Am I unprofessional because of the colour of my hearing aids?!

@mrblanche said:

OK, I’ll be brutally honest. It had never occured to me to wear hearing aids as decorative baubles, but I find the idea quite fetching!

There are actually Forums, Facebook pages/groups, Shops and much more dedicated to decorated hearing aids, such as this one for example https://pimpmyhearingaids.wordpress.com/35
Even the NDCS have a section on it - https://www.ndcs.org.uk/information-and-support/childhood-deafness/hearing-aids/decorating-your-childs-hearing-aids-or-cochlear-implants10
Yes, mostly children and the lassies but there are a few of the male species around with multi-coloured lugs around too. One guy I know is a London Paramedic who likes black moulds and aids. I myself had blue moulds recently as well as blue tubing and black and blue Ear Gear (spandex socks)

If it’s what people want, why not? It’s sometimes nice to be different.

@legsmaniac69 said:

Facebook pages/groups,

I’m actually an admin of the Pimp my Hearing aids Facebook Group. Been an admin since 2015 roughly.

I have a couple earmold sets, plain white and also a stunning pair of blue and white in a zig-zag pattern. I do sometimes change them according to where I am going, for example, to a business meeting. But I’ve also explained to folks that having visible hearing aids reminds people to speak to me a bit more carefully. The visibility spares me from having to verbally remind people and interrupt the flow of the conversation. Everyone I’ve said that to thinks it makes perfect sense. So I guess if I were in doubt of how I was being received due to the earmolds, I might drop that explanation into the conversation. But I would personally wonder about whether I wanted to be questionably received and what I wanted to be doing there.

I run a small startup biotech company as its CEO and I have never had any issues with the blue and white molds and turquoise ear hooks. I do dress very conservatively for business meetings, except for the hearing aids. But then, as I woman I have more latitude. The colors on a man might be interpreted differently. In general, though, I have found most folks don’t care at all. I’m going to stand out most strongly by being a partially deaf person in a gaggle of hearing people anyway. The extra distinction added by a pop of earmold color is a drop in the ocean compared to that created by my hearing loss.

If you are comfortable in your own skin, independent of what hearing aid colors you wear, people will notice that and will settle right in with you.

I REALLY wanted colorful aids. The audiologist ordered blue which was the only non-natural color she said was available. Oticon sent white. I saw online that they have great colors for kids. I was going to put up a fuss, but in the two weeks I’ve had them not one person has noticed them. So in reality – it makes no difference.

You do know what that means, don’t you? The pants hanging off their butts? Seriously, it comes from prisons. It was a way for prisoners to signal that they were available to other gents (if you can call them that). That is the true meaning of the low-rider pants. Somehow, it doesn’t seem to equate to colored hearing aids though Those are just people wanting to do their own thing. Not my cup of tea at 72, but who knows, my second childhood can’t be far off

But for those who go that way, I can appreciate it. Go for it!!! By all means

@Neilk said:

signal that they were available to other gents

I think this is a myth.

Butt very interesting.

Didn’t see your last post.

Yes, the style came from juvenile detention, where they were given shorts two times too big and no belts so they couldn’t run very far due to the shorts falling down to their knees. It then became a gang-related badge of honor to wear your pants that way when you were out to signify that you had been to lockup. Then it became appropriated by the pop-culture gangster wannabes.

No relation to the gay community at all, AFAIK.

@Raudrive said:

Butt very interesting.

. . . . . .

As an avid word gamer, I’d be proud of that! “Mythder.”

She may want attention to her and not her ears. She may want to keep things strictly business. I think there is a place and time for everything. I don’t think anything is wrong with your friend. It’s not like she can’t enjoy them in her own time, but in a more appropriate setting. Some people feel like they want to express themselves to the world and others are much more private. Your friend seem normal to me. You said she needs to look super professional, so I think she’s doing things appropriate for her situation.

In this day and time hearing aids is the same as glasses. I need glasses and I choose my glasses by what I like and not what other people like. The same goes for hearing aids, my aids are for me to be able to function as a normal person, and again I wear what I need and want not what others like or want.
In other words I am me, I am not what others want me to be.

Love that. I wish I could do that to mine. It’d be a lot easier to jam them in correctly with the kids jumping on us at the crack of dawn.

As fun as these are - I would agree that these examples would not be a very professional “corporate” look. They would come across like the silly socks Canada’s Prime Minister likes to wear at world summits and expects to be treated seriously. I am a fairly conservative woman in my 60’s who likes classic clothing, However, I have always chosen colourful hearing aids since I began wearing them over a decade ago. My first were metallic red, now I wear lovely metallic teal. When they do peak out of my hair, I don’t mind people seeing them. They subtly alert people to my challenges in hearing - if they notice them at all. Perhaps I am naive, but I am quite shocked that a prospective employer would consider a simple coloured hearing aid unprofessional. I think it would convey that the wearer has some confidence without being attention-seeking. I would consider that a plus, but what do I know?!