I’ll start: my ear wax. Several months ago, I observed what I thought to be extra wax coming out of my ears. Since then, I can’t stop trying to keep my ears clean. Wash in the shower with soap every day. Stick my finger in there when nobody’s looking to try to get some out. And so on.

I don’t use q-tips, and I know the advice is to simply let it come out when it wants. But I hate cleaning the gunk off my AirPods! Stupid ear wax, I think I feel some now.

  • unsettlinglymoist@lemmy.world
    10·
    2 days ago

    Learn from my experience!

    I was obsessed with the same thing for a time so I bought one of those blue ear bulb syringes to aid with earwax removal. I’d put earwax removal drops in my ears, wait a few minutes and then use the bulb syringe to rinse the drops out of my ears, before squeezing the remaining water out of the bulb syringe and setting it on my counter. I did this almost every day for weeks.

    One day I noticed a bit of gray earwax coming out after squirting water from the bulb syringe into my ears, like a few small chunks of it. I was so excited, my persistence was finally paying off!! The next day I did it again and there were even more gray earwax chunks!! Holy shit, I must have knocked something loose! Third day it happened again and this time I was suspicious, so I grabbed a pair of scissors and cut open the bulb syringe to find that it was full of mold. I’d been squirting chunks of mold into my ears and when they fell into the sink I thought they were earwax.

    Now I use a translucent bulb syringe that’s split in the middle, so I can take it apart to dry properly and I’ll see if anything is growing inside of it.

    If you haven’t tried then I recommend hydrogen peroxide in your ears. I dilute it 1:1 with water, but some people use it straight from the bottle. It feels SO GOOD and helps with earwax removal.