms of poop position) and simpler to clean (just mop the whole floor and you're done).

An honest question: how these handle when you have to drop a "scatter bomb"?

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#415

Post by donatj »

dancek wrote: post #330
nerdwaller wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After traveling through a decent portion of China I tend to agree. The design of the “facilities” (e.g. “squatty potty”) in a lot of locations made a few in my group question toilet paper all together. Though being back in the states there are a lot of weird looks trying to find ways to mimic the stance... A few years after my time there I saw the “Squatty Potty”[0] on Shark Tank, but haven’t tried it. Anyone with th…

I use things similar to that Squatty Potty and it feels better for me. I discovered this a couple of years ago. Coincidentally we have brand name ones at work, but any stable platform will do--my favorite might be this kids' stool from Ikea: https://m.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/art/60248418/

Having not used such a contraption, it always seems to me that the same thing could be achieved by leaning forward without one?

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#416

Post by kalleboo »

jessriedel wrote: post #201
kragen wrote: post #24

When I moved to Argentina, it took me a while to get used to bidets. But now that I'm used to them, I never use toilet paper voluntarily. It leaves your butt still dirty! As someone said, if you got poop on your arm, maybe while changing a diaper, would you wipe it off with a piece of paper and consider it clean? No, not if you're from the mainstream of any developed country. You would use water, soap, and maybe more…

Honest question: Can a bidet user explain why bidets are superior to just having a nearby faucet to dampen the toilet paper, like this?: https://d193qi3ct19t6b.cloudfront.net/products/24229/regular... Having a separate system and jet of water seems like a lot more complexity with increased risk of splash. And the cleaning properties of dampened paper seem strictly better than a stream of water. Just like I wouldn't w…

Where I live, toilet paper is mandated to dissolve in water at a certain rate (to avoid clogging the sewage), and that rate precludes dampening the paper sufficiently.

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#417

Post by user5454 »

bhnmmhmd wrote: post #337
reolbox wrote: post #300

For 22 years I used toilet paper until I traveled to South East Asia where every toilet has a seperate sprinkler. After a few toilet visits I decided to give it a GO. Man, toilet paper feels strange and plain stupid now. Water is way cheaper, doesn't hurt your "behind" and I feel cleaner afterwards. Paper seems an invention to sell something we really don't need (by Mad Men :-)).

Agreed. They use water in Iran, too. Other than religious considerations (that only water will really clean mess), it actually feels better and cleaner. Plus, their toilets have a different shape, something like this: https://behsakala.com/image/cache/data/products/-پارمیس-گلسا... As far as I've heard, this form of toilet is better and easier for colons.

But worse for your knees...

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#418

Post by badosu »

user5454 wrote: post #417
bhnmmhmd wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. They use water in Iran, too. Other than religious considerations (that only water will really clean mess), it actually feels better and cleaner. Plus, their toilets have a different shape, something like this: https://behsakala.com/image/cache/data/products/-پارمیس-گلسا... As far as I've heard, this form of toilet is better and easier for colons.

But worse for your knees...

Squatting is a more natural position for evacuating

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#420

Post by candiodari »

It's always fun to point out the sharia rule (islam was created in a province of the Eastern Roman Empire) that you should use your left hand to clean your downside after using a squatting toilet, optionally using pebbles, and without looking - and thus by normal standards of interpretation - not anything else or in any other way. Oh and don't worry: it explicitly mentions you can wash your hands in water afterwards.

Needless to say, even the most hardline clerics are unwilling to follow this rule in present day.

It's one of those rules that is always conveniently left out when muslims defend religious rules. But in reality some people actually do this. There was a recent court case in Egypt when a chef insisted on doing things this way and that this -and not washing hands afterwards- should be enough. I don't even know how the court case went but I doubt the guy still has any customers.

(incidentally this may be why there is a sharia rule that you should -only- use your right hand for eating, greeting, opening doors and it's attempting to further insult slaves by calling slaves "those owned by the left hand")

(it would probably be worth pointing out that when one does not have the availability of modern toilets and toilet paper this is probably a good way to significantly slow the spread of several very serious diseases. It won't stop them, of course)

http://www.myreligionislam.com/detail.asp?Aid=6096

https://thehumanist.com/voices/rules_are_for_schmucks/rules-...

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