I have 14 face masks. That’s too much for some. It’s also odd for me as I don’t like wearing one; it feels restrictive, I can’t eat and walk while in a public space, and it leaves indents on my face. But these inconveniences are nothing compared to the protection these masks provide.
But I get flak for having two weeks’ worth of face protection. It seems excessive, and when wearing a face mask became mandatory in South Africa, I thought I could manage by rotating two throughout the week. The plan was to wash one wear one.
But then I developed mask envy. And the very real problem of spectacle fogging became too much to bear. I had to find alternatives to the two black, elasticated ones I had.
Side note: why do the ear ones cause your specs to fall off your face, and why do your ears resemble Shrek’s when you wear them?
Enter the sponge mask with a vent. Stylish, ear friendly, comfortable, no steamed up specs, and I could breathe deeply without eating the mask. All pluses, but the vent became home to a pool of condensation. And I developed a huge zit on the exact location the vent touched my face. It was not lost on me that wearing a mask would hide said zit, but it also meant aggravating the growing puss volcano on my cheek.
Another problem with the ear masks*, is that wearing a head scarf with these guys meant having to first mask up and then don the hijab. And putting it on again, while wearing the scarf was annoying, and my specs would once again give in to the Earth’s gravitational pull.
I had to find an alternative to the ear ones.
Enter the stringed cloth face mask. So easy to take off and wear again between the car and public space. It ties over the head scarf – a definite win. But it fit too closely to my mouth. I was not deterred, the lesson was learned.
Now for the elasticated, duck mask. The elastic bands work like the stringed masks, and they provide a nice gap between the face and the cloth. I’d found my favourites. I was done searching.
At this point I should mention that as I progressed through the different types and styles of face masks. The sponge vented one was the most expensive at a cost of R60 each.
I had eight masks, and doing fine until my sister showed me a catalogue of face masks that looked like art on your face. Nothing avant-garde but still beautiful, and they had strings attached (saw the pun, left it in).
I flipped through the catalogue and selected my favourites. My sister placed the order, and a week later, I had my six designer face masks with varying colours and prints. These beauties cost me R80 each, but were well worth it considering that some designers were charging R100 for a plain one.
My new face accessories look good, they fit perfectly, and they tie around my head.
The stringed face masks can be tied at the crown of your head to ensure a snug fit, whereas the elasticated duck masks, while remaining secure on my face, often left a red indent on my nose.
It’s been a strange and uncertain few months, and the search for the perfect mask has offered me a kind of distraction from the stress of the unknown. At least I can control the kind of protection I use. And as that meme says, “treat your masks like you treat your underwear”.
And the similarities are uncanny:
- make sure it’s clean
- make sure it fits well but not too tight
- don’t touch or adjust it, especially in public
- don’t share it
- throw it away if it has stains or holes
And like underwear, you should have several face masks for in case you forget (or are too lazy) to wash them.
After all of that I still need to sort out my fogged up specs.
*masks that have elasticated or string loops that fit around your ears