Can you bear the thought of being touched again by a stranger

No problems!
Touch is important especially at times when comfort is needed and it helps nurture trust.
Also, touch is known to improve the function of your immune system as well as reduce diseases such as those associated with the heart and blood.
I am sure, however, that some people will be more apprehensive after all this!

I really need a hair cut!

Totallylost
Should I ? re text from 'my ' massage therapist.
When in doubt don't. Just politely decline

Totally lost it will be strange going from keeping away from everybody to having a massage. I'm sure there will be guidelines that your therapist will have to follow even though they already follow hygiene ones. You could chat to her and then make your dicision after conversation.
In an air vented room and thoroughly cleansed hands a massage sounds magic to me.

I am not a touchy-feely person, and people keep saying they miss hugs. Well, that was an advantage to me the lockdown - no touchers mauling me! I once went to spiritual healer but discontinued it as she insisted on being hugged. Respect my space!

Oh, Harrigran! "Not even hugging DH." So sad!!

I hate the thought of people I don't know touching me. Several months ago though I had to bite the bullet and go to a physiotherapist for my back pain. Dreaded it, but he was marvelous. I never felt self conscious at all. Three appointments sorted me out and I was due to go for a "top up" just as lockdown hit. Cannot wait to get back to him now. My back and hip creak and groan like a wreck on the rocks.

I would like to see my dentist. Let’s hope she will have the appropriate PPE.
I imagine there will be a long queue for dentists and hairdressers.
I might go, if the death rate shows a decline.

I’m hoping this newish fad of hugging everybody other than family fades away..... I never did like it , being of a reserved nature! I love one or two others also .....two friends in particular... and a kiss on the cheek is always good enough for us. I’m sure this overt behaviour has encouraged diseases to spread more easily. What a high price has been made by so many.

‘paid’

Looking forward to when it will be deemed safe to hug AC and GC. Not bothered with anyone else. Only kind of "therapist" I will be seeing once safe to do so is my hairdresser. No way would I be getting on a plane.

I thought there was to be NO HANDSHAKES???

Im worried about you Deedaa

A few of my family have 'issues' with being touched by others- so its good for them.

It is interesting to see that so many of us do not like the way hugging and kissing all and sundry has become quite normal. So how has it become so ?
My MIL insists on the continental 3 kiss embrace. I hate it and it feels so uncomfortable. Maybe by the time we get together again I’ll have the nerve to refuse it and just a quick squeeze will suffice.
Why do we feel so uncomfortable telling someone that we are uncomfortable ?

I’m not a fan of being touched by strangers either. Even as a baby my mother told me I didn’t like anybody but her to hold me.

I love to hug my nearest and dearest though.

I don't like my hair being touched, but I can't wait for my lovely hairdresser to get her hands on me.

We don't do kissing even as a family, can't stand people getting close ad touching you, so the 2 metres is ideal and I'll keep it up!

i hate the extreme informality that seems to be de rigeur, or was, nowadays.
people in business or healthcare settings presuming to call me by my first name. even worse imposed hugging by nurses. it would seem churlish to object.
so now, we all have good reason to decline hugging/ kissing, politely but firmly. i do think that often we were brought up with the idea that deferring to everyone else's ideas was polite, and being polite was paramount, and others' feelings were always more important than one's own.
well no. it's taken a long time to change this mind-set. and longer to act a different way. but this current situation gives an opportunity, to just stand back from any attempted hug, and say, no, not me.

I've just spend a day and a half in hospital for an operation, and was obviously touched by various nurses and a surgeon, all wearing rubber gloves and using hand disinfectant when they took them off, so no, I wasn't bothered at all by it.

A physiotherapist will be wearing gloves and probably a mask as well, but if the though of going worries you, I would advise you to consider how much her treatment contributes to your well-being, or whether you would prefer not to attend for a while longer.

I never was into being 'touched' by strangers except professionals who needed to for my own health and wellbeing. I'll continue as I have most of my life and hope this trend not to hug and kiss at random persists. I see the current need to maintain appropriate distance as a godsend to the 'MeToo' movement. They now have a cast iron reason to tell people to keep their distance.

I so agree, there's far too much hugging. I've seen it on TV where a man is introduced to a couple and he shakes the man's hand and kisses the woman [who he doesn't know]. Why?

Sense of entitlement I guess. Further to my above post, women always did have a cast iron excuse as to why people should keep their distance, as indeed does everyone else regardless of gender etc.

Actually it will be nice to have my grandson sit on my knee and hug me again - even if he is 6ft tall now!

No need to worry about being touched at my cancer check up on Wednesday. Didn’t realise it’s a phone consultation at first and was apprehensive about going to the hospital and now I am apprehensive about not going! No pleasing me!