is everyone allowed their own ear wax thread?

One of my favorite factoids is that, while skin color is an utterly useless way to categorize racial groups, ear wax provides a scientifically sound point of racial division within humanity, along the line of wet & sticky ear wax vs. dry and crumbly ear wax.

clapton health centre no longer offers ear irrigation

"learn to love your wax": https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2017/nov/28/put-down-the-cotton-buds-a-quick-guide-to-cleaning-ear-wax?CMP=twt_gu

what is going be the next au naturale hipster phase? People not wiping their arse anymore and wallowing in their own shit?

The big question is, how smelly is he? “The best evidence is from my girlfriend, who says I have a smell but not an offensive one,” he says. “I smell like a person, instead of smelling like a product.”

"arseskin migration” occasionally malfunctions so you sometimes need to go private and hire a powerful sucker

The number of times I've stepped out of the shower and haven't immediately Q-tipped my ears can probably be counted on one hand. They're a more important hygiene item for me than toothpaste.

I read a sad Francis Ryan comment recently about austerity making hygiene products an unaffordable luxury to many at the moment. That is what pisses me off about this wave of bad hygiene good claptrap in the Graun. Being dirty and smelly is not good for anyone's well being, nor their colleagues/friends for that matter, and people touting it as a lifestyle option are moronic hippies.

I would absolutely cringe if I noticed somebody I was talking to had a big waxy chunk in their ear. That is disgusting ffs!

I think there are probably good reasons to cut down (not eliminate) use of many hygiene products, notably shampoo, specialty soaps, shave creams etc. Certainly heavy perfume/cologne. But deodorant, toothpaste, shower gel (which doubles as shave cream), razor refills, and Q-tips are a tiny tiny part of my cost of living. When I can't afford $1.50 for a year's worth of Q-tips, I'll also be homeless and begging in the esplanade.

Francis was talking about people who are needing foodbank assistance to eat, so basics like deodorants and toothpaste are off the shopping list for starters.

ENTs and doctors have been recommending me and my family to not clean with cotton swabs for as long as i can remember

i clean with a cotton swab maybe once every month or two months because i'm a bit of a germaphobe

i like smelling like product instead of like human

i smell like clean laundry

As someone who Hannah Horvathed herself a couple years ago and punctured my ear drum with a q-tip, I can honestly say DO NOT STICK ANYTHING SMALLER THAN THE TIP OF YOUR ELBOW IN YOUR EAR. TBF, I've had problems in that ear for decades but still DO NOT DO THIS.

the worst pain i've ever had to endure came from an infected canal caused by trying to clear an ear of impacted wax using non-invasive techniques like warm olive oil and cerumol ear drops

Pro-Q-tip: hold them close to the cotton swabbing, so that your own thumbnail prevents them from entering too far. Personally, I first dip them in 90% rubbing alcohol, which improve earwax solubility.

But I cannot stand the sensation of ichy ear canals that results when I don't clean them. Plus, I spend a couple hours a day wearing in-ear headphones, and its just more pleasant to see spotless earbuds at a guy's neck than ones encrusted with cerumen.

The day my own little finger ain't the right size to clean out my earhole is the day the diet starts in earnest

because you won't be able to eat ear wax anymore?

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/i/331790326331-0-0/s-l140/p.jpg

I use this washable stainless steel thing that will probably give some people the horrors and cotton buds. But I've never fucked my ears up yet.

xp nope but I'm curious about either the enormity of fingers or tininess of earholes itt maybe

hullo from my stupid blocked ears to this thread again, which when first begun appalled and offended doomie so much he started another thread to complain

Ugh. I'm sorry - so uncomfortable. My left is blocked rn too but not because of wax - I have a hole in and a weeping cyst on my left eardrum but it's awful and uncomfortable and also made it quite difficult to hear anyone last week!

start with the drops that have a mild peroxide gel, flush with lukewarm water with the rubber syringe bulb

these things work ok if it's really stuck in there
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81X7N2-hpQL._SL1500_.jpg

do NOT use the pen cap from a cheap ballpoint pen. it feels good, though

pen cap is a personal fave but you prob shouldn't listen to me wrt anything involving proper ear care

I can't get out of the shower without q-tipping my ear canals. I once used a fiber optic video inspection device to have a good look, and they were pristine. One could eat off them.

Stop using q-tips. Despite how it feels at the time you're likely making things worse.

Is this where I admit to watching ear wax removal videos on yourtube? There's an ENT clinic in India that seems to have a ton of them on there and they're all set to delightful Indian music. Not gonna lie though some of them are pretty gruesome and involve things like ear funal infections and surprise bugs. Actually, they're pretty gross but so fascinating.

I love cleaning my ears. I am one of those asian bobby pin people too even though my ears are rarely dirty. I also put on a headlamp and clean my partner's ears. He thinks I am crazy but he lets me do it.

xpost I love all those earwax, cyst, mango worms, dr pimple popper videos.

Holy shit that is next level and I'm honestly amazed I haven't thought of doing that before. The headlamp, I mean. Bobby pin ranks up there with pen cap for my preferred ear cleaning tools. Yes, I know it's awful. No, I'm not going to stop.

xpost - mango worms? Guess I know what I'll be doing tonight. Oh yes, big dr pimple popper fan here. I can (and have) watched these things for hours. Oh and once I stole the wax the ENT took out of my ear so I could take a picture.

I threw it out immediately after doing so but I just couldn't let it sit there.

Xpost I went through a couple of months watching dr pimple popper obsessively. It was next stage obsession. Lol. Now I stick w her insta clips. Short n popping.

I clean my ears less obsessively than I used to. It was so bad I had to go to a specialist. Lol.

My mom cleaned my ears with a bobby pin while I had to hold a flashlight s a kid. I have never had a problem with my ears, not even an earache.

I might have a weird problem, I also used to floss my dog's teeth and clean his ears a lot (not with a bobby pin).

Oh cleaning Benson's ears is one of my greatest pleasures. I didn't know about canine tooth care and the little bugger had to have 20 something pulled last year. Oh man. He has little cyst things that are amazing to pop but he hates it so much and after he bit me a few months ago I'm not risking that. NB the biting didn't happen while I was trying to do that but I don't want to do anything to upset him now.

Oh I definitely have a thing about all this gross cleaning/grooming stuff.

Yeah, I had a boxer that had tiny little dolphin teeth that everything would get stuck in and he would get crazy gum issues if i didn't floss. He was very exasperated by everything I did.

I think we killed this thread which is impressive considering I dind't even start telling the story of the time my mom finally let me at a decade old dialated pore of Weiner on her shoulder and it exploded and shot across a hotel room and got everywhere and the smell was so horrible I had to take a shower afterwards. Worth it though.

winer not weiner heh heh

I had to look it up because I thought weiner was talking about another type of dog.

this thread will never die

(as long as my earwax problem circles back every three or four years for a tiresome week or two)

somehow my allergies seem better with age but I think it's because my head is better at expelling all the junk? like I don't just blow my nose when I wake up, I have to wipe out the corner of my eyes and regularly clean my ears. my body's expelling all the evil

Jobson Horne!

lightly irrigated!

also: lightly told off for using q-tips ever and she doesn't think my tinnitus is connected (nor do i tbf it's from listening to too much horrible music in my life)

i mean

i know they always say it

but wtf else are q tips for

fuck off i say, fuck off

^^^a man in the pay of Big Punctured Ear Drum

BPE

This is an object removed from my left ear earlier today.
http://i64.tinypic.com/29y5gdx.jpg
My doctor told me it's the woolly part of a Q-Tip.
I haven't used Q-Tips since 2006.
I advise against using Q-Tips.

gnarly!!!!!!!!!!