Aura Lite - solution to hair breaking or thinning

I posted this as a reply to a topic on the TAS board. I love my Aura more than ever now!

Topic posted by LCM (Lorraine) Apr 27 2005 subject: My Hair! It's Being Destroyed!

Lorraine, let it never be said that lab rats won't go to extreme measures when it comes to their hair.

I've come up with yet another fix for my Aura. A pretty drastic one. You might not want to do it.

I've been thinking about doing this almost ever since I got the Aura and found I needed to add homemade straps.

With the straps added, there was really nothing about the Aura's own headgear holding it on for me. My straps were doing it all, and the Aura's top strap in particular was doing nothing more than keeping the lockbox from flopping over in front of my face.

Your post made me say, "Awww, what the hey...I've been meaning to figure out a way to get the connector hose out of that lockbox ... I'm gonna do it right now."

I took a serrated knife to the "lockbox." I unlocked the hose!! I now have the most ultra lightweight, most comfortable Aura in captivity! There's nothing touching my hair line or the top of my head at all now.

No "lockbox." No rubber straps. Nothing to break off a woman's hair (or a man's, for that matter) at the hairline, wherever it may be.

The lockbox and ALL the rubber strapping that comes with the headgear is now packed away in my discard drawer. All that's left of my Aura are the perfect parts...the parts that made the Aura my favorite - its ultra soft nasal pillow assembly and the plastic upward pointing exhaust.

Of course the connector hose is still on it too, but the hose is freed from the lockbox and is now happily flopping loose. It's even easier now to connect the Aura's hose overhead to the main air hose hanging from the wall. The hose still stays up out of the way for tossing and turning - side sleeping, back sleeping, whatever.

The Aura's nasal thingy and its plastic exhaust are still held at the same places by my two sets of homemade straps - one set at eyebrow level, the other set (the infamous pantyleg strap!) holding the bottom corners of the nasal assembly.

My stripped down Aura is the most comfortable nasal pillows I've ever had on. The only thing I had to add was a small piece of soft foam on my forehead where the eyebrow level straps are connected at the front. The foam pads it nicely at my forehead.

I chose a thickness of foam to tilt the top of the nasal assembly forward "just right", now that there's no lockbox up above to maintain a forward tilt to the top.

An extra black foam filter for the Remstar was the right thickness for me. I cut it in half, using one half at my forehead.

I wedged the other half of the foam between the connector hose and the cut off rods at the top, to be sure the hose would never get against the top of the cut off rods. That would be unlikely since the hose has a rigid connector there, but I wanted to be absolutely sure the hose never got jabbed.

Lorraine, this isn't a fix that I'd recommend at all unless a person liked the Aura's nasal part, but was about to discard the Aura altogether because of the underside of the lockbox thinning/breaking their hair or bothering their scalp - or just plain being annoying to have up there..

Getting the hose out of the lockbox involves putting the connector hose (as well as one's fingers!) in jeopardy while sawing (twice!) through the plastic piece at the back of the lockbox to free the hose at the back.

To avoid nicking the hose while sawing away at the hard plastic with my serrated knife, I stuck some closed scissors flat between the hose and where I was sawing.

You have to cut through two spots on that back piece of plastic to get that piece of plastic off and lift the hose out. Someone with the proper tools could do a faster, safer job of it, but I made it through both times with fingers and (more importantly! ) the hose intact.

You also have to cut through both of the thin rods of plastic that hold the front of the lock box. Compared to the thick plastic holding the the hose at the back, those front rods are a piece of cake to saw through. I sawed the rods off just above the small horizontal U shaped piece that's above the exhaust.

Again I stuck some closed scissors between hose and where I was sawing, to protect the hose from any slip of the serrated knife. File the cut ends of the rods to smooth them.





Aeiomed (makers of the Aura) might feel this drastic change defeats their design purpose of having nasal pillows with no "straps" on the cheeks. That's true.

But if it comes down to having no straps on the cheeks or thinning, breaking hair up at the hairline.... hmmmm

Anyway, I tried out my new sans-lockbox Aura thoroughly with a long nap. Sealed beautifully and was more comfortable than it's ever been before. Everyone's mileage may vary, though, so don't wreck your Aura unless it was about to hit the drawer anyway.

Update:
Two full nights using my stripped down Aura Lite.
AHI 0.7 each night.
Working great and soooo comfortable to sleep in.

This is pretty much the same thing I did with the lace elasticized mesh cap I ordered when i adapted it for my Swift and got rid of the headgear that was thinning my hair.

Actually where the original straps are on the mesh cap are exactly where Rested Gal's straps are. Except they are about 1" wide. But they could be cut down to narrow ones from the cap body. They are elastic and have velcro so could be quite adjustable. The makers also have a cap with two loops on the top to accomodate the Adam interface which would work to keep the Aura (or Breeze) tubing up over the head. The cap costs about $35 but is washable, packs to nothing in volume and keeps your hair in place instead of mussed up.

Ok, I need a visual on this cap Janelle talks about and would like to know how you made the straps, where did you get the material.

I have contacted my dme and they are going to send me some extra Breeze straps they have laying around.

Help, need to get my Aura to work better for me...

Sleeping with the Enemy

This is the cap I bought put out by Tiara Fun Gear. As you can see there are top and bottom straps. I cut off the top straps level with the cap and made slits at the place where the ends of the barrel poke through the regular headgear, folded back the headband on the barrel and made another slit on the side where the tube is put. I wear the cap a bit higher up than shown, so the tension on the barrel is more upward and the straps come across the bottom part of my ear instead of underneath.

Thanks to glassgal, I found out that a sharp pair of nippers (wire cutters) will cut through the plastic of the Aura very nicely. I use nippers now instead of the risky serrated knife!

Newsgrouper posted a neat comfort fix using a forehead "spacer" from a discarded Respironics Comfort Classic, to pad the area where the exhaust plastic touches the forehead on a "deconstructed" Aura. Read about Newsgrouper's clever fix here:

Jul 02, 2005 subject: Franken-Aura

Update August 2005 - my latest (and last) revision to the straps for my "deconstructed Aura". I use legs cut off pantyhose tights because the fabric is stretchy, soft and stays wider than regular pantyhose stocking legs. The softness of the "tights" and width it maintains leave no strap marks in the morning. The headband style "tights" leg at the top doesn't leave any mark either.

I now put one long bottom "strap" across the front of the nasal pillows assembly instead of using two straps on the bottom tied to the bottom of the nasal pillows. The bottom strap is not attached to anything. It's just one "tights" leg placed across the front of the pillows and tied behind the neck, not very tight at all.

In the retouched pictures below, the straps look very tight, but they are actually worn barely snug. Especially the bottom one. Doesn't take much pressure at all down there to keep the pillows from shifting out of position.

A "double start knot" is perfect for using behind the neck as it stays very flat. Many times when we lie down, a strap that felt ok sitting up will feel too tight lying down. Everything about the neck gets a bit "thicker" when we lie down. This kind of knot is very easy to adjust looser when lying down -- simply take one finger and tug the strap outward a bit at one cheek or the other. Even though a double starting knot holds very securely all night no matter how much you toss and turn, it's easy to take take loose in the morning by just pulling both sides outward away from the cheeks.
Step-by-step pictures of tying a "double start knot" for the bottom strap behind neck can be seen here:

Double Start Knot

This deconstruction would be unbearable to wear if you don't put something between the hard plastic where the nasal assembly connects to the hose. That hard connection hits right against the forehead. I use a long piece of the original rubber strap, simply placing it loose against my forehead, nubby side out. The rubber feels cool against the forehead and the nubbiness grips the upper straps to stay in place fine all night. Newsgrouper's gel "spacer" off a discarded nasal mask's forehead thingie is a good idea. Probably a cotton pad of some kind would work fine too.

So...here are pictures of my new straps arrangement. Pure comfort all night long in any sleeping position. It's helpful, of course, to hang the main air hose up on the headboard, to keep the air hose from pulling at any mask, not just this one.

I did not have the guts to de-construct my aura, so I just use a yalmuka (the skull cap a Jewish man wears to temple) between the rubber part of the "lockbox" and my hair. (got this one from my friend's bat mitzvah) No problems so far.

A yarmulka!

Brilliant!
Now why didn't I think of that?
O.

I have no Aura. I have a friend who wrote a song called "I can see your aura and it's ugly", but that's another topic.

First it was KY for the nasal pillows.

Now if I get an Aura, you're telling me I have to go out and buy some pantyhose and actually touch them to make new straps.

RG, when will the humiliation end!!!!

Jim, aka DistressedInSeattle

You forgot the pantyliners for the Comfortable Curves....

O.

I don't have this mask, but I sure enjoy reading the thread!

Here's a related tip for anyone (with hair) who has trouble keeping headgear in place: I always make sure to pull my hair out from under the straps before lying down. When I move around my hair moves against the pillow instead of the headgear. It's a little thing, but I think it makes a difference.

Carry on...

ozij,

That's the one I forgot! Sometimes the most painful thoughts leave your brain forever...