Can Hearing Aids Be "Stylish"?  

Can Hearing Aids Be “Stylish”?  

For decades the design of hearing aids has been driven by a few major forces: streamlining the size and position of the device until it is nearly invisible to the casual observer. Modern digital hearing aids have pushed into astoundingly small, powerful and discreet designs that deliver clear balanced sound and rest comfortable behind or inside the ear.

What is a new factor was thrown into the design mix? With hearing loss skewing younger, many stylish millennials and Gen-Xers are starting to wonder: can hearing aids be stylish? Without the taboos around hearing aids that existed in previous generations many younger people are comfortable flaunting their hearing aids and incorporating their hearing devices into their personal look.

Youth Movement

When it comes to tracking hearing loss, our youngest generations are growing up in a more difficult era for hearing health than ever before, and the problem is being reflected in hearing loss rates. For young millennials, hearing loss is detected at an accelerating rate exacerbated by the sheer amount of headphone-driven listening devices today. Teenagers today were shown to have 15% more hearing loss than found in teenagers studied in the 1980s.

Facing hearing loss at a young age is no simple task. Most hearing loss is permanent and cumulative, meaning it compounds throughout our life, gradually worsening as more and more of our hearing range is damaged. Confronting hearing loss so young means treating the existing hearing loss and taking steps to protect your remaining hearing.

One twist in the younger face of hearing loss is that it is slowly eroding the stigma of hearing loss as a problem of the very old. These days, young people wear their hearing aids openly, without the thought that it “makes them feel old”.

If You Got It, Flaunt It

Millennials especially are coming up with ways to adapt their hearing aids to incorporate them into their fashion sense. Growing up in the boom of personal, portable technology hearing aids often mean that hearing aids function as high-tech accessories in their wearer’s life. Along with this mindset, a new push to make hearing aids more noticeable is on the rise.

While the push of hearing aids for adults has been driven to ever-smaller more-hidden models, hearing aids for children have historically provided more flexibility. Hearing aids designed for children often have options for bright colors and patterns to make the devices more fun and comfortable for children who will be lifelong hearing aid users. Designed for smaller and less-coordinated hands, children’s hearing aids lean towards bold hues and a more visible design. Phonak’s Sky B for young children offers cutting edge sound and digital connectedness with an appealing variety of mix-and-match colors.

Personal Style

Even while “adult” options for hearing aids maintain a fairly restricted palette, a proliferation of flashy and funky accessories has sprung up to customize and personalize the look of hearing aids. Stickers and decals designed especially to adorn hearing aid casing have sprung up on the craft-driven website Etsy and even in online hobby stores. YouTube boasts a bevy of tutorials on how to repurpose nail art decals and stickers to create a signature style for your hearing aid. Other online crafters demonstrate using washi paper tape and stickers from the toy store to embellish fantasy scenes on the sides of a hearing aid casing.

Instructions online also teach hearing aid users how to make hearing aid jewelry to adorn the tubing that connects behind the ear components to the in-ear microphone. Simple charms looped around the tubing have the effect of a dangling earring hanging from the ear. Different makers also market clips, rings and other bangles to add some flash to a ho-hum hearing aid. Everything from abstract charms to your favorite fruit can be used to decorate the hearing aid tubing.

Desert Valley Audiology

You don’t have to be fashion forward to recognize that hearing well always looks good. That’s where Desert Valley Audiology comes in. At Desert Valley Audiology we offer thorough, nuanced hearing examination that highlights the specific strengths and weaknesses found in each individual ear. We look at your total lifestyle to connect you with the hearing options that are the best fit for your lifestyle and needs. Got questions about your hearing? Desert Valley Audiology has answers – just give us a call today!