I recently stumbled across my very first pair of coloured hearing aids the other day.
(Admittedly, I felt a little guilty finding these – I was sure I had donated them to be repurposed for someone in need in a developing country. Now that I’ve taken this picture I’ll make sure to do just that.)
Prior to this pair, the hearing aids I had worn had been beige. Having coloured hearing aids was – and still is – a great way for hearing aid users to show off their individually and have some fun with them. There are countless different styles and colours of glasses, so why should all hearing aids be beige? Several manufacturers offer a wide variety of bright colours, with more and more colours being available beyond their paediatric platforms. To showcase this, I made a very unofficial ranking of the best hearing aid colour options available out there today.
12. Anything Beige or Brown
I completely understand not wanting your hearing aids to be visible. However, the truth is that they are always going to be noticed eventually. So when they are noticed, do you want them to be bright and colourful, or a drab shade of “medical beige?”
11. Anything Black
Every manufacturer makes some version of black, and they basically all look the same. An especially neat option that many aren’t aware of is a slick black faceplate for custom hearing aids as shown here. Besides looking cool, they’re just about completely invisible.
10. Widex Mediterranean Turquoise
Wide has a broad offering of colours for certain models, but have unfortunately limited themselves with this outdated (think “plastic flip phone circa ~2008”) colour-white pairing. The colour is nice, but they should have committed and made it a solid colour.
9. Oticon Cabernet Red
Oticon is the best at offering great colours for adult hearing aids – but unfortunately the best selection is only available on a very limited model offering. This shade makes me feel like reaching for a bottle of wine.
6, 7, 8. Phonak Majesty Purple, Blue Ocean, and Lava Red
Right now the Phonak Sky V Paediatric lineup is the undisputed king of colour. Though some of their colours are a little too unique for me, I definitely could see myself wearing any of these three. Unfortunately none of these great shades are available in their adult products (a blander-but-more-tasteful “Ruby Red” does exist though).
5. Oticon Sunset Orange
Like the Cabernet Red mentioned above, the availability of this colour is not great. Maybe its just the Edmonton Oilers fan in me, but I love this bright orange.
4. Oticon Passion Pink
While Phonak works to ensure its paediatric hearing aid colours are mellow enough for parents to enjoy, Oticon goes all out on making their children’s products as bright as they can be.
3. Phonak Alpine White
I don’t think this colour can be fully appreciated without seeing it in person. This slick, shiny white looks amazing, especially paired with the blue hook as shown. This white seems to be a growing trend in hearing aids as most manufacturers now offer a similar colour in a large number of their product offerings (though still way too late – how long ago was the white IPhone 4 the rage?).
2. Signia Deep Red
Signia (formerly Siemens) took the colour red and made it their own. Where else have you seen this shade before? Its so unique and not muted in the least. For what its worth, I also love the boxy design of their casings.
1. Oticon Midnight Blue
A colour for adults. We all want to be bright and vibrant and loud, but we don’t all drive red sportscars and have neon green hair – because we are adults. Oticon developed a great colour that’s expressive, but also muted enough to be appropriate in a boardroom. They also gets major points for making this colour front and centre all over the promotional materials for their new Opn hearing aid. Hopefully this publicity helps make colourful hearing aids the norm, instead of an obscure option
What do you think? Are there any colours I missed? Any colours you wish were available? Let me know in the comments!
