9 Useful Face Mask Hacks Everyone Must Know
Having to wear face masks every day comes
with new challenges, such as your glasses fogging up, kids refusing to
wear glasses, and your mask simply not fitting well enough. Fixing these
issues is hardly intuitive and definitely needs some trial and error,
but we’ve got your back here, as we’ve collected 9 useful hacks that
will render your face masks more comfortable to wear and more effective
at warding off germs.
1. Make a Loose Face Mask Fit Better
Wearing a face mask that is too loose on
the face almost defeats the purpose of wearing one, to begin with, as
the germs will be able to escape and get in through the sides of the
mask. However, there is an easy trick that only takes a minute that will
be able to make any face mask fit perfectly. This trick has been
suggested by Olivia Hui, doctor of dental medicine, who posted it in a
Tiktok video recently. “In absence of N95s, this might be a good
alternative,” Cui says in her video. In order to do this trick, follow
these steps:
Fold the mask in half.
On the ear elastics, tie a knot on each side, making sure it's as
close as possible to the mask itself.
Open the mask: there should be little openings on the sides near the
ear loop. Tuck those in under the elastics on both sides.
Your mask is ready to wear and should fit your face more closely.
2. No More Foggy Glasses
Foggy glasses are a real nuisance that can
be dangerous, especially when driving, but many people admit that they
struggle with the issue every time they wear a face mask. Now, this is a
real problem that may discourage you to wear face masks altogether, but
luckily it can be easily fixed by using just a drop of dishwashing
liquid. Yes, you heard us, use a drop of dish soap and rub it thoroughly
on both sides of the lenses before rinsing off the glasses. The
dishwashing liquid will create a transparent coating that will protect
the lenses from temperature changes and will prevent the clouding.
In addition, you should also make sure the face mask fits your face on
top, as the very reason your glasses are fogging up is an ill-fitting
mask. For tips on how to make a mask more comfortable for glasses
wearers, read our previous article titled 6 Practical Tips to Make Face
Masks More Comfortable.
3. How to Motivate a Child to Wear a Face Mask
Kids may be reluctant to wear a face mask,
no matter how cute it looks. This kind of makes sense, as wearing one is
not a particularly pleasant experience. If you can't convince a child
to wear a face mask, what you could do is lead by example and make
everyone in the house, all family members, and even their favorite toys
wear a face mask.
You can even use their favorite toys to roleplay an educational
situation explaining why wearing a mask in public spaces is important.
Since kids learn through fun, this little exercise may help them grasp
the importance of mask-wearing, even if they can't understand the full
severity and dangers of the Covid-19 pandemic due to their age.
4. Ironing Can Help Disinfect a Reusable Mask
Wearing reusable cloth face masks is great,
as you're not wasting money on purchasing new masks, but you're also
being kinder to the environment and saving the single-use masks to
people who might need them more, like essential workers and medical
staff. That said, reusing a mask means making sure you're cleaning and
disinfecting it properly before use, and washing doesn't always kill all
the germs from a reusable mask.
You need to apply high heat while drying the mask in a tumble dryer for
at least 20 minutes to get rid of all the microbes, but by far not
everyone has one at home. If you're air-drying face masks, like many of
us do, especially in the summer, you ought to give them a quick iron
afterward to make sure all of the pathogens are long gone before you
wear them mask again.
5. A Good Way to Store Face Masks
Storing used face masks in a plastic bag is
a common mistake, and a dangerous one, too, as the plastic will trap in
all the germs in the mask and won't let it air out in-between uses. A
much better container for a used mask is a paper lunch bag or a
breathable container, according to the CDC.
A container like paper is better because it's more breathable, making it
a worse environment for pathogens to survive, plus they're easy to
assess, as paper lunch bags are available in virtually every
supermarket. So, instead of plastic bags, use any clean paper bag to
store used face masks.
6. An Ordinary Headband Can Make Wearing a Mask Easier
Wearing a face mask for hours every day can
really irritate the ears and make them ache and burn, which can
potentially discourage you from wearing a face mask every day. Instead
of giving in, though, try wearing your face mask in a smart way that
doesn't hurt the ears.
To do so, all you will need is a headband or a
hat, a couple of buttons and a needle and some thread. What we will do
is sew on a pair of buttons on each side of the headband or hat and
attach the ear loops to the buttons instead of your ears.
To do so, all you will have to do is wear the headband or hat, hold the
face mask on your face and measure out the placement of the buttons by
stretching out each ear loop over the hat or headband so that the mask
fits the face properly when it's not fastened at the ear. Sew on the
buttons in the places you measured beforehand, this will typically be
back of the headband, for example, and attach the face mask to the
buttons. Final tip - for a neater look, attach the buttons to the inside
of the headband or hat, so that the buttons are invisible from the
outside. With this trick, you'll be guaranteed to experience no more ear
pain.
7. Using Rubber Bands to Create a Better-Fitting Mask
To make a surgical mask fit your face as
tight as an N95 mask, you can use 3 rubber bands and follow these steps:
Create a chain from the three rubber bands.
Put on the surgical mask, take the middle link of the rubber band
and stretch it to fit around the mask, forming a tight seal around your
nose and mouth.
Secure the two remaining rubber bands at your ears.
8. How to Add a DIY Filter to a Cloth Face Mask
Many reusable cloth face masks available
today have a pocket on the inside. Well, it turns out that this pocket
is where you ought to insert a filter, otherwise the mask will not be as
effective as it should be.
Though inserting a HEPA filter is the most effective way to prevent the
inhalation of pathogens, you can also make do with the following DIY
filters in its absence. You can use a coffee filter cut out to fit the
mask instead of a special mask filter, for example, which was found to
filter out over 60% of airborne microbes, but a double layer of paper
towels or tissues will also work in a pinch, offering a little more than
30% filtration of pathogens, too.
9. Your Phone's Face ID Doesn't Recognize Your Face in a Mask? Here's a
Solution
If you're using the Face ID function on
your smartphone, you may have noticed that your phone isn't recognizing
your face when you're wearing a mask. This is really annoying, as
pulling down a face mask in order to unlock your phone could spread
germs to the mask and your face, so that's a bad option. Luckily, there
is a way around this issue, and that trick is to upload additional
appearances to your Face ID database.
In order to do so, simply go to the Settings of the Face ID feature,
find "add alternative appearance" or similar option on your phone, click
on it, and take 2 new pictures: one with a mask folded in half over one
side of your face, and another one with the opposite side covered with a
mask, and you're done. Now, please keep in mind that not all phones
will have that option, but it's definitely worth a try.