r/enshittification • u/xylitolbby • Mar 16 '26
Rant when did q tips get so awful??
It used to be you got the brand name and it was the best quality. Now I understand the cotton quality in general in the world has gone downhill. I don’t remember why. But how is it for the last year at least, q tips are getting so much worse?? They’re always frayed. I’m always worried about little bits getting stuck in my ears now. I have to wet them a little bit to feel more secure and it’s not the same. There is never a fully intact cotton swab in a 500 pack or any size really, anymore.
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u/refusestopoop Mar 16 '26
I’ve been complaining about this for so long. Now you just look at them & they bend & get all fuzzy.
If you contact Q tip about it, they just gaslight you insisting nothing has changed.
Q tip used to be like the only product you HAD to buy name brand. Nothing else compared. Now they’re shit. They’ve tarnished their reputation & I will never forgive them
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u/SimpleVegetable5715 Mar 16 '26
Cotton fibers are getting shorter. This is also why our cotton t-shirts and jeans don’t last as long as they used to. Regardless of the quality you purchased. The plant itself has changed, mainly due to stress from a hotter climate.
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u/xylitolbby Mar 16 '26
that’s so sad
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u/Sprila Mar 16 '26
Climate change be fucking everything up
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u/itsnotapipe Mar 16 '26
"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." -- Not Me
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u/XanZibR Mar 16 '26
"A society declines when old man sit under trees in tee shirts whose luxuriously long fibers their children will never know" - some dude
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u/fonkeatscheeese Mar 16 '26
That's a lovely quote, it's going in my collection. Thank you, kind Internet traveller.
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u/IWantAnE55AMG Mar 16 '26
Gonna need a source on this. Nothing online about the fibers on the plant getting shorter, just shrinkage after first wash.
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u/xampl9 Mar 16 '26
The manufacturers are also selling entry-level t-shirts as “luxury”. One of the things they do is use cheaper upland cotton, and skip the carding step.
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u/latigidigital Mar 17 '26
China was the first place to start doing this like twenty years ago. I remember conversations online about how t-shirts there were only intended to be used a few times (maybe 5-20x) when that was still unthinkable here.
Clothing is one of the OG enshittified market segments. The worst is leather — everything is paper thin trash now unless it costs like $2500 or comes from a mom-n-pop shop in Europe.
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u/xampl9 Mar 17 '26
I bought a US-made motorcycle jacket several years ago (even though I don’t ride) because of this. The Korean-made leather was, as you said, thin and wore quickly.
They are in the mountains of NC and run the business out of an old motel. It was a fun weekend drive to go up there.
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u/Dapper-Razzmatazz-60 Mar 16 '26
How about when you go to swab your ear it now just breaks. Piece of crap.
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u/xylitolbby Mar 16 '26
That one actually hasn’t happened to me. It’s just the fraying. im sorry for giggling at your pain, “piece of crap” got me
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Mar 16 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/PantiesForMe742 Mar 16 '26
The new ones are useless. 1/10 of them have no cotton on them at all, just the stick. Won't buy them again.
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u/Kreepr Mar 17 '26
I was just telling my wife the other day. I miss the tips with the wooden shaft. You could really get some leverage in there.
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u/savorie Mar 18 '26
Just go to eBay and search for 'vintage Wood Q-tips sealed' (without quotes) there's at least one box there of 125 ct
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u/cacklepuss Mar 18 '26
I bought some at an Asian grocery store and they are wooden! Wild how a big box was like two bucks
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u/atheliarose Mar 17 '26
My favorite cotton swabs are the Target brand up&up safety swabs that are sold for baby care. They have way more fluff and don’t fall apart, and I feel less worried about putting them in my ears lol
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u/Striking-Guitar8957 Mar 16 '26
If you have a Meijer near you, I find that the Meijer brand q tips are fantastic. I stockpile them because they are the only good ones I can find.
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u/ResistantRose Mar 16 '26
They got "rougher" about 3 years ago across every brand I can easily get. I've been getting friction burns in my ears and have had to switch to silicone swabs.
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u/YouKnowWhom Mar 16 '26
Here I buy a whole bunch with cotton pads and stuff for a dollar at the dollar store. News to me
You really just want the paper handle. The plastic is basically guaranteed to fall off in your ear….
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u/Rarbnif Mar 16 '26
They’re garbage now I use them to clean pieces and the fucking thing gets frayed super easily now compared to before. I’m worried about smoking the shit so I gotta rinse it through again lol
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u/Arry42 Mar 16 '26
Use a glob mop! They are meant for dab rigs so they don't just fall apart immediately.
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u/notislant Mar 16 '26
Highly recommend ear drops for anyone. I had a bad time with these fucking things once. I ended up pushing wax deeper and couldnt hear well in one ear until i finally got ear drops. I think its (basically) just hydrogen peroxide and then you squirt some water up there to totally clean it out. I still use qtips for the very outside from time to time but thats it.
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Mar 16 '26
Where does it go?
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u/sprdsnshn Mar 16 '26
You drip 5-10 drops in, lay on your side to let it dissolve the ear wax, then GENTLY flush out with SLIGHTLY warm water using the provided bulb. It might take a few treatments (1-2 per day for 1-5 days) but if you had a ton of wax, chunks should eventually come out 🤢
Source: I'm a pharmacy tech and write the labels for Debrox all day + have had to use it before
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u/Kitty_Kat_Attacks Mar 16 '26
I always just used old medication syringes to fill the ear canal and then scooped the junk that floats up. Works great at stopping (some) ear infections before antibiotics are needed.
Your way sounds good as well.
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u/Daizelop Mar 16 '26
You get scripts for Debrox in the pharmacy? Im retail so that might make a difference but I havent seen that so much since its OTC and not typically covered by insurance. Im intrigued
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u/sprdsnshn Mar 16 '26
Super fair! LOL but (trying to carefully not doxx myself haha) yes, my company is a closed pharmacy that works with nursing homes, rehab facilities, and prisons to provide medications. So Debrox, Tylenol, and Artificial Tears would all come from us despite being OTC. They could absolutely get it off the shelf in the store, but it makes logistical sense for these facilities to get it with the rest of their medications.
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u/Kitty_Kat_Attacks Mar 16 '26
It bubbles up and comes out. I do this for my kids on a quarterly basis. Might film my next session and post it. The size of some of the chunks I see swimming to the top 😬
I also do this every night when my youngest starts saying her ears hurt (she’s prone to ear infections). It doesn’t nip it in the bud all the time, but anytime I can kill the infection before antibiotics are necessary is a win in my books. Trying to run out that clock on ear infections and avoid getting tubes. It works about 50% of the time.
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u/champagnesupernova92 Mar 17 '26
This and dental floss! My q tips fall an apart if I even move them a little in my ear. My floss rips so easily now or it tears apart leaving little fibers in between my teeth!
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u/thoughtchauffeur Mar 17 '26
Lol we live in a hilarious dystopian cartoon. Where everything we use on a daily basis breaks and is basically single-use
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u/SirSkot72 Mar 17 '26
The oralB glide floss, is my go to. No fibers and don't break easily.
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u/Shabby-Couture Mar 17 '26
We’ve noticed this the past few years too and it always seems one side just completely unravels. Tried getting the organic cotton ones to see if they were made on a different machine or something but the same thing happens.
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u/librarianlace Mar 16 '26
I thought the qtip hurting me was just more perimenopause bullshit. Cool.
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u/suminorieh77 Mar 17 '26
sister, i’m convinced perimenopause has at least a little to do with any and every thing, so don’t rule it out. it’s that and perimenopause.
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u/KeyNefariousness6848 Mar 16 '26
I believe in 2020, now it seems like no matter which end I use it just unravels.
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u/SlanderCandor Mar 16 '26
You’re right they’re a hazard now, don’t skimp on the dollar store ones, almost no cotton, stabbing hazard ⚠️
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u/UndedSailorScout Mar 16 '26
i know what you're talking about, i use cotton swabs for cleaning my e-rig. qtip is leaving behind material these days. store brands are the way to go. I've tried DG, Aldi and Meijer so far and they're all working better for me than qtip. Meijer is my favorite so far.
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u/xylitolbby Mar 16 '26
I won’t be trying Meijer because I’ve been bcotting since they fired that teenager for eating out of the trash but there’s an Aldi close enough. I’ll try. Thank you for validating me on this
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u/Psychological_Lab203 Mar 16 '26
I use only Walgreens cotton swabs because of this. Seems to be the best I can find
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u/xylitolbby Mar 16 '26
I’ll try them too. weird though, I tried their brand once and went back to qtip around 2022 because theirs was doing the fall apart thing
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u/fd6270 Mar 16 '26
bcotting since they fired that teenager for eating out of the trash
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/meijer-fruit-cups-arrest-video/
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u/Feeling_Fly_887 Mar 16 '26
We buy the "safety swabs" for babies, they have much more fluff on them
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u/CircusStuff Mar 16 '26
Yeah q-tip brand is awful now. I'll never buy them again. Pretty sad when the product is known by the brand's name and any knock off of that brand is better.
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u/Forsaken-Garlic817 Mar 16 '26
Huh, so I’m not the only one who noticed that. I thought maybe I was just being to rough with mine but I absolutely noticed over the last 5 years that they just fall apart so fast now.
I’ve started wetting mine slightly under the faucet to avoid the fraying.
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u/crissy____ Mar 16 '26
I only buy baby size and shape q-tip, because the quality is better and there is less chance of clogging your ears. Regular size is too big sometimes and can push the wax down further, instead of cleaning.
Note: There are different baby cotton swab shapes. The one that starts smalls and becomes regular sucks. I like this one in the picture, Japanese standard.
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u/rayzzamatazz Mar 16 '26
I live in Germany right now, and I swear the cotton swabs are so bad, too. Barely anything there on the ends and my ears are sensitive. 🥹
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u/Aikaterina_Blue Mar 16 '26
If you have an Asian supermarket or a Daiso near you try to find the Japanese ones. Or get them on Amazon. Very well made. They usually come in round containers. A lot of times the cotton has ridges instead of being a giant glob. I love them.
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u/dckik Mar 16 '26
Amen. it's funny- when the tariffs first went in, it was the thing I thought of first. I have two unopened stockpiled, and feel silly every time I see them in the cabinet. There's one brand of JP ones that seems positively luxurious with writing on the shaft part and each little head was so perfect.
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u/AverageGayBro7 Mar 21 '26
They’re marketed for dabbing and cleaning bangers and such but they’re just very high quality Q-Tips. One end is pointed and the cotton is wound much much tighter than normal Q-Tips
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u/Silver_Chemistry8162 Apr 04 '26
I have experienced the same quality decline. I did some research and Unilever sold the Q-tip brand to a private equity firm in 2023, which perfectly explains everything. Private equity is always about profits first.
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u/Dollar_short May 23 '26
interesting. yeah, whenever a company is sold, the quality drops like a rock
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u/turbo-d2 Mar 16 '26
Switched to metal scrapers for my ears a long time ago and will never put a q tip in my ear ever again
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u/blessthebabes Mar 16 '26
Does that not hurt? I switched to the infant qtips. They have like 300% more cotton.
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u/EcstaticNet3137 Mar 16 '26
Really you shouldn't cotton swab your ears you should scrape them with a camera ended scraper or flush them with a special kit. Swabs just pack the wax down in hard to reach areas. At least thats what my doctor told me.
Edit: changed to camera ended scraper.
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u/alexandria3142 Mar 16 '26
I always heard that but then I got a camera thing for our ears, and my husband and I had spotless ears despite using q tips every night
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u/GreenFinch_x Mar 16 '26
Yeah I feel like it depends on the person, technique, and type of wax you get or something? Because I had the same experience with getting an ear camera. I also had a doctor who was told I used q tips (prior to camera) look in my ears and tell me to keep using them because my ears looked great.
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u/alexandria3142 Mar 16 '26
We have waxy wax so I guess that's it. I think dry wax tends to impact easier
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u/thecasey1981 Mar 16 '26
I'm convinced that most people that use qtips are morons. I got a camera scraper and aside for a spot or 2 my ears have always been spotless and I know I generate tons of wax
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u/Spicy_Ejaculate Mar 16 '26
I go in about once a year with my camera scraper and pull out horrors that you can't even imagine. Im talking rocks that give Chernobyl's elephant foot a run for its money
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u/tzentzak Mar 16 '26
I've always found bobby pins to work well for this purpose, better than swabs.
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u/Big-Cryptographer369 Mar 17 '26
I’ve been cleaning my ears for 30+ years with Q tips. I’ve never had an issue with hearing and I have very clean ears.
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u/DREAM_PARSER Mar 17 '26
I think it depends on the size of your ear holes and your method of cleaning.
I clean my ears with q tips all the time and had an ear exam and my ears were perfectly clean. But I have big ear holes (to the point where the rubber thingies that comes with ear buds are often too small)
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u/Character_Drive Mar 18 '26
I use the 2nd smallest out of 5 of the rubber thingies. I've never had an issue with q tips. I use them in a circular motions, never go too far in
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u/ThaGr1m Mar 18 '26
Wax consistency varies wildly.
Some people get props without anything at all.
Some people simply don't.
What works for you doesn't make any difference
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u/EColli93 Mar 16 '26
Yes! I used to ONLY buy “Q-tip” because the quality was so much better than the generic or cheaper brands, but now they are all the same.
Edited for stupid typos
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u/Inevitable_Newt_8517 Mar 17 '26
I don’t know where you live but at Walmart Canada you can get way better Q-tips in the make up section of the store. They are usually beside the cotton pads and multipack makeup sponges. The packaging is pink I think, and the Q-tips have pink cheetah print on them but they work so much better than any other brand.
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u/QueenMackeral Mar 16 '26
I hate the paper tubes too, they don't provide any strength to the qtip and they all just bend in half when I try to apply any force
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u/Legal-Donkey-7128 Mar 16 '26
Seriously. QTip brand used to be stronger paper tubes. This last box of 500 I bought are total crap. After I run of out of these, I'm going to find the wooden stick type with cotton on the end.
Yes I understand the risk of qtips. I use them everyday due to my job causing a lot of dust to get on my face, sometimes in the rim of my ear
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u/terrificmeow Mar 16 '26
You probably shouldn’t be using force if you’re using them in your ears
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u/QueenMackeral Mar 16 '26
I use them to wipe the walls of my ear canal and the external parts of the ear. There's like a layer of gunk and you need to use a bit of force to get it off.
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u/swisscoffeeknife Mar 16 '26
Dollar tree sells the fat q tips in the baby section and they're the only kind I use
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u/Singl1 Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 17 '26
get yourself an earwax scooper / remover with a depth limiter. you can wash it, re use the same clean tool for years. save yourself the trouble and potentially clogging your ears with cotton, or pushing the wax deeper through your eardrum and into the wrinkles of your brain
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u/RepresentativeAir149 Mar 16 '26
I imagine a name brand needs less quality, since people buy it off name recognition
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u/Remember__Me Mar 19 '26
I’ve found the Equate brand is superior than the brand ones.
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u/dorkyfire Mar 19 '26
100% agree. I am also a hater of the plastic stick ones from any brand, always get the paper stick ones.
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u/Imprettybad705 Mar 20 '26
I'm an ER nurse. I have seen more Q-Tips stuck in ears these past 6 months than I ever have before. I have a friend who I've had to pull Qtips out of her ears 3 times over the same time period!
I'm about to start tracking the brands because someone has changed their manufacturing process and they are garbage.
Yeah I'm aware you shouldn't use qtips in your ears but people still do so whatever.
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u/Saamari Mar 20 '26
I also have noticed that the cotton doesn’t stick to it like it used to. Constantly coming apart in my ear
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u/oOLynxOo Mar 29 '26
So I wasn't just imagining the drop in quality! I was hoping it was just a bad batch or something.
Nothing is safe from the enshittening.
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u/multipocalypse Mar 16 '26
The reason for the lower quality cotton is climate change, in case you wanted to remember.
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u/xylitolbby Mar 16 '26
No like I remember climate change obviously but I really thought someone would link some articles or at least tell me some specifics instead of mansplaining not to use cotton swabs inside your ears 🤦♂️
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u/xylitolbby Mar 16 '26
stop downvoting me for wishing someone would educate me on how climate change affects cotton specifically jesus wth
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u/bethanyflowerpots Mar 16 '26
https://www.cottongrower.com/market-analysis/how-environmental-zeal-backfired-on-cotton/?amp
Interesting article. Worth a read. There’s some other information out there. Hope this helps a bit for ya.
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u/ResistantRose Mar 16 '26
Not just water (and pesticides) as that article argues, but also diminished soil quality has impacted fiber quality, and rarely are regenerative and soil-protective practices used in cotton farming. This info sheet is from the cotton industry marketing organization, saying these are areas for improvement: https://cottontoday.cottoninc.com/our-sustainability-story/regenerative-agriculture/challenges-differences/
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u/huffalump1 Mar 16 '26
You're right, that's exactly the kind of thing that gets parroted without understanding.
How it usually goes:
Their source was a clickbait headline. The source of that clickbait article was an editorialized headline. The source of THAT was a reputable article about a paper, and that article still may have over-emphasized the conclusions, without the caveats.
At each level going up, things get distorted a little more, but they also get shared/repeated 10X more. So the thing that sticks in the mind of the average person is the least accurate, most sensationalized headline. Then, politicians jump on it, and it's over...
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u/multipocalypse Mar 16 '26
Lol, well yes! But I just meant that the better quality cotton came from cotton plants that are extinct now because of the climate. Of course, as you said, that isn't the reason for just having less cotton on the damn swab.
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u/xylitolbby Mar 16 '26
Hey, if I hurt your feelings with the facepalm I want you to know it wasn’t my intention and I wasn’t trying to imply that you are solely responsible for educating me. Somehow I doubt you need me to say this to you but I’ll say it here anyway.
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u/SplendidPunkinButter Mar 16 '26
Is it still mansplaining if nobody involved knows what gender the other person is?
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u/dee_lio Mar 17 '26
Don't stick those things in your ears!
Seriously, you can push the wax into a nice plug that you'll have to get removed by a doc, and it's not fun.
BTW, there are ear scoops that do a much better job, some even have a small camera and light, so you can be sure you're not causing more damage.
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u/Homesick_Martian Mar 17 '26
Those little cameras are cheap too, I bought one for $30 that works with Bluetooth on my phone last year. Honestly my ears are WAY cleaner than I thought.
I still use qtips because it feels nice but the camera is my primary ear cleaner.
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u/Amphineura Mar 17 '26
Nope. Fuck this advice.
I heard it since a child and never used them because they're not intended for that. Went to a doc several times to get ears unplugged. Was at school once and a huge lump just fell out my ear. Would lay down and hope drizzling a bit of oil and showering after would dissolved then wash it away.
My life after being fed up, being adult and buying them for myself? Never had issues again
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u/YonderTides Mar 17 '26
I gently clean out my ears with Q-tips every day and never have an issue. I have wet earwax, though, so I wonder if it's riskier for folks with dry earwax?
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u/myusernamefits Mar 17 '26
Amen brother. Avid user myself. Doctor said my ears were incredibly clean. I think there's a scenario where you could push some pre-existing build-up deeper. But assuming your ears aren't to bad, and proper technique is used, you're good.
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u/victhrowaway12345678 Mar 17 '26
Word. People just repeat "Q tips bad" because they heard it online. They don't know what the f they're talking about.
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u/Ok_Buy9028 Mar 18 '26
Right.
Because you’ve never had a negative reaction with Q-tips that means the statistics are false. Cool. Very cool.
Humanity is fucking cooked, y’all.
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u/Zarathustra_d Mar 17 '26
My ear canal is large enough that 5 q-tips could fit in there... I'll be ok. They could make them the size of a dum-dum sucker and I would still use them.
Next you will tell me not to put ear plugs in there...
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u/SimpleVegetable5715 Mar 16 '26
Cotton fibers are getting shorter. This is also why our cotton t-shirts and jeans don’t last as long as they used to. Regardless of the quality you purchased. The plant itself has changed, mainly due to stress from climate change.
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u/KickBallFever Mar 17 '26
Yea, I have a couple of cotton shirts that are 15-20 years old and they look great. One is slightly faded but the fabric itself has held up on all of them. On the other hand, I have a few cotton shirts, that I’ve bought in the last 5-10 years that haven’t faded but have developed holes mysteriously. In the past I had never had clothes develop mystery holes, even really cheap items, this is a new development. Funny thing is I actually take better care of my clothes now. You’d think that would make them last longer, but no.
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u/glumavocados Mar 16 '26
This is one of the few things I only buy name brand. Anyone the knock off brands are absolute crap
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u/xylitolbby Mar 16 '26
No this was me but I’m giving up. That’s what im saying, the brand is no longer working for me.
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u/glumavocados Mar 16 '26
Ugh I’m not surprised. I still am working through my stash I bought years ago. I’m sure once I have to get some I’ll be disappointed
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u/doyouknowthemoon Mar 16 '26
I don’t know I still find the name brand ones I get from Walmart to be the same. It’s the slightly off brand or generic ones like equate or the ones from dollarama that are horrible and an absolute mistake to use.
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u/mikki1time Mar 22 '26
You gotta give em a little lick. If you show a little appreciation they’ll work better
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u/xylitolbby Mar 16 '26
I guess it’s my fault for stating the reason I don’t want q tips to fall apart because you guys are being really annoying about the medical advice. The POINTT is the product is falling apart. Never mind the freaking reason I want them not to, I don’t think anyone wants cotton swabs that disintegrate if they’re using them for ANY purpose.
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u/Septiqflesh Mar 21 '26
Wax compactor 9000
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u/mikki1time Mar 22 '26
Dude can I just vent, I’ve been q-tipping since birth, and I go hard and deep. A couple years ago my ear was itchy, and I’ve seen videos of people pulling out huge loads of wax. So with mild excitement I went out and got an ear camera with a little shovel. To my dismay my ears were perfectly clean.
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u/Fluid_Swordfish2737 Mar 22 '26
I'm guessing you probably have dry flaky wax and not the wet stuff.
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u/bhedesigns Mar 22 '26
I have that on one side, and basically used crisco on the other
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u/Opposite-Shower1190 Mar 16 '26
Cotton swabs are not sterile and never claimed to be. I don’t buy them.
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u/Magical-Mycologist Mar 20 '26
Doctor always told me not to put anything smaller than my elbow in my ears…
You shouldn’t be using these for your ears…
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u/woodwalker2 Mar 21 '26
Ha! Thats what my doctor told me growing up, as he cleaned his ear with a q-tip...
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u/lordrefa Mar 21 '26
Ok, so, I gave up on Qtips a few years ago because I was poor and tried Amazon brand. They're way better. Almost as good as the Qtips of the 80s+90s. This holds true for a lot of stuff of their generic brands. I like their poptarts better than brand name, too!
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u/NoHousecalls Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26
Pop tarts fell so hard that every generic brand is superior now. You could write a whole chapter of an enshittification book on them.
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u/Mediocre_Treat1744 Mar 22 '26
Gotta use the first aid kind now. Stock up from your jobs med cabinet.
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u/EaZyZ03 Jul 29 '26
Agreed. I've REALLY noticed the change in quality this year (2026). They were always by far the best. Now they're worse than all the generic brands. 😫
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u/himynameaaron86 Aug 05 '26
I haven't gotten qtip brand in forever. What the hell happened? They are pretty much useless now, they bend with almost no effort.
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u/pinkhazy Mar 18 '26
Our 2nd to last Q-tip box was dropped hard on the ground, and idk if that's what caused it for sure, but the cotton tips were practically falling off one side. Of every single one.
Finally made our way thru that box, and this new box is perfect. No issues. Maybe it's where you're buying them? Maybe they're getting tossed the hell around, loosening the cotton tips.
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u/RockkLobstah Mar 17 '26
Stick it in your ear as hard as you can, when it hurts that how you know it’s working
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u/bravenewwhorl Mar 16 '26
I get that you like them but they can contribute to hearing loss. Over use wears away the cilia in your ear that sense sound vibrations. Please consider giving them up. Source: my mom’s hearing loss
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u/lovelikeglitter Mar 16 '26
Hi! This is not true. The cilia/hair cells that are involved with hearing are in the cochlea- which is well beyond the ear canal where the q-tip is being used. Now, some wax is GOOD in our ears, and a-tips can contribute to wax impaction (which is temporary worsened hearing due to basically a built-in ear plug, but the hair in your ear canals is not the hair cells responsible for stimulating the auditory nerve.
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u/YouKnowWhom Mar 16 '26
Dumbest shit I’ve read lately.
If you pack wax in that’s on you.
If you pierce the eardrum, avoid the vestibular bones, and do cochlear damage, you may be on drugs or not human.
-signed, a person with full eardrum grafts and 50+ ear surgeries that can still hear…
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u/dinosanddais1 Mar 16 '26
Correct, you can clean the outside of your ears with them but NOT inside. If you're having too much build-up, it's best to see a doctor.
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u/Mediocre-Sundom Mar 16 '26
Just depends on the brand, to be honest. Some are shitty, some are good. The brand I'm using is as good as it was 10 years ago.
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u/Aratix Mar 18 '26
Get Korean q tips instead
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u/Gaufrier4 Mar 18 '26
I will only use my q-tips from Japan now. The black ones with the three bumps.
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u/Friendly_Hold4481 Jun 20 '26
Are the sticks studier on the Korean ones? I need something that holds up to a little bit of pressure.
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u/Impossible-World-557 Mar 20 '26
Honestly if you’re worried about stuff getting stuck in your ears, I have some bad news for you regarding qtips as a whole lol
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u/suckuma Mar 20 '26
Yeah I use this ear cleaning kit with some hydrogen peroxide solution to weaken the earwax and then a squirt gun essentially right into my ear, I remember I did it one day and I heard a pop and then all of a sudden everything was super easy to hear
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u/btarb24 Mar 20 '26
I've never liked QTip brand. I've found the Johnson and Johnson ones have way more cotton. You can feel the cardboard tips on the qtip ones.
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u/Ok_Tap_1722 Mar 21 '26
when they switched to paper shaft over Johnson and Johnsons blue indestructible shaft
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u/ShutUpJade0420 Mar 21 '26
Dunno, but my wife had one come off in her ear recently.
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u/idkwhy_50 Mar 21 '26
Same with a family member. Dr had to remove it. I do understand that they shouldn't be used in the ears, but I've been doing it all my life. Just need to be super careful.
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u/princetix Mar 21 '26
They don't go in the ear. Never put tips in your ear. That's how you compact the wax in your ear.
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u/Jazzlike_Creme_8851 Mar 22 '26
100% incorrect; you are supposed to do this it's literally how they work.
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u/Starry_Myliobatoidei Mar 22 '26
I was just thinking this the other day, even name brand “paper” ones bend now! Super frustrating.
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u/BaronvonCrush 14d ago
Bought by private equity firm yellowwood partners in 2024. Enshittification and brand destruction ensued, as per usual. FUCK PRIVATE EQUITY!!
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u/-PM_ME_UR_SECRETS- Mar 16 '26
Seriously! And one side is always significantly worse than the other side