I’ve noticed over the last few years that people are mentioning “itchy ears” more and that they have developed the cursed itch, and I know reading this will make you want a waggle of your own.
Today, after having a hair cut, taking my aids out and popping them back in, dashing home, taking them out again to wash my hair in my prefered tea tree shampoo and rushing out again that I’ve been irritated by a dreadful niggle and considerable loss in quality of sound.
I get Itchy Lug Syndrome on occasion like most people who wear hearing aids and I know its down to the little hairs growing in the ear canal, and maybe a little congestion somewhere along the route, bearing in mind that nothing smaller than your elbows should go in your ears, regular grooming and trimming is essential especially for those who are likely to be close up in the public eye i.e. on public transport.
There’s nothing worse in my mind to see someone with fingers or a rolled up bus ticket giving their lugs a waggle. But its been known for me to unplug and have a waggle myself. Its my own fault that I should have rinsed and dried my lugs before going out, and checking my lug plugs as for fiddling about for the hour on the bus and discovering a blocked tube with cerumen (wax) and giving it a blow, will inadvertently force the blockage out at speed towards another passenger.
So what do you do IF it happens to you…Yeah! you duck avoid any eye contact and pray nobody witnessed the projectile land.
Getting off the bus after an hour of constant wiggle and scratch, and finding a toilet to stick my finger in to find little snippets of hairdust, that have been left acting like the itching powder like you used to buy from the joke shop. Now being a little sore and causing irritation any attempt to remedy the situation is futile so keeping my aids out for a few hours is the only option.
At home I secretly pinch the tweezers from the girls make up bags, and I sit watching the telly or reading and pluck out the pesky hairs, its better to do it on your own when theres no one about as you get a right moaning at. You can buy little battery nose/ear clippers but the idea of torture is better…
Mentioning the itchy lug catches on like an epidemic and in this day of Internet, social sites and blogging the spread is phenominal, and you have created a worldwide lugole itch, the itchy lug syndrome.
Stephen Lloyd aka @sirgarg Lives in Cheshire and works as a support worker with Adults with Learning disabilities, part time deaf philosopher and deaf “jedi” tweeter.
The Limping Chicken is supported by Deaf media company Remark!, provider of sign language services Deaf Umbrella, training and consultancy Deafworks, the National Deaf Children’s Society’s Look, Smile Chat campaign, and the National Theatre’s captioned plays.
Posted in: features, stephen lloyd
Robert Mandara
July 26, 2012
I have the problem too but it seems to have inexplicably become much worse in recent years. Could it be that different (more disagreeable) materials are being used to make earmoulds?
I would guess that men have more problem with hairs sprouting in their ears than women do. Therefore, if hairs are the problem, itchy lugs should mainly be a problem for men. Would any women like to confirm this?
Tim
July 26, 2012
You know that advice that you should nor put anything smaller than your elbow into your ear? That is good advice and for good reason – the practice pushes wax deeper into the bottleneck of the ear.
It’s possible to get into a sort of psychological vicious circle over this sort of thing – that is best nipped in the ‘bud,’ if you’ll pardon the pun.
Robert Mandara
July 26, 2012
True but a hearing aid mould is smaller than an elbow. I have no choice but to put that in my ear.
Liz
July 26, 2012
I’m wondering about this too – but differently because I tend to get some kind of itchy eczema! I used to have glitter earmoulds and when I enquired at the audiologists about why I kept getting irritated and red skin, the audiologist rather patronisingly said that it was because of the glitter, but I know for a fact that it isn’t because I have plain moulds now and I still get it! It generally seems to get better with new moulds but then steadily gets worse as time goes on. I have no idea what the problem is and neither do the rather clueless audiologists either! Vaseline seems to help a bit though.
Liz
July 26, 2012
So, basically, yes, I think it has something to do with the material they make moulds from, unfortunately.
sirgarg
July 27, 2012
Thank you for your comments..
I agree with Tim that a vicious circle of sorts happens, either psychological or as I’ve witnessed myself that a little itch occurs either from hair irritation or the thought of something foreign like the mold in the ear and you have a waggle, of course the more you do it the more you encourage the ear canal defense mechanism to kick in producing the moisture that flares up the irritation..a few thousand of us doing this periodically and it looks like an epidemic a deafie plague of sorts.
Probably the best advice is stop doing it, and certainly don’t be pushing things in your ears..not without a torch and if your “itch” becomes an obsession see the doctor!
Liz
July 27, 2012
For me I get itchy ears because of either not drying out my ears properly after a shower, or because of condensation in the ear. Its not regular like it used to be. But it helps having air vents in my moulds.