ResMed headgear slipping off?

I have been using a ResMed AirSense 11 with a N30i mask in a small frame for the past few days. Before this my provider would supply only the standard frame, and it kept falling off. Now I finally got the small frame, but it still falls off because the headgear slips on my hair. I have tried wrapping the lower part with self-stick athletic tape...still slips off. I don't take it off, it creeps up my head to slip off. It seems very poorly designed, but I know people do manage to use it. How have people solved this problem? Or have you found a substitute headgear that actually stays on?

cjj62 wrote: ↑

Fri May 27, 2022 10:46 am

It seems very poorly designed, but I know people do manage to use it.

That is a popular mask that works well for many people.

Maybe, carefully watching three or four videos about wearing the mask and adjusting the headgear will help you - https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... +cpap+mask

It's standard advice with any mask problems to check out some videos. Update this thread with your progress.

You may be like I was with this type of mask....even the small frame was a bit too large and it would move around.
You could maybe try what I did and that was wrap a layer of fleece around all parts of the mask so it would snug up a bit and not move around so much. Just don't cover up any vent holes with the fleece.

It's not so much a design flaw is it is that some people's heads aren't large enough to keep the frame and headgear from slipping around.

I wrapped fleece around everything (small frame size as well) and while it helped somewhat....I found it still tended to move around a bit.

Thanks for the fleece suggestion...I did that with the "standard" size my DME insisted on giving me, and it worked, at least to keep the thing on for an hour or so. I got so I thought they should pay me, as I finally got them to realize that there was a small size! And finally, my doctor changed my provider, after she put in a prescription for a small frame and they 'lost' it...so I will try it for the blue strap. Meanwhile, I am modifying the whole thing to make it more like the Phillips one, adding an elastic piece to go where the head joins the neck..

As far as the video suggestion...thank you. I already have looked at just about every video I could find, and really didn't find any that addressed this problem, other than the suggestion to wrap it with no-sticky athletic tape. In addition, they are almost all done by men, who used the 'standard" frame and I only found one or two that even recognized that the frame needed to be fitted...either "standard" or small. This was not helpful when I was trying to get the DME people to provide a frame that they denied existed.

I use the P30i and experienced the exact same problem. The P30i is the same frame as the N30i, the only difference is the cushion, pillow vs cradle.

I completely solved the problem (for me) with two hacks.

The first was replacing the back strap with a Philips Respironics DreamWear strap with Arms. The strap fits the ResMed P/N30i frame perfectly and prevents the back from sliding up.

The second hack I applied, and you may not have to do this, is to create a second set of holes so I can tighten it more. When I first started using the Philips strap it fit fine. I guess the strap stretched out a bit but I found I couldn't get it tight enough. The second set of holes gave me more options to tighten it.

Pictured below is my P30 with the Philips strap and the second set of holes.

I haven't had a slipping problem since. Others have reported the same fix.

Link to HeadGear with Arms:
https://www.cpap.com/productpage/dreamw ... dgear-arms

I had problems with headgear when I started on CPAP. Turns out it was me...my hair is really fine and silky, which makes it more slippery AND the back of my head is pretty flat. A lot of people have a...not a notch exactly, but the back of their head is not flat so the lower back strap kind of has something to catch hold of and not slide up.

Of course once I switched to the Bleep, all that became moot.

Thanks for the suggestion about the Dreamwear headgear with arms! I have ordered one. Meanwhile, while I wait for it to arrive I worked out a hack that is actually keeping the thing on my head all night! I attached a strip of elastic to the slots that hold the headgear, in such a way that the elastic goes around the base of the head, keeping the whole thing in place, but not interfering with the ResMed headgear. Now I have had three nights of acceptable leakage! I posted a more detailed account in a separate post...