Bowing vs shaking hands

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I am fine with shaking hands. Bowing would seem odd to me.

I think bowing looks much more elegant. Plus, you don't have to touch.

i prefer bowing. i'm also into japanese culture. i usually bow around japanese, chinese or korean people who are older than me. this is often an involuntary reaction. in casual situations and with people my age or younger, i usually go for a nod or head bob.

if forced to i will shake hands, though i have also resorted to having full or otherwise occupied hands at key moments. once i blatantly refused to shake hands with a guy who creeped me out. i feel grossed out if a cashier accidentally brushes my hand when giving me my change, so shaking hands is pretty high on my list of things that freak me out.

even worse was the time i went to shake someone's hand (a former high school teacher of my eldest sister) and meanwhile he was trying to hug me... seriously, who hugs a young woman they barely know?! i mean if it had been some kind of date scenario, maybe...but that was just weird.

This is fascinating! I never thought of my "bowing compulsion" as another sign of AS! But in fact, I instinctively always bow when I come into a room. I noticed it a loooong time ago, and I make a sort of a joke of it, so people don´t really find it too wierd (I think), it´s become like my personal quirk of sorts.
I don´t have anything much against handshaking per se (now the silly french-spanish cheek-kissing is another matter altogether ) , but I just always instinctively bow when meeting people. I have no idea why.