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Comment by camillomiller | Hacker News Reader

I wear one everytime I fly (which is 8-10 times a month on average) and I just don‘t care about the reactions. Also, keep your bare hands the hell away from your eyes and nose.

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I travel almost every week and washing my hands every time I can plus never touching my face have kept me ill-free for a couple of years now. Of course I also take other precautions like avoiding closed spaces with sick people, good sleep, drink water and exercise regularly.

How did you break the constant need to touch your face? I tried to do that, and in 5 minutes I am back in touching some part of my face.

I've been able to mostly stop rubbing my eyes or nose, when I'm serious about staying healthy.

If I'm desperate, I rub them with some piece of clothing that's not much exposed to the air, such as the inside of my t-shirt. Or alternatively, washing my hands carefully with soap and water immediately before rubbing my eyes.

I can't say for sure if those measures helped, but it seems plausible based on my experience.

You must be attentive enough to your impulses to catch yourself wanting to do it before you actually do it.

It takes years to develop that level of attentiveness, but it's oh-so-worth-it. And not just because it lets you avoid the seasonal colds :)

Interesting. I have an absolute control over this kind of things. If I decide not to touch my face with my hands it just happens. It feels like mentally setting an exception in my loop. As soon as the hand comes closer to the face or my eyes itch, I realize what‘s happening and stop. I never saw that as anything special, though, is it?

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