Your one MOST ESSENTIAL carnival prep purchase. (Men AND Women)
Across the carnival blogosphere you will find MANY carnival blogs with exhaustive lists of what to buy and things not to forget for your carnival trips. Hell, I’ve made one or two myself.
However, as time marches on I find myself focussing more on only the essential items that, when forgotten, really have a negative effect on your trip and carnival memories.
So lets get straight to the point. The most essential carnival item for ME are earplugs. LOTS and LOTS of earplugs.
“Hear” me out. Carnival is all about fetting and partying on the road for most of us. That involves HOURS in extremely loud environments. When that hot girl giving you the eye calls you over for a wine beside the 5000watt speaker at ear level….you must answer the call!
Without earplugs you end up with discomfort after prolonged exposure to loud noise and loud ringing in the ears afterwards (a sign of some degree of hearing apparatus damage). After years of carnival chasing I can tell you that if I sit quietly in a room and just listen…..I can hear the soft, ever present whine of my tinnitus caused by one wine too many, kotched by a speaker box. I am certain that many of you reading can hear yours too (find a quiet spot and listen carefully).
Well, for years now I have been wearing earplugs. I wear them now when I go to any fete and will actually turn back home to get them if I forget.
Advantages.
Of course they protect your hearing and eliminate the pain and discomfort of super loud volumes for prolonged periods.
They actually allow you to hear the music better when kotched close to the loudspeaker.
Believe it or not, when people speak to you in the fete (*scream in your ear) you can actually hear them more clearly and comfortably.
Types
So there are disposable and reusable types, with the disposable ones tending to have less noise blocking ability. I actually prefer the latter as although I want good protection I still want to hear the soca music I love so much. Also the disposable ones often come individually packaged making it easier to carry extras.
How to put them in.
This is VERY IMPORTANT. You can’t just poke the earplug into your ear. We all know just pushing something soft into a tight hole never goes well. To insert it properly and get a good seal you need to compress the earplug, place it in the ear canal (see video below on how to do that), then hold it in place a few seconds until it expands and creates a good seal.
Take the time to look through the selection I have found.
my personal go-to choice:
other similar option:
Reusable option:
High insulation option:
“invisible” option:
