I hope someone has had the same experience with BTE aids as I have and can help me. Audiologists have been pushing BTE aids for over a decade and I have wanted to try. I don’t care that they can be “hidden”. I want people to know I wear aids. But I have very short hair (1/4") and whenever I would move my jaw I would hear the noise of the hair hitting the mic. VERY annoying. I see some old comments (10 yrs) about this but nothing recent. Do other people have this issue with very short hair? Some have said you get used to it, but that’s hard to imagine.
Thanks
I wear glasses, and I wear a crew cut as for as my hair goes. I wear MINIRite aids which is BTE aids with the receiver in the ear. I have never noticed any issues with my aids making any noise from being against my glasses. No I do wear a hat in the winter or when it is raining and I will get a little feedback at times.
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I have worn hearing aids for over 40 years. I am retired military, and still wear my hair short (not quite high and tight). I occasionally hear the hair noise, but pay zero attention to it. I am not sure, but the modern BTE aid may have something to make you not notice this. I also wear glasses and the glasses side is against the hair, then the hearing aid, so I guess it keeps the HA away from stiff hairs…
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Maybe it depends on the aid, my new ones at first heard so much quiet noises, including my breathing… Then after adjustment, no issues anymore. However I can’t remember hearing hair brushing on mics before adjustments either. I have short hair, glasses and jaw movements that significantly change size of my ear canal, so I’d assume everything jumps all around up there.
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Having worn BTE HA’s for 62 years I have worn a lot of different brands. The older HA’s for the most part had hoods that covered the mikes or the mikes were more on the sides of the aid. This helped to protect the mike from your hair. I have worn Phonak HP aids for the last 2 years now and they are the first aid that I have had a problem with my hair rubbing the mike. The mike is on the very top of the aid and my hair rubs all the time, but only on the right aid for some reason. And yes I have short hair what I have left of it. I have noticed that the new Phonaks have the mikes more to the side, so that might help.
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I have Phonak Naida M90 SP aids and short hair and lasees, no noise problems
It’s a tuff situation. You want the mics high to pick up sound but they also pick up hair, dust, rain etc. My Phonak M aids are up high but set to the sides. My wife’s KS9 aids are up high, period. She hasn’t had any problems with her aids, no hair sound problems and I have not either. I keep my hair short too, what’s left of it.
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I had the same issue with my Resounds. I also have 1/4 inch hair all around and it is annoying to hear the scratching against the mics. I sometimes twist the HAs towards my ear to stop it. I took a chance and did a firm twist of the wire going from the HA to the RIC and it has helped. I was afraid I would break something but I didn’t,so lucky me.
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My hair is 0.6cm’s which I think is about equivalent to 1/4 inch, too, and I have this same problem when I put my hearing aids in in the morning’s. I want them to sit as close to the side of my head as possible, but then you get the sounds of scratching hairs in the mics. So what I do is just run my finger over the top of the aid’s from the front of the aid to the rear and this seems to remove the hairs touching the mics and then I’m ok for the day.
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Thanks so much for all the comments! They have been helpful. I am a Widex guy, so probably will want to get a new Moment. Now I know that I can try it for a week or two and see if that noise goes away, or if I get used to it. I will also look into the microphone placement. Great info. Thanks again!
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Update from my Resound post in OCT 2020: I switched to Phonak P90R in Dec and returned my Resound Preza to COSTCO and the scratching noises went away. Must be the location of the mics on the Paradise HAs. This wasn’t the reason I switched but was a nice discovery.
@jeffwilson: Welcome to the best, most fantastic hearing aid Forum in cyberspace!
Thus far in my (lengthy) association with RITE devices, I have worn 2 sets of Oticon and 2 sets of Unitron Moxi aids, and have had no jaw/hair noise issues TO WHICH I COULD NOT HABITUATE MYSELF. (To say I never heard such sounds would be inaccurate.)
I currently am very much enjoying wearing my Oticon More3 devices, with the Polaris platform and DNN. I suspect that hair scratching, stomach rumbling (borborygmus), TMJ noises, and eyeglass tapping are all among the sounds in the 12 million sound samples that the DNN was trained to analyze and prioritize, since my Oticons have amplified none of the above, in my particular case.
I also believe that your hair sounds are among the elements of the OpenSound environment which your brain can learn to attenuate or ignore.[per @danhuddleston and @Blacky]
You may also find some relief by reminding yourself how fortunate we are to have devices that allow us to hear such sounds, where, heretofore, there was only SILENCE.
[I apologize for having to edit so much this morning. I’m ramping up on a new medication that makes my hands tremble quite badly when I first arise… FYI/SG]
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New to the forum… I just got Phonak’s a few weeks ago and (being a woman with long hair) am going bonkers with the incessant scratchy hair noise I get. Even the subtlest movement results in feedback, but I’m not really in the market to buzz cut my hair. From the sounds of it, my audi should be able to adjust? I’ve tried barrettes and/or bobby pins to pull up my hair over the top mics but those a very temporary solutions. I mentioned it previously and she didn’t have much to offer. The hood option over the mic sounds ideal. Has any one had “faulty” HA? I can’t be the only one with this dilemma!
Such sounds can be reduced by an audiologist but sometimes it also affects other characteristics with which you hear or understand speech better. If you do not want to change the hearing aid settings, try this https://i.imgur.com/AIfGRTM.jpg
I’ll look into them, thank you!
Could be. They are BTE HA, and it didn’t seem like a bone transmission… More a faulty mic. Then again, I could be overly sensitive given it’s a brand new thing for me. We’re also going to try an in-ear mold to see if the feedback is reduced, although some of my initial research would indicate that the tech isn’t quite as sophisticated as many of the BTE models. Appreciate the fast responses!