Loop Quiet Ear Plugs for Noise - White

I am an auditory avoidant neurodivergent person with an inner ear deformity that makes me even more sensitive to unwanted sound. So earplugs are very important to me and I will say that these are the best I’ve found so far. Here are the things I like about them: 1). They are more comfortable inside the ear and stay in better than foam earplugs. 2). They’re more reliable also; I think anyone who has used foam earplugs regularly has experienced having them suddenly stop compressing/expanding properly and becoming completely useless at the moment you need them the most. The Loops don’t do that. There is nothing to compress or expand so they are very dependable. And they do block out quite a bit of unwanted sound. 3). once they are in properly, you really can’t see them from the front, unlike those foam plugs that stick out and look ridiculous. 4). because they lie flat against the ear, I can wear them with my noise-canceling headphones if I need extra protection. 5). they are the only thing that make it tolerable to go to the very noisy planet gym (where they BLARE the music even at 6 am on a Sunday when I, a person in my 50s, am the youngest person in the place. WHY?!?) Things I would change: 1) I find the loop part a little big for my ear. The outside cartilaginous part of my ear gets really sore after I’ve worn them for a while, from the loop part pressing on it. Maybe I’ll try child-sized ones in the future. 2) My ears require two different sizes of plug attachments- small on the right and medium on the left. So I wish they would make some indication on the loop part of a right/left designation. Preferably something like a raised bump pattern on one that I could feel when trying to put them in at night in the dark. Both of these things are minor and not bothersome enough to give a lower review. They’re just things that (for me) would make an already excellent product even better. If you have never used them before, I highly recommend watching one of their videos on how to fit them and properly install them in your ears. They come with several sizes of plugs. You will try each on to find the ones that fit best. In order to do this, you must pull off the plug attachments that are on the Loops when you receive them. I was reluctant to do this because you really do have to grip them and pull pretty hard. I didn’t want to pull too hard and ruin my my new and (to me) very costly earplugs, but it turns out they are quite sturdy so you can feel confident doing that. You then insert them and then turn them so that the loop part is tucked into the…… swirly part (?) of your outer ear. My only regrets are that I didn’t buy them sooner, and that I didn’t get an extra pair, because I really need a pair to keep by my bed and a pair for my purse. If your memory is better than mine and you remember to take them everywhere with you, then you can get by with one pair. Overall they are excellent and I know it’s a leap of faith, given the price, when you’re used to getting like 200 foam earplugs for the same price, but as a person who is very sensitive to sound, I highly recommend them. EDIT: The reason I strongly suggest watching a video on how to use these, is that the instructions for use that come in the package are utterly unreadable (see photo). I wasn’t able to read them even by taking a photo and enlarging it. So if you hear or read about people getting these stuck in their ears, it’s because they didn’t/couldn’t read the instructions and just used the pads without the loops themselves attached. Once you attach the pads to the loops, unless they’re defective, you have to really pull to get them off and they will not just randomly come off in your ear. It’s not the users’ fault though. The packaging is terrible in terms of readability. I honestly don’t know how it made it through the design phase. Despite the blatant packaging fail, however, the earplugs themselves are still awesome.