Issues with BTE aids (hair scraping mic)

@Desy said:

Greetings!

This is the first time I have posted on these forums, although I have been lurking for a while…

I recently got a pair of Bernafon Verite BTE aids (upgrades to my old Phonaks), and I am having some trouble adjusting them so that my hair isn’t constantly scraping over the microphones. It is a very irritating sound, and distracting to the point where I can’t wear the aids comfortably.

Does anyone know of some way, either through software or some physical adjustment of the aid, that I can reduce the noise my hair makes when it glides over the mic? Or is my only option to return these aids and try a different (ITE) model?

My old hearing aids are ITE’s, and this was never an issue.

English is right, but you might also ask the aud to turn down the soft gain so that it is less annoying and easier to ignore.

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it.

I am going into the audiologist’s office tomorrow and I will discuss the matter further with him.

I originally described the problem to him over the phone and he seemed nonplussed. Evidently, not many people have complained about their hair scraping the mic to him before, so he didn’t really know what to say…To be honest, I was a little annoyed with his reaction.

At first, I thought it must be due to the fact that he typically dealt with older folks, who often keep their hair shorter – I’m 29 and my hair is well past my shoulders. However, he explained that he worked with all kinds of people, in a variety of age groups, and none of them (in recent memory, anyway) had similar complaints.

How could I possibly be the only person who finds hair brushing across the microphones problematic? It’s quite baffling! I wore my BTE HA’s for two full days before I finally got fed up and stopped wearing them.

Well, here’s hoping it’s just an adjustment issue. <sigh></sigh>

@Desy said:

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it.

I am going into the audiologist’s office tomorrow and I will discuss the matter further with him.

I originally described the problem to him over the phone and he seemed nonplussed. Evidently, not many people have complained about their hair scraping the mic to him before, so he didn’t really know what to say…To be honest, I was a little annoyed with his reaction.

At first, I thought it must be due to the fact that he typically dealt with older folks, who often keep their hair shorter – I’m 29 and my hair is well past my shoulders. However, he explained that he worked with all kinds of people, in a variety of age groups, and none of them (in recent memory, anyway) had similar complaints.

How could I possibly be the only person who finds hair brushing across the microphones problematic? It’s quite baffling! I wore my BTE HA’s for two full days before I finally got fed up and stopped wearing them.

Well, here’s hoping it’s just an adjustment issue. <sigh></sigh>

I too have the problem and was wondering what adjustments the audi could make on my next visit. In addition, I have problems with noise when I put on or remove my reading glasses. I can put up with the noise from my glasses, but wonder if the loud scaping noises can harm my HA’s.

Does anyone know of any remedies I can use to reduce the noise from my reading glasses or should I just learn to live with it? Thanks.

I’ve already had all my fittings but my hair is still noisy on the right side (side with more gain) and I just assumed it was the way it was always going to be. I have tried hairbands and things but it’s pretty busy behind my ears with glasses and hearing aids and a hairband and all so that’s not a great solution. I got a better result when I taped the aids to my head with skin tape so they don’t move around as much, but I still have my hair scrape on them. My hair is very, very long (below waist level) but it’s only the tiny fluffy bits at the side that annoy the hearing aid. What exactly do I have to ask for to make this go away, and do I lose out on anything else instead? This is the best hearing I ever had, so I’d rather not tinker with it to get rid of something that is a petty annoyance.

The loud scraping you hear from putting on and taking of your glasses is amplified sound and should not harm your aids. This too will tone down as you adjust to wearing the aids.

I’ve had people with the hair issue as well when fitting verites… I’ve tried various combos of what hearcare says (turning down soft gain works for me - but the downside is less audibility for soft parts of speech)
… but some first time wearers of hearing aids have more problems…I’ve switched a couple to cic’s and they seem to prefer this (both had long hair).
Also, first time users who need more gain in the low frequencies tend to have more problems.
I do like the verite’s though - so do most clients…
As with a lot of things in life though it’s a subjective thing and it’s all about individual perception - makes things interesting hey?