Best masks?

[Ultralight]

Hi All:

As you know, I am an avid mask-wearer!

Mostly I wear BNX brand N95 masks. They sell them on Amazon for a fair price. These are my "casual" masks as they are not super tight and not exteremly form-fitting.

When I am going to be in close proximity to infecteds -- like in meeting or something -- I will wear 3M's N95s. These are very tight and form-fitting. I get a steady supply of these from a nurse friend of mine. Yeah, I have had a hook-up for good masks almost the whole pandemic.

Early on I wore surgical or cloth masks. Heck, during the first few weeks of the pandemic I just wore a bandana "outlaw style."

But now you won't catch me anywhere without an N95, maybe with a surgical over it too.

Which masks have given you the best protection and comfort?

[bae]

For years now, I've relied upon:

Medline N95 Flat-Fold Respirator Face Masks, SKU: NON27501

[Ultralight]

For years now, I've relied upon:

Medline N95 Flat-Fold Respirator Face Masks, SKU: NON27501

Cool! I googled them. I'm gonna try to order. They look even more comfortable, but still snug.

[happystuff]

I use various ones, but mostly N95, as my supervisor gave me some from work. If he is going to become my source for them, I'll be happy.

[LDAHL]

The best mask? Six feet of empty space and hand- washing with the enthusiasm of Lady Macbeth.

[bae]

Cool! I googled them. I'm gonna try to order. They look even more comfortable, but still snug.

The model has some disadvantages - if you with to re-use it, you have to be careful donning and doffing or it is easy to tear the elastic-to-mask connection.

The main reason I started using this one years ago was the folds-flat feature. At the time, there were few decent masks out there that were reasonably robust, and would store flat, and would allow me to pass the fit-test with my facial hairstyle (The moldable wires for shaping the mask are very versatile). Once I found these, I procured, well, a lot. I had thousands on hand before the pandemic began, and I'm still running through my stash. I think there may be better folds-flat models out there now.

I have to have folds-flat though, as the cup shaped ones get crushed in the pockets of my rescue or firefighting gear and become useless quickly.

[rosarugosa]

We went from cloth masks in the early days to the blue surgical masks, but we've more recently shifted to KN95s which are reasonably comfortable and do fold flat. We still use the blue masks sometimes, depending on risk/circumstances.

[JaneV2.0]

I use a combination of a two layer knit mask topped by a 3-layer cloth mask with a pocket for a large KN95 filter. So, five layers, filter and adjustable ear and nose bridge features that fit closely to my face. I've noticed I can't smell anything when I'm wearing them, and I suppose that's a good sign.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I wear mostly Harley Commodity N95 and 3m Aura N95 lately. None are super comfortable, they are what they are, the 3m is probably more comfortable than the Harley, the 3m is a very popular mask it seems, but smaller so probably won't fit all men. My boyfriend swears by Powecom KN95 with head bands (I've owned the ear loop type as well but headbands is a more protective fit), and sometimes I wear those too, but there seems a bit of a shortage of them lately (throws hands in the air and says "supply chain"). I mean I have a mask order from over a month ago and well where are they?

[Eric]

Not N95 or anything (unless you put an N95 in the filter pocket), and might look like any old mask, but I got a few of these and really like them: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1061838...f=yr_purchases. The reasons I like them so much:

-They never look dirty because they're black
-They have a nose wire and can be snugly fitted to ones face
-But mostly, worn upside down and over ones eyes, they double as near-perfect sleep masks. Because they wrap around ones ears and not entire head, they don't move around. The nose wire can be adjusted to prevent light from entering around ones nose, which is where most other sleep masks tend to let light in. And the ear straps can be slip-knotted to adjust snugness of fit. The triple layer black cotton doesn't let light through, while still being relatively cool. They don't put any pressure on ones eyes, a common complaint of sleep masks (apparently this can disturb REM sleep or something). They're tiny, easily fit in a zipper coin purse where I also keep some earbuds, 4" charging cables, and earplugs. And $12 for 4 is hard to beat, especially compared to sleep masks designed to be sleep masks, which are usually between $15-50 just for one.

I looked around on and off for years for a good sleep mask, and these really work well by addressing the biggest design flaws common to all sleep masks, while only costing $4.