Where do you buy your face masks?

I prefer the tie/untie type of mask. I have to wear masks all the time and I find the ones with the loops behind the ears end up hurting after awhile. Fortunately, my hair is long enough now that I can use my hair to make a little ear cushion.

(I realize that didn’t answer your question as to where you buy them. I don’t. I just get them at work, however they don’t last a long time as they are made of paper. My wife made a bunch as well).

It sounds like you are suspicious of ones you can order online. In my town, lots of people are making them, and can be found on your town’s Facebook page.
Are you wearing them for hours at a time? Are you looking for some protection for you as well as others around you? There are a number of fairly comprehensive tutorials online for making them yourself, even if you don’t have a sewing machine.
A non-woven insert (interfacing, coffee filter, vacuum cleaner bag piece) adds a layer of protection.
And the fastener on coffee bags makes a great nose fit piece, tack it into place with a needle and thread.

The wife has been turning them out like there’s no tomorrow. Her sewing/quilting room is now on factory status, and I’m proud of her. She’s quite the prize. We’ve mailed her “products” to friends and relatives around the country.

tWo of mine were made by friends (thanks @canidmajor)! and one I bought locally from someone who was making to sell them. I have three that I rotate and wash.

Sounds like making them is the way to go.

I’m only wearing them for brief periods – when I go to the store/market. My main goal is to have a couple for everyone in my house. My kids rarely need one, because they don’t go anywhere. But my daughter needed to go out the other day, and we scrambled to find her one that worked.

I’ll look into those online directions for making them, although my needle and thread skills are pathetic.

thanks.

Note: When I ask people about their masks – in person – invariably they tell me that they received from a friend or purchased them years ago for other reasons.

I get single use ones free when I need them. From my mentor and labs.

I ordered some from Hedley & Bennet. They are okay. They are cloth with lops (which I prefer) and a pocket to put in a section of a coffee filter.

I also ordered some that are a very thin neoprene.

Yesterday I saw some stylish (hawaiian print) cloth ones and picked one up as extra for the car.

My wife. She made almost 500 for the local hospital, we have their community service director on speed dial. My wife will finish 75 or so and we give a call to the director; she comes over and picks them up off our front steps. She also made over 100 that we donated to two long term care facilities.

My friend who makes them sent me two. The problem is they don’t fit. Since she sent them to me free I am not going to ask him to refit them. They have the elastic ears and they pop right off. For now I am wearing a decorative scarf wrapped around me.

I have 4 P95’s, which I googled to see what they are and they’re actually better than N95’s. I also have one flimsy medical mask which I like better than the P95’s because the P95 is hot and steamy. The flimsy medical one I keep in the car and I figure if I lose it, it’s not a big loss.

I also have this tutorial which was sent to me by my sewing group. The premise behind this mask is that you don’t have to sew through pleats. I have a lot of fabric and I’m going to try it. I also am going to put ribbons on it instead of the elastic which goes behind the ears, and so it will tie behind my head. Maybe if I make more than one I’ll make one with elastic to go behind the ears. I may also double the fabric, so both “good sides” are facing outward, and then I can insert a pad or something in between the fabrics.

Here’s the tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRfhuRNua_E

I made one out of an old T-shirt, following an online video, and it worked out fine, but of course I have to keep laundering it. The directions were easy and didn’t involve sewing (although I did sew 3 layers together). I didn’t care how it looked.

T-shirt cotton ties stay tied very well, but the top of the mask keeps sliding up over my eyes, and my glasses fog up, clouding my vision.

I had a small supply of disposable ones left after doing wound care for my husband last winter. In March my manicurist brought me a small package of them as a gift right after the shutdown canceled our appointments. I bought some more at a pharmacy two days ago for an outrageous price. These are the blue ones with the ear elastics.

Smart & Final had tons of gloves on a pallet a week ago, but no masks.

My dentist was wearing a homemade cloth mask yesterday and said he put a coffee filter inside it.

I don’t go out.

My remarkable wife makes them. She has probably sold 100 by now.

I just found out that my sister-in-law has started making them. She’s going to hook us all up with one!

I haven’t tried this myself (the masks my household made fit us well), I read that you can use nylon stockings to improve the fit of loose-fitting masks. The idea is you cut a section out of a leg so that it’s like a tube of nylon, and then wear that over the mask around your head. Article here with photo to show.

You can also add a metal nose wire with pipe cleaner or a similar-gauge wire.

I followed these instructions, choosing the version with the filter pocket and nose wire slot. They fit well—they make a seal around the face, provided you take a minute when you’re putting it on to adjust the placement and the bend of the nose wire—but they also take longer to make than the “surgical mask” style versions with the pleats. The author includes a video showing the steps. (One adjustment we made was to sew elastic to the corners like you would see on an N95 mask, seemed to work better than fishing it through like was shown.)

(Ah, just your update just popped up above me. Glad to hear! Since I typed this up already I’ll post it anyway…)

I made my own, but we have a supply in the closet that were purchased at Walgreen last year.

I don’t wear a mask

@josie Why not?

@josie Isn’t your girlfriend a doctor?

@josie – Is it not a requirement in your state? How are you so confident that you are not carrying it and spreading it?

@canidmajor
I choose not to
@chyna
Yes. She is.
@hmmmmmm
No it is not
I got the antibody test. I already got infected. Maybe in the ME in Feb. but probably from girlfriend. She probably had covid in Jan. She got it in NY. She had a cough. Nothing else. She now has the antibody. I had no symptoms
I keep safe distance. No one fear me. I only fear them :)
But I don’t.

@josie – Has it been confirmed that you cannot get this virus again? I thought I read that there were some unanswered questions regarding this.

Also, I’m very confused at your reluctance. What is the harm in wearing a mask? At the very least, you’re signaling your respect for other humans. You’re not spreading fear, and you’re showing that you care about other humans by presenting yourself as safe.

^ To elaborate – you’re likely going to markets where there are people who are there working because they have to. They may be older or have other conditions. They may be living with older people or have ill relatives, and every moment they’re at their job, they are terrified of catching it from other humans.

When you arrive without a mask, can you imagine how much of an insult and attack this must feel like?

If people wear a mask it is because they believe it will protect them, but it won’t.
Or they think they are protecting me, but I keep my distance, so according to the experts I’m good.

@josie: “If people wear a mask it is because they believe it will protect them”

There isn’t a single person on the planet who believes that they are wearing a mask to protect themselves. They are wearing a mask for others.

You didn’t respond to my question about what is demonstrably anti-social and aggressive behavior. You must be weighing some pros and cons of wearing a mask. I can’t figure out what possible cons you have come across that outweighs the pros of wearing a mask.

Why are you not wearing a mask?

Because I am scrupulously keeping safe distance. I thought that was the idea
Aggressive and anti- social. You’re beautiful

^ Re-read what I have asked you. You are presenting to other people as an existential threat, regardless of your “safe distance”. I ask again – why are you not wearing a mask?

I already told you

You didn’t. You stated some myth about people thinking that masks are for them. You also told me that you believe you can’t be a symptom-free carrier because you have tested for antibodies.

Since not wearing a mask when shopping at a market is an aggressive anti-social act, and since you can’t seem to explain why you’re doing that, I can only assume that you’re ok with presenting yourself as an existential threat to other people. Not only are you ok with it, you likely prefer it that way. It’s badass or something.

From one of the women making them here where I live.

Well, this question took a strange turn. I was interested in where people might be purchasing their masks, and ended up somehow defending the concept of not wearing a mask.

Apparently some people are so vain or misanthropic that they have decided to threaten workers – often the most vulnerable and low-paid workers. Even if it does turn out that there is no way you can be carrying the virus again, you’re walking around pointing an unloaded gun at members of the public. They don’t know that your gun is loaded. The reasonable and human thing to do would be to put the gun down and enter the store without it. Wear a f*cking mask.

I have sick and vulnerable people in my family. My sister is currently awaiting delayed cancer treatment because of this pandemic. She’s on medicine that reduces her immunity and also has MS. She just wants to get treatment and live for her 6-year-old daughter. The fact that there are people too afraid to mess up their hair or look like a pussy by wearing a mask makes my blood boil.

@josie Do you know which antibody test you had? Some are supposedly more reliable than others. I want to get the test.

So awesome if it means you are now immune and free! I hope they find the immunity is life long.

I heard ideas floating around of issuing some sort of official card that people who are immune could carry to identify themselves as immune.

My state is just about to start doing much more antibody testing, the Governor ordered 200,000 test sticks. I also heard anyone can go to quest labs and have a test done.

@hmmmmmm
Aggressive
Anti-social
Badass

This is good stuff. Please don’t stop.

@josie If people wear a mask it is because they believe it will protect them, but it won’t.

Ahhh…a properly fitted mask will cut the risk down significantly. Not wearing one is akin to being a jackass. Don’t be a jackass.

I’m pretty objective and I don’t think I’m a jackass. Certainly my friends and family don’t think so.

But I could always be wrong.

And if it turns out I’m wrong, I guess I will just have to live with it.

Don’t have one. Don’t go out.

@josie “I’m pretty objective and I don’t think I’m a jackass.”

One is rarely objective about themselves. You’re being a jackass. But I doubt anything anyone of us can say will persuade you otherwise, as you seem pretty committed to and proud of being a jackass.

@josie, your friends and family know that you already had the virus and presumably won’t catch the virus again. People you pass in a store don’t know you. They don’t know why you aren’t wearing a mask, and there are vocal people in this country who have decided that they will simply pout and whine about the whole thing and refuse to wear one because they can’t be bothered to go to minimal effort to protect themselves and their community.

When you walk around without a mask, you look like you’re one of those people—others you pass in the store don’t see someone who’s already had the virus and who believes they cannot pass the virus on; they see someone who doesn’t give a f*** about passing the virus along. Wearing a mask is just basic courtesy right now. It’s communicating to others the thing that is already your position—that you take seriously everyone’s role in not passing the virus along.

And by contrast, by wearing a mask (even if you believe you can’t spread the virus anymore), you are actively encouraging others to wear a mask, too. There are surely people in your area who are potential carriers/transmitters of the virus and who aren’t wearing a mask (since it doesn’t seem like it’s required when entering stores where you are.) Be part of the effort to make wearing masks normal, so that others wear them as well, because you know that if others wear masks it will make a difference, and you also know that people don’t want to stick out (one way or the other). If you’re a badass, be a mask-wearing trailblazer.

But I’m just repeating in different words what others have already said. If you really won’t wear one for basic courtesy, then will you wear one for your own self interest and the interest of possibly at-risk family members? Although it sounds like a reasonable assumption that having antibodies protects you from the virus, it’s not a sure fact yet:

“The World Health Organization has also said that ‘there is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection.’ Until more is known with certainty, it is thus best for recovered patients to continue avoiding elderly people or members of other susceptible groups.” (source for that quote, though this statement from the WHO can be found from many sources.)

(And as @ARE_you_kidding_me has mentioned, a well fitting mask does offer some level of protection to the wearer—more or less depending on materials, fit, etc. And when everyone is wearing a mask, it provides much better protection for everyone.)

I have a coworker who was paid to make masks for everyone.

I am grateful to those who wear face masks when they shop at my store. I loved my job until this virus came along. Now it stresses me out. When I see 80% of the shoppers wearing masks it’s makes my shift a little bit more tolerable. I feel for the workers at big box stores. I’ve noticed the majority of shoppers there don’t wear masks.

The thing about the masks is the more people wear them the more it becomes socially acceptable to wear one, and the more not wearing one becomes socially unacceptable. This was really needed in America, because the government for over a month promoted the idea masks don’t help, and that sick people wear masks. This put the stigma on the mask wearer rather than on the person not wearing a mask. Thankfully it’s shifting now that more and more people are wearing masks. Although, definitely where I live there are people insistent they won’t wear masks because they have a right to control their bodies and the whole C19 scare is a conspiracy and hoax anyway according to them.

I think the best guess is @Josie is immune and can’t spread the virus, but it is true that without a mask he reinforces the idiots out there who are not immune to not wear masks. I am afraid of people who don’t wear masks in the supermarket, especially if they get near me, but at least @josie said he is distancing. It’s hard to distance from a cashier, maybe he self checks out?

Right now at most, probably about 10% of the US population is immune, and if 80–90% of people are wearing masks when shopping that seems good enough to me, but some stores it’s mor like 30–40% without masks and it freaks me out.

Seems that people who don’t wear masks are more fearful of appearing fearful than they are fearful of social censure.
Loving the irony.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/06/health/why-people-dont-wear-masks-wellness-trnd/index.html

Star bellied Sneetches.

@JLeslie Perfect comment!

At this point, anyone who refuses to wear a mask, no matter immune or not, is making a statement. It’s kind of like open-carrying a firearm when you are allowed to, but have no need of it. The effect is to intimidate.

^^ Or just to show how macho and fearless you are? ~

Here are GA’s for all.

I was starting to think maybe Fluther had lost it’s way, but even though I took a beating this was a classic Fluther thread-Some decent name-calling, a little amateur psychoanalysis, and withering disapproval.

The Fluther I remember.

^^^True to form.

I’m not sure I agree that having fellow jellies trying to let you know you may well have come to the wrong conclusion about something that has consequences for more than just yourself is “taking a beating.” I hope that whether or not you tell us, that you rethink your position on wearing a mask when in confined spaces with people you don’t know.

@josie -Me too. XD

@josie, We know how ruff ‘n’ tuff you are, you tell us constantly. We know you think concern for ourselves and others during this fraught time is worth mocking, you have also made that clear. You had literally no answer whatsoever to @hmmmmmm, you just wanted to reiterate the previous points.
And then you whine because we mention it.
Really.

Nobody whining here. Just dusting myself off. Really.