Caring for your ears

The short version

If you read nothing else: spot clean only, dry them properly, and store them out in the open rather than shut in a drawer. Almost every pair that comes to grief does so from being packed away damp or crushed under something heavy — not from being worn.

Everything below is the longer answer, sorted by the thing you're actually dealing with.

Wearing them

Every pair is built on a lightweight headband with foam batting and velvet trim along the underside. That trim is doing two jobs — it's what makes them comfortable after six hours, and it's what stops them sliding. You shouldn't need bobby pins or a comb, and if you find yourself reaching for them, the ears are probably sitting too far forward. Push them back until they sit behind your hairline and they'll grip.

If you're wearing them over a ponytail or a bun, put the ears on first and build the hair around them. Trying to force a headband over an already-set style is what bends the band.

Weather

These are made ten minutes from the Florida parks, and they're tested in August, so ordinary weather is not a problem.

• Rain. A shower is fine. Shake them off, blot with a towel, and leave them somewhere airy overnight. The thing that actually causes damage is staying damp — a wet pair sealed in a bag overnight will come out musty.
• Heat and sweat. Also fine, but blot the underside at the end of the day rather than leaving it. Sequin pairs run warmer than jersey or cotton ones; on a very hot trip that's worth knowing when you're picking which pair to wear.
• Water rides. No. Not the light-up pairs, and honestly not the sequin ones either. Take them off and hand them to whoever isn't riding.
• Sunlight. Wearing them in the sun is fine. Storing them in it is not — months on a sunny windowsill will fade sequin fabric and pink velvet noticeably.

Cleaning, by material

The rule for all of it: a barely damp cloth, no soap, no rubbing, and complete air drying before they go anywhere. Never a washing machine, never a tumble dryer, never a tap.

• Sequin fabric. Wipe with the grain. Sequins overlap in one direction like roof tiles — run your hand across and you'll feel which way lies flat. Going against it lifts the edges, which is what snags hair and eventually pops threads.
• Velvet and crushed velvet. Blot, never rub. Rubbing an oily mark — sunscreen, foundation, sunscreen again — works it into the pile and sets it. Blot it while it's fresh and most of it lifts. A soft brush afterwards raises the nap back up.
• Faux fur and sherpa. Brush gently in the direction of the pile with a soft brush or a clean toothbrush. If it's matted, work in small sections rather than dragging through the whole thing.
• Felt and hand-painted faces. Barely damp cloth, light pressure, and stop before the felt gets properly wet. Hand-painted detail is sealed but it isn't armoured — scrubbing will lift it.
• Glitter and puffy paint. Dry cloth only. Water lifts loose glitter and spreads it across everything else on the pair.
• Tulle and lace. These crush rather than stain. Reshape by hand; if it's badly flattened, hold it a foot away from a steaming kettle for a few seconds and it'll relax — but keep the steam off the sequins and glued detail.
• Pearls and hand-set crystals. Dry cloth, no pressure. Don't drag a cloth across a crystal field; go around it. Each stone is set individually and there's no reason to test them.

Light-up pairs

The fairy lights are sewn into the bow rather than laid on top, and the battery pack sits in a small fabric flap tucked behind it. The switch is right there where your thumb lands.

• It arrives working. The battery is already installed — no setup, no fiddling in the hotel room at 9pm.
• Replacing it. Slide the pack out of the flap, note the size printed on the cell, and buy the same from any drugstore. Standard button cells; nothing exotic.
• Turn it off before you pack. The most common way people arrive at the parks with dead ears is switching them on at home to show someone and never switching them back off.
• Long storage. If they're going away for a season, take the battery out. Button cells can leak over months and that's the one kind of damage that isn't cosmetic.
• Splash-resistant, not waterproof. Rain is survivable. Immersion is not.

Glow-in-the-dark pairs

Several designs use glow paint or neon tulle rather than batteries, and it behaves quite differently — better, for a night-time park day, because there's nothing to run out.

Charge them by holding them under a bright light for ten to fifteen minutes. A phone torch works, a lamp works, direct sun works fastest. You'll get a strong glow for the first twenty minutes and a softer one for a couple of hours after. Recharge as often as you like — it doesn't wear out, and it doesn't weaken over the years.

Worth knowing: a full day outdoors charges them without you doing anything, which means they come on by themselves as the sun goes down.

Sculpted faces, whiskers, wings and tails

The more involved designs have parts that move, and they're meant to.

• Whiskers and antennae are pipe cleaner cored and made to be shaped. Bend slowly, in wide curves. Don't work the same spot back and forth — wire fatigues and snaps at the crease.
• Transparency film wings are tough but they take a permanent crease if they're folded. Pack them so nothing presses flat against them.
• Sculpted foam faces are flexible on purpose and will squash back into shape. If a face looks dented after a trip, press it gently from behind and it'll pop out.
• Tails and floppy ears are wired or weighted to move as you walk. If one starts drooping the wrong way, reshape the wire rather than pulling on the fabric.

Packing and travel

Ears survive flights easily; they just don't survive being at the bottom of a suitcase.

• Stuff the inside of the bow with a rolled sock or a soft t-shirt so it holds its shape under pressure.
• Pack them on top of everything else, never underneath, and never in a bag that gets sat on.
• Keep the box they arrived in if you can — it's already the right shape.
• Honestly, the best answer is to wear them through the airport. They take up no space on your head, they don't count as a carry-on, and they're a very effective way to start a conversation in a security line.

Storing them at home

Treat them like the handmade objects they are rather than like accessories.

• Out, not away. A shelf, a wall hook, a mug, a wig stand, a headband holder. Drawers crush the bow and flatten the foam, and flattened foam takes days to recover.
• Out of direct sun. The single biggest cause of fading, and it's entirely avoidable.
• Dust them occasionally with a dry makeup brush or a hairdryer on cool. Dust settles into sequin edges and dulls them long before anything actually wears out.
• Veils and detachable pieces store flat, not folded. Creased tulle is difficult to recover.

The don't list

Short, and worth reading twice:

• Don't machine wash, hand wash, or run them under a tap.
• Don't put them in a tumble dryer, or on a radiator.
• Don't iron them — heat melts sequins on contact.
• Don't use stain remover, alcohol wipes, or anything with bleach.
• Don't pack them damp.
• Don't leave a battery in a pair that's going into storage for months.
• Don't take the light-up pairs on water rides. We know. We're saying it again.

If something goes wrong anyway

Handmade things occasionally need a little attention, and most of what happens is fixable at home with what's above. If something arrives damaged or isn't what you approved, message us — that's a different conversation and we'll always sort it out.

And if you're after a second pair, or want something made specifically for the next trip, tell us the idea. That's the fun part.