Some of the resolutions I’ve made that just happen to collide with the new year are baking sourdough in a cold oven instead of a preheated one, stopping using the dryer, and starting using handkerchiefs. Handkerchiefs are also a style choice. Besides, I feel like I need to do them justice. Since disposable paper tissues appeared in the first half of the 20th century, handkerchiefs got dubbed gnarly, unsanitary, and just plain gross. These tiny pieces of cloth have been our best friend since the first century BC. Mothers used them to wipe their children off. Men wore them as courtship accessories. Contemporary grandpas never leave the house without them. So why exactly did we develop this antagonism towards them?
First of all, Kleenex made it their mission. Beneficial to selling more disposable tissues, they advertised their product as a more sanitary replacement for a handkerchief. However, this isn’t true. Blowing your nose into a paper tissue and placing it in your bag carries the same germ-spreading danger as using a cotton or linen hankie. And it’s far less sustainable. Sure, paper tissue can degrade naturally in about a month. Though, that’s not something you can say for its plastic wrap, which cannot be recycled and takes up to 100 years to decompose. Handkerchiefs, on the other hand, can simply be thrown into the washing machine and ready for a new life cycle in a few hours. So, if you’re carrying your snot around, at least do it sustainably.
There are numerous people on Reddit and Quora with strong opinions about washing hankies with the rest of your clothes and how grimy that is. But they wash their underwear with their socks. And they don’t think it’s gross to wear a garment that has touched their dirty socks on their bare asses, no. Both became clean again during the process, they argue. ✨ Sound like magic. ✨
So, now that we know that handkerchiefs are just as sanitary as paper tissues, the question is where to find one. My first choice was to scour my closet for pieces of history left by my late grandma and my mom’s aunt, the only remaining older female figure in my family. I found a few in pastel colors, adorned with tiny flowers. Not quite my style, but I keep them on hand. I came across men’s ones at Zagreb’s old department store Nama and realized it’s almost impossible to find ones for women. I discovered a few nice ones on Etsy but eventually went with a men’s one. I just embroidered my initials on it and did the same for four other family members and friends. Hankies are a great present. I’m surrounded by chic people now (who I sometimes scream at if I see them pulling out a paper tissue instead of the cotton one I gifted them). Sorry, guys. I probably won’t stop doing it.
A hankie can be used to wipe your hands when there are no paper towels in a public restroom. If you have kids, you probably already carry a version of it at all times. It’s a great conversation starter, in my opinion. Did you know some people have devoted their careers to the history of hankies? (See what I mean, wink wink.) Owning one with your initials is pure luxury. The charm of a hankie is just too irresistible. Give it a try. Make it your staple. Let’s make this happen.
I always thought our dad was so cool for rocking his hankie. It was only in middleschool that I realized most other people are disgusted by it. I still think it's super cool 😁
Never without since 1975