Now it’s time for the first installment of “Zach’s Health and Beauty Tips” otherwise known as “What the Hell is Zach doing now?”

Ear Wicking or Ear candling, also called ear coning or thermal-auricular therapy, is an alternative medicine practice claimed to assist the natural clearing of earwax from a person’s ear by lighting one end of a hollow candle and placing the other end in the ear canal. Basically it involves lighting stuff on fire. Alright, let’s go!

So I went down to my local Herb Bar to try and remedy an ear itch I’ve had lately.  I learned from a friend of mine, Jessica, a Canadian I met in Germany, about this so called Ear Wicking and thought I’d give it a shot.  Again, there’s fire involved, so I’m on board.  I picked up some of Wally’s Ear Candles and set off home.

Breezing over the packaging instructions I noticed the very top Precaution: “Don’t use this product by Yourself!”  Finding it difficult to call someone over to help me extract ear wax, I decided to brave the danger and venture forward.

So let’s set up the Camera

and off we go…

Mmm, smells like Lavender, perhaps because they’re Lavender scented.

First of all, do not shove it deep into your ear, just allow the candle to sit inside the ear.

Look how happy she is about this.  I can’t wait! Oh yeah, that’s like an ear guard/ash catcher she’s holding.  I did not have one of those.

Dampen a towel and put it on your head and shoulders to protect them

Get a bowl and fill it with water.  You’ll use scissors to cut the burnt bits from the end of the candle as it burns down.  Don’t try to do this while the candle is still in your ear.

Place the candle into your ear gently and light the end on fire.

Listen to the smooth breezy sound of air rushing through your ear canal and the light crackling of the flames.  Enjoy.

Don’t forget to cut the burnt ends of the candle off after they’ve reached about an inch in length, otherwise you might end up with your foot on fire.

After the candle has burnt down to about 4 in from your ear, remove it and put it out in the bowl of water.

eeew, look at all the crap that evoporated from my ear… or maybe it’s just remnants from the burning candle.

Repeat on the other ear so that now it looks like you have two half smoked mega fatties floating in a bowl of ashy water.

Now show off your newly cleaned and now better hearing wax free ears.

Results may take up to 5 days as wax falls in bits and clumps.  I’ve met people who swear by this and do it once to twice a year.  I’ll let you know if I notice any increase in my wax output over the next few days, but I think all I did was make my ears smell like smoke.  Hmmm, I want some brisket.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 8th, 2008 at 6:52 pm and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.