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.
I’ve read that removing earwax constantly can actually cause more earwax production.
Personally I do use qtips after every shower. Most of the time I don’t get anything, and all I’m accomplishing is mopping up moisture. Once in a while I get a smear of orange wax and go in for a repeat. I think it varies wildly though; there is a big distinction between people with dry earwax vs wet, but I think there is also variation within those categories.
Yeah if you don’t have issues caused by earwax or wear hearing aids or regularly wear ear plugs for long periods of time you’re better off leaving it in. It’s there to protect your ears.
Too much earwax can clog the ear and cause hearing loss until its removed. Some people like some of my family overproduce to that point. Additionally normally it falls out of your ears at a regular pace, ear plugs can cause it to clog up. If you wear hearing aids with domes in my experience it’s not nearly as much of an issue, but I did get regular clogging back in the days that hearing aids used molds and had to have them cleaned out every year or so.