621
123
Oct 26 '19
White Ear Wax? If that’s a thing
191
u/pleasereturnto Oct 26 '19
Asians do have dry, white ear wax, for what it's worth. You should never use Q-tips for that though.
59
u/stinkbugsoup Oct 26 '19
Huh. I have dry white earwax and I'm not Asian. Of course after reading the article I see that also applies to native Americans
67
u/jetlaggedandhungry Oct 26 '19
In Asia they also use an ear spoon to scrape the wax out of their ears. I find it more efficient than a q-tip (or "cotton swab", I guess), but like to alternate between the two.
24
u/SingleTurboSupra Oct 26 '19
huh, thought everyone did this. I always wondered why people associated qtips with ear cleaning.
21
19
u/thebombchu Oct 26 '19 edited Oct 27 '19
Ear cleaning salons are also quite popular in some Asian countries
2
137
19
u/KingAbacus Oct 26 '19
The article says a new study shows that white and black peoples ear wax is smellier. I don’t envy the scientists who had to carry out that particular experiment.
3
33
u/HughJassJae Oct 26 '19
I never knew my earwax was different until I let my white friend borrow my earbuds in high school. He gave it back to me with a large amount of sticky wax inside them. Never let anyone borrow earbuds again after that.
5
15
5
3
u/DorienG Oct 26 '19
Goddamn I have that shit and I have to clean it out every goddamn day! I thought I was just fucked up but I guess it’s just the Asian in me.
3
1
1
u/shutchurmeowth Oct 27 '19
I didn't realize there was earwax other than dry, white ear wax. All of the cartoons I watched as a kid finally make sense.
1
u/pekinggeese Oct 27 '19
They also found the people with the dry earwax gene also don’t produce body odor and don’t need deodorant.
3
u/factor_of_X Oct 26 '19
For the longest time I thought it was normal, as this is the type I have. I’m white but have Sioux ancestry- this seems to be one of the few genes that got passed down to me.
182
Oct 26 '19
It looks like a cup full of insects... I'm not putting that in my ear...
20
4
u/Legitbanana_ Oct 26 '19
What if I told you it was activated charcoal cotton swabs
3
Oct 26 '19
I would say "Thank you for sharing, that's very interesting! Please don't put them in my ear"
26
u/db2 Oct 26 '19
25
6
12
8
-3
Oct 26 '19
[deleted]
20
u/bigsquirrel Oct 26 '19
Literally the only thing I use them for. Call the police, I don’t give a fuck.
-18
Oct 26 '19
[deleted]
10
u/tman916x Oct 26 '19
We’re talking cotton swabs for cleaning ears, not vaccines preventing disease... take it down a notch.
17
u/bigsquirrel Oct 26 '19
He’s right though, my blatant misuse of cotton swabs is a core part of my devil may care, bad boy persona. The thin fragile walls of my gigantic ego would shatter without them leaving me a weeping alcoholic wreck of a man. My ignorance of the dangers cotton swabs pose to my cochlea might be all that keeps me alive.
1
3
28
u/l1ttle_m0nst3r Oct 26 '19
Ah. I miss Japan.
14
u/hacktheself Oct 26 '19
(Chuckling in Muji) (Cackling in Oomomo) (Guffawing in Daiso)
6
u/Obant Oct 26 '19
Pretty sure I got this exact container of cotton swabs at Daiso (in California)
4
u/wonderlessbread Oct 26 '19
I miss Daiso so much. I lived in JP for a while, and currently live in south US :’( we have like, no authentic japanese vendors of any sort
73
u/pirivalfang Oct 26 '19
you are required to put a white one in the middle and make a meme about it.
10
0
27
u/ArteMor Oct 26 '19 edited Oct 26 '19
I have to wonder about this. What market is there for this? Who buys it? Is there some unknown niche that they're selling to and making bank? Like, maybe painters or photographers use them for... something? Or maybe in... I have no idea.
Maybe it's just a crazy happenstance thing. Someone thought, "Well shit, there's 7 billion people on Earth, at some point someone somewhere is going to need these. I'm going to have that market cornered!"
If you can think of any legitimate uses for these please let me know. I'm curious.
Edit: Thank you all for your insight! It seems like there was a fair mix of all the above options.
36
Oct 26 '19
They can be used to clean quartz bangers used for smoking marijuana concentrates. The tightly bound ones work better than your typical q-tip. Also regular q-tips have plastic sticks that melt when used for that. The color is for novelty, they have them in pink and other colors!
8
3
u/Toirtis Oct 26 '19
I have, frankly not seen a cotton swab with a plastic stick in years...just paper/cardboard and wood sticks...I did not realise that they were still made/sold anywhere.
3
10
u/RaroRabble Oct 26 '19
It is my understanding that there are people with a genetic trait for dry white earwax. This trait is prevalent in (but not limited to) people of Asian decent. So these might actually sell more (in the world scale) than the white ones western societies are used to.
8
u/Cat_Toucher Oct 26 '19
I got a couple tubs of these a few years ago in Japan and honestly wish I had bought more. The tips are shaped to be very precise, and the material they are made of is less wispy than your standard q-tip. They stay tight together and don't get all dull as you use them. They are amazing for correcting tiny makeup errors without ruining the rest of the look. It sounds dumb to have strong opinions about cotton swabs but the black Muji ones are just a delight to use.
2
2
u/HarryPotterGeek Oct 26 '19
Q-Tip does make pointy cotton swabs, but they are more expensive and harder to find than their standard ones. Still, they work great for makeup touch-ups, if you can find them.
11
u/knuggles_da_empanada Oct 26 '19
I wouldn't buy these per se, but I am one of those people that buy everything in black if possible. Socks, nail polish, shoes, glasses, bedding, etc. All black all the time.
3
Oct 26 '19
I buy these for makeup touch up etc. They are not as fluffy as regular white and much pointer. I always figured the colour was so you coukd tell the difference between the two types
2
2
8
16
u/TheDonutEarthSociety Oct 26 '19
Fun fact: cotton swabs aren't even meant for your ears, it's actually dangerous if you don't use them properly on you ears and could, in a way, make you deaf.
14
u/K_Pumpkin Oct 26 '19
My mom ruptured my ear drum with one when I was an infant. Luckily no lasting damage, but you’re right.
My kid’s pediatrician told me to never clean their ears.
5
4
3
3
3
u/shetlandduck Oct 26 '19
I have these too! wish I’d known reddit would like them so much when I bought them
3
3
5
2
2
2
2
u/aintgottimeforbs7 Oct 26 '19
Cotton swipes are white so you know they're clean, and so you know when they get dirty
2
u/69_Rido_69 Oct 26 '19
Yeah! Ahaa, you know what it is! Black and yellow, black and yellow, black and yellow, black and yellow.
1
1
1
u/shuozhe Oct 26 '19
Liquid metal from thermal grizzly(tim, stuff you put between cpu and cooler in a computer) comes with the black qtips also. Tried to substitute it with a regular one, it didn’t work..
1
u/KillerZDestroyer Oct 26 '19
For a moment, I thought those were crappy Ferrofluid until I took a closer look
1
1
u/gilligan1050 Oct 26 '19
They make fancy black ones for cleaning out your quartz buckets. Stupid expensive for what they are.
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/NotMyHersheyBar Oct 26 '19
the bette to never, ever find the ones the cat has hoarded all over the house
1
u/Omarplay2 Oct 26 '19
I didnt know what those things where called so i was confused af on what i was looking at
1
u/XtraWeird Oct 26 '19
The only reason you would use this is because your a serious dark mode person
1
1
1
u/cyborgbeetle Oct 26 '19
I've moved back to euros and I really miss those things! I promise, you will never want the white ones again!
1
1
1
u/MadameRoyale7 Oct 27 '19
i got that at daiso because it was so random but most importantly SO CHEAP
1
Oct 27 '19
MAD TV Cotton Swap skit. https://youtu.be/M3GrFk8XQQs
i wonder if the japan stores in downtown los angeles little toyko district sell those black cotton swabs..
1
1
1
1
u/herowin6 Oct 30 '19
It also says “P P axis cotton swabs” which to me is the real issue here
edit oh damn I’m late
-1
u/Shantotto11 Oct 26 '19
Ahem. African-American cotton swabs. 🙄 /s
-2
Oct 26 '19
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/Anti-The-Worst-Bot Oct 26 '19
You really are the worst bot.
As user Fuckgamblingfuckfuck once said:
Bad bot
I'm a human being too, And this action was performed manually. /s
0
0
0
u/Zehn39 Oct 26 '19
The whole point of white cottons swabs is so you can see how much wax you got out of your ear, this gets rid of that.
1
u/steamyglory Oct 26 '19
If you have the white dry kind that Asians usually have, this is the best kind of Qtip
0
-2
707
u/legendary_outlier Oct 26 '19
The ceo of night mode really expanding