In our most recent episode we shared two mask hacks that supposedly make you safer. We cut just those two bits out of our most recent video to create something a little shorter and easier to digest. That’s the video above. So, here are two mask hacks that'll hopefully keep you a little bit safer while you're doing wedding photography during this COVID-19 pandemic.
The first hack is to take a surgical mask, fold it in half, and then tie off each ear loop in a knot right where the loop connects to the mask. If you put the mask on after that step you’ll have actually created much bigger holes and you’ll have made the mask less safe. So instead, turn the mask inside out and push the material on both sides so that instead of popping out away from your face it pops in toward your face. Then when you put the mask on it’ll hold the material tighter to your face and reduce the size of the gaps on either side of the mask.
The second hack is called double masking. Tests were done with panty hose to see if wearing pantyhose over the top of a surgical mask would cause the material to be held tighter to your face and thus all less unfiltered air particles into your nose and mouth area. Pantyhose don’t look super professional, so we decided to use black cooling neck gaiters instead. They’re made out of a similar stretchy material and work quite well to hold the surgical mask tight up against your skin. Much like the pantyhose though, a cooling neck gaiter won’t do much to protect you from the coronavirus. So we don’t recommend using a cooling neck gaiter on its own as your mask. We would only recommend it in conjunction with a surgical or disposable mask.
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Neither one of these hacks will keep you as safe as an N95 mask, but they could potentially keep you a little safer. The pantyhose/neck gaiter hack will probably help more than the folding and tying method. According to this article on NPR, when paired with a surgical mask from 3M, it could keep you almost as safe as an N95 respirator.
“Even the 3M surgical mask performed better with stockings in their study: Testing showed that it went from blocking out 75% of small particles to 90% with the addition of a pantyhose overlayer. By comparison, an N95 respirator, which is designed to create a tight seal around the face, blocks out at least 95% of small particles when worn properly.”
This was cut out of a recent episode of our podcast. If you want to listen to or watch the full episode, it’s Ep. #160 - Stranger Sessions During a Pandemic and Anti-Masker Weddings.
If you're looking for more info about COVID-19, be sure to head over to the CDC website.
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This video was originally a part of our weekly podcast. You can subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting app: Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Overcast, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Podbean, or Stitcher.