#741 When a big chunk of ear wax randomly falls out of your ear

Neil Pasricha

tumbling out of head mountainSure, it’s a little bit extremely disgusting, but the gross out factor pales in comparison to the massive release you feel when a waxy boulder comes tumbling out of a cave on the side of Head Mountain. Remember: there’s nothing to be embarrassed about because this is just The Magic of the Human Body. Yes, like a loyal employee punching out after a hard day on the line, your earwax heads home with its lunchbox in hand after drowning dust and dirt on a double shift in your ear canal. The gig’s not easy and it doesn’t pay well, so when Waxy Brown’s finished his business, you know it’s because he’s done as much as he can.

AWESOME!

look out below

Photos from: here and here

152 thoughts to “#741 When a big chunk of ear wax randomly falls out of your ear”

    1. When my elder daughter was 13, one evening she came cried and said that her ears ache and that she has lost her hearing for couple of days . I used a pen like flash light to check and found a big chunk of ear wax almost fully stuffed her both ear canals. I picked them out and she was so relieved and smiled her tears away immediately. Ever since then my wife and I became more cautious and will check and pick our both daughters ears once every 3 to 4 months and it has become a thing we all like very much as first it put us so close to each other and it’s like playing the “Doctor and Patient” game again while they were small kids except now is “real”. After the ear-picking we always will give them a big kiss on their ears and told them “Now you don’t have any excuse to say you didn’t (or couldn’t) hear what I said to you.” My elder girl is over 35 now and she still remembers those moments and I think it’s really AWESOME!

      In China I have taken some colleagues of mine from the States to sauna (I live in Taipei) and one of the services the manicurists can provide is “ear-wax picking”. Not all of my colleagues would dare to try it. For those who are willing to, after the picking which is already very relaxing, a thin bamboo stick with a white furry ball at the end will be used to clean the remaining tiny scraps. The “rolling out” movement of the furry ball makes one feel so good that a ew of them commented that it is “even better than sex”. I think they really feel it’s AWESOME too!

        1. I don’t think he meant that they feel closer because of WHAT the activity IS….he meant they all found something, one small thing that they share as a family “moment”. And these days when both parents work, these “small things” are hard to come by naturally! It makes their children feel good (physically because even you have to admit that when you clean your ears and actually have something on the end of that q-tip, and keep going until the q-tips come back out as white as when they went in, its a small sort of victory. Like taking a cool shower after a sweaty and dirty workout. Am I right?) Anyway, point is…..I think it feels good to ANY parent when they have done something that makes the child feel better about themselves. And say his daughter felt that her ears were “yucky”…and he and his wife made them feel clean. So they made it a family affair…..with EVERYONE involved…all feeling like they are helping the others. And sir, there is NOTHING…and I mean NOTHING “weird” about that! You sir, are also obviously NOT a parent. Because as a Mom to two boys, I can tell you that I even feel a small satisfaction in helping my boys clean their noses out (obcviously not in the real literal sense, but by merely assisting by holding the tissue while they do most of the work) or even clipping my boys fingernails after they see me clipping/filing my own…so in a sense, that ALSO becomes a “family affair” and I ask you, does that make us “weird” as well? No, I hope as a parent someday (because you arent one now, or you wouldve underSTOOD what he was conveying) that also find these small moments and learn how to appreciate them for what they are, now matter how “weird” the activity may actually be…(and how knows…maybe your sweet little princess will come to YOU, her Daddy…aka her “knight in shining armor who ALWAYS helps her with ANYthing she can’t do herself, and ask YOU to help HER get the “yuckies” out of her ear as well….and maybe the two of you will make it a routine every few months….and you will remember responding so rudely to this post, at a time when you simply misunderstood what this Daddy was considering “quality time” with his family…..by calling him and ultimately THEM “weird”, and realize…that a good parent always knows how to steal ANY moment they can with their family as a UNIT and consider it family time, no matter how strange the actual activity is….no matter how weird….because it makes his precious daughters feel better about themselves.

            1. Not really, it sort of an intimate thing.
              I mean you wouldn’t let anyone stick a bamboo shaft into your ear and swirl it around it around like a mad man.

              It requires a sense of trust. Japanese culture actually seems to prize the whole wife cleaning the ears of the husband or something like that…

              Not saying that this a substitute for family outings and eating dinner together but well…moments between family members are still family moments…no matter how bad the experience.

              It’s the reason why people go to family reunions they know will be torturous…

          1. u weird cuz u cant typ in rel english, foshizzle.

            Please crawl back into your hole of illiteracy.

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  3. yeah! when I hear it coming, I put my hand out to catch it. the feeling is incredible.

    1. it sure is. i love it too. a few weeks ago i was bending down to get laundry and it felt like some water was pushing out of my ear so i tipped my head and this huge chunk of wax came tumbling out. i loved the feeling and i always wish for it to happen daily.

  4. This also sometimes happens to me, and the feeling is great! It’s like I can hear a thousand times better. Only problem is I’d want a big chunk of earwax to fall out of my other ear too!

  5. No, the MAGIC is getting a doctor to clean your ears. In goes the turkey baster, out comes a small brain

    1. First, I’m agreeing with all the people below – pretty gross stuff.

      But when things don’t fall out on there own, things can get pretty packed up in there, and you need to call in the experts. I once watched my wife (a doctor) do this to one of our friends (with the mini-turkey baster and all), and the amount of dark brown wax that came streaming out of his ear made me dry heave.

      1. Funny… You get a doctor to clean your ears…. I wonder who cleans you ass lol….

    2. It has never happened to me either.
      But it always happens for my 17 year
      old son. Should i get my ears cleaned…
      and from which type of doctor?

      1. A regular MD can do it in the office. Takes five minutes and it’s painless. I’d rather go to my doc to get my ears cleaned than have it done at a nail salon in Japan. The saying goes, “If it’s smaller than your elbow, don’t stick it in your ear.” Q-Tips were never intended to clean inside the ears due to risk of puncturing the eardrum.

    4. i have!!!!!! it’s really really awesome, just the feeling when you can’t hear and when suddenly the “health provider” gets it out, it’s just sooooo……….. such an awesome feeling :P :D !!!!!!

  10. you are a bold, bold person. you have written what we all think but cannot bring ourselves to say or admit.

    good for you….

    i relate this to my joy at getting my ears candled and looking at the gunk that comes out!

    1. Ear candling does NOT work. Try this, burn a “ear candle” without it being stuck in your head, then, burn one while it is stuck in your head. Compare the two and you will see they are similar if not identical. Its an old wives tale type of thing, it’s all in your head…

  18. My son had one fall out that looked eerily like a kidney bean. I saved it inside a little crock on my kitchen counter and I look at it every so often and smile! ;-D

  19. I enjoy this, but it always surprises me and freaks me out momentarily when it happens.

    Also, my sister once got one ear so clogged up for so long that her other ear started to compensate for it. Then that chunk of wax fell right out and she was left with super-hearing.

  20. OMFG-that just happened to
    me-not only was it disgusting, but I thought a bug came out of my ear!

  21. omg, i never realized how awesome this was until it happened to me, for the first time, about a minute ago!! totally awesome!

  22. In 1990 I was having hearing problems in my right ear. I went to see my Doctor and he told me that 75% of my ear canal was blocked with wax. He prescribed drops that my wife kindly administered. Nothing happened until we went on holiday sailing our boat to Demark. One day I had a tickling sensation and this thing I guess pea sized, it felt like a brick dropped out. It was hard like amber! We lowered it into the Limfjord, where I guess it is still lying to this day!

  23. Not only has this never happened to me, I’ve never even heard of it happening to anyone else before.

    Though now that I’m thinking about it, I seem to remember hearing something about there being two kinds of earwax, and some people having genetically dry wax (which is what I assume allows this falling out to happen) and others having wet wax.

    Okay, I looked it up and it’s true. And I remember why I knew this, because it is the husband of one of my professors who “discovered” this. His wife is very cool, btw.
    http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2006-01-29-dry-earwax_x.htm

    Can anyone here who had wax fall out confirm this theory?

  25. I’ll never forget the massive chunks of sticky black ear wax I pulled out of both my ears years ago. It was so satisfying to see it come out, it was a cleansing experience. I haven’t had an eargasm since then. :(

  26. this is the most gratifying thing in my life. sometimes im tempted to eat it but i havent given into that yet. but i do save it for as long as i can keep track of it.

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  28. BEST FEELING EVER!!!

    This happens to me on a semi regular basis, but it seems that it comes in periods where over the course of a few weeks it happens multiple times and then ceases for months. I look forward to it. I can feel when its coming on. That little tickle, crumble and flake. I tilt my head and just let it drop!!!

    I’m 34. When I was 27 I had the best one ever and am hoping one day it will happen again. I was just sitting there and felt the tickle……but somehow this one just seemed so special, I knew it was going to be a good one, I just didn’t realize how good. Left ear, a pop and tickle and I felt the dislodge. I always just let them drop and don’t even look at them. But as I tilted my head to the left it felt like a log coming out. I looked on the ground and a chunk about the length of about half of my pinkie finger and about the same thickness was laying there. Looking back I wish I had saved it. And for weeks I was hoping my right ear would have the same experience. Oh well….maybe one of these days I will have it happen again.

  29. I yanked a huge earwax ball out of my kids ear and I have to tell you that is the BEST THING EVER. I got to see it from a whole new angle, I got to reach in and extract it, guide it out with my little pinky finger nail…I got to experience the event like a spectator. It was glorious. Now I try to catch him and check for more. I even have a flashlight I use. “Come to mommy baby, and bring the flashlight, momma wants to look in your ears”
    I have never found another quite as rewarding as that first time.

  30. Does anyone know if this is supposed to hurt? I mean this just recently happened to me for the first time in my 20 years of life about everyday sometimes twice a day for a week now, except it is black and crusty (looks like dried blood) it is out of the same ear and this is the same ear that always pops when i jump in my dance class. Also I rarely have any earwax even when I clean them with a cut tip even after this happens! so weird…

    1. go to a doctor… blood….popping and pain is never a normal sign …unless its a period minus the popping.

  31. “Eargasm”, ha! That’s classic.

    This just happened to me today. It’s a very weird feeling, I’ve had it happen once before, while I was driving. At first it scares you/creeps you out, but it doesn’t hurt or anything like that.

    It feels like warm fluid is being realeased from you ear, then a king of tickle, like something is coming out of your ear. Then you reach up and grab it, and you have nice little piece of cut off Tootie Roll. Like a piece of hashish. A little, resiney, brown bean that is a darkish orange on the inside and has no odor.

    I’m just glad it happens to other people, too.

  32. I once had an ear infection for like 2 months striaght(Intense). Towards the end,, i felt this build up in my ear and my hearing started going on one ear. I could feel my ear clogged,, so i started working my jawline up to my ear, hoping to get something out.

    After about 2 hrs of me stretching my ear and shaking my head,, i felt something coming out. At this point i cant hear and it hurting. This black glob,, seriously the size of my thumb slides out. I practically s#** myself. Then it happened 2 more time after that. BUT that was the best feeling. Sorry I had to share that lol

    1. when I was a child I had to go to the doctor to have my ear flushed. I still remember it and it felt so good when the big black ball came out.My husband thinks im crazy how I love QTips.

  33. I had both ears blocked from wearing earplugs, got infections. Mines the worse, the doc had to get a metal long thing and scrape the crustations of the ear loads of them , then pull em out with tweezers’, by the time he got down to bottom a big crusty one stuck to ear drum pulled of,, MAN it was like someone turned up me hearing aid LOL and i dont have one , he was so exhausted he had the other ear to do yet, and was going to make me come back , i begged him to do it.. Painfull as sorry :(((( tha’ts a true scabby Infection of a years gunk

  34. I go to the doctor’s office and the nurse uses a Waterpik and juts warm water into my ear. As soon as the water goes in, out comes chunks of wax. It feels incredible. My hearing is restored to full power, and I can’t help but wonder if God gave me insanely waxy ears as a gift.

  35. SO I WAS IN A STORE TODAY LOOKIN AROUND AND I SWEAR SOMEONE THREW SOMETHING AT ME AND IT LANDED IN MY EAR I GRABBED IT AND LOOKED AROUND FOR THE PERSON OR PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS. WHEN I OPENED UP MY HAND TO SEE A LITTLE BALL OF BROWNISH YELLOWISH WAX I FREAKED OUT (ON THE INSIDE) I SAID WTF TO MYSELF. WHEN I REALIZED WHAT JUST HAPPENED I COULDN’T HELP BUT LAUGH. I STILL CANT BELIEVE THIS HAPPENED TO ME WELL AT LEAST I’M NOT THE ONLY ONE. ; p MY EAR FEELS SO FREE I WONDER IF IT’LL EVER HAPPEN AGAIN? YES I WAS A BIT DISGUSTED AND YES I USE A Q-TIP ON A DAILY BASIS I GUESS THE WAX JUST WANTED TO COME OUT.

  37. I luuuurv it…….
    I marvel over the little rocks I can dig out of my ears.
    A release of endorphins!
    I keep it for a while to look at it and think…..
    “Yeeeeeaaaaahh……BIG WAX!”

  38. My first experience happened 4 years ago in my left ear while getting into car. Today it happened in my right ear! I saved it because it was so cool! What a tingle!

  39. I remember driving to college one day many years ago. My right ear was so itchy that I stuck in my pinky finger and felt something hard. Using my nail, I dug out a huge chunk of black wax. Feeling it come out of my ear was one of the most amazing feelings EVER! I was rather freaked out and thought something was wrong, but told my mom (a nurse) and she said it was normal.

    It has not happened again and I keep hoping it will again some day!

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  41. So, it’s not just me then.
    Happened a few times now, once on the stairs, I lost that one and looked for, literally, minutes. :-(
    The last one was just 2 days ago while I was cooking my girlfriends dinner. I would have kept it, looked at it, sniffed it and disected it for longer but I started to burn the food so I had to throw it away. I want the other ear to gasm now, I keep shaking my head and hoping for the tingleplunk feeling…

  43. Never had the nugget fall out of my ear…. sounds cool! I just googled the issue of dark brown ear wax and I found out I was normal to have that. But I learned so much more!!! I want an eargasm!! But I might go to the doctor for a waterpik cleaning! I have learned so much!!!

  44. HELP ME PLEASE!!!! Earwax problem! :(
    One morning, I woke up and was still laying in bed, I was laying on my back and then I shifted to lay on my left side to fall back asleep and CCccRRRUMBLE!!! I hear an avalanche fall down my right ear. It alarmed me, so I got up immediately and was thinking that was either a small bug or earwax that fell down. Anyways, it’s been a week now and has been irritating me. I can hear the earwax in my right ear when I move sometimes, and when I yawn I hear it, when I try to sleep, it annoys me so much that I have a hard time to sleep. I move my jaws up and down to try and make the crusty noise in my right ear stop because it’s just so damn annoying, but it’s not working. I use Q-tips after a warm shower, yes. I’ve tried to dig out the chunk or not chunk of earwax out of my right ear with an ear digger, but I can’t reach it and I am too scared to reach too deep in the ear because I could harm my eardrum. My older sister dug my ears and she said that she saw the earwax in my right ear, but it was too deep in for her to dig out. *sigh* I am just so annoyed with the noise going on in my ear right now. And sometimes I can just hear the noise of the earwax just making noise like it’s popping crunching noise in my right ear even when I just sit still. Is it doing that on it’s own? To like, form a ball or something? Should I see a doctor? I told my other older sister about my earwax problem and she told me to just wait for it to come out on it’s own. Anyways, now I’m left wanting to know how long until the wax will come out of my right ear, like a chunk of wax that a lot seem to be saying.

    Anyone have something to help me with my earwax problem, please reply to me. Thank you.

    1. I had the same exact problem, it was too deep for my mom to get so I went for a swim and it definitely loosened it up because I no longer heard an avalanche every time i moved my head. I came back and my mom took it out because it was loose and in the outer canal….it was the size of a black bean, no wonder there was so much noise! hope you got it out!

  46. I finally know what those two giant balls were that came out of my ear when I was 16. I’M NOW 35. I was with my boyfriend playing around on the grass and he was kissing and screaming in my ear to make me laugh. All of a sudden I hear something coming out of my ear. It was a huge ball the size of a pea. Then another comes out same size. I was scared but too embarrased to tell my boyfriend what happened, so I threw them on the grass. I know gross, but I noticed a huge improvement with my hearing. Well now I know.

  47. My mother used to harvest my sisters’ and my earwax when we were young and lived with her. she used a bobby pin, it always felt so good, and we were always sleepy and relaxed afterward, not to mention pleased at the yeilds of our little ears. When I moved to college I had to do it myself, not the same but still a good feeling-once I harvested one of those famed large, dark cavernous specimens and kept it for a day. Since then its only every once in a while I get a lovely crop. This search is my personal delight. I know its terrible to obsess about ear excrement but its like a little gift from your body to you. It still makes me proud to this day to fish out a healthy good sized chunk, its an excitement I don’t share as it tends to gross people out. I love harvesting ear product and I’m unbelievably not alone!

  48. I had this happen to me last night.

    I heard the rumbling about 3 days ago, and I KNEW that it was the ball of wax. Then last night, as I laid my head down on my bed, I felt a tingle and an itch. I looked down on my pillow, and then I saw it. It was awesome.

    First time happened to me in 7th grade, I remember the experience distinctly. I’m now a Sophomore in college.

    Also, I’ve noticed that a lot of people come across this site and post here just AFTER their wax experience. Myself included. :P

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