The following is the full, edited transcript of the video "How to Properly Form a Vertical Bifold Mask to Stop Air Leaks — 30 Seconds That Could Save Your Life" by Sharyn Blum found here:
Transcript:
All right, so we're gonna do a quick video here on how to properly don and mold a vertical bifold mask.
This is a Powecom KN95 with ear loops, but I need to stress that this type of shape is incredibly common to N95s, FFP2 and 3... even some KF94 styles come with a flat-folded front, and they're all going to have this problematic crease here. Because noses are round, not cornered.
So first things first. Anytime we are donning a mask [two spritzes], we need to sanitize, because clean hands mean we are not putting germs onto the interior of the mask, which we need to keep clean. All that nasty should always be on the outside, all the good stuff is on the inside.
So, if we just slightly open it up, you can see it leaves a really prominent triangular corner, which, again, does not match our face.
We need to open it up flat and remove that crease entirely, in order to be certain that we can get a good natural shape around our face that closes all of the air gaps and prevents leaks — which prevent us exhaling potentially contaminated air at other people or inhaling potentially contaminated air that we are trying to block out.
So! Easier done without the glasses... [light clatter] ...and we are going to get that on our face...properly seat it where the chin is comfortable...and then we want to use both hands and find the spot where there's the biggest gap between the mask and our cheeks, where the nose meets it.
We're going to use both hands to carefully but firmly form into our face. You can see we're getting some nice shapes there, but it is slightly reforming that dent.
Also, I have a very prominent nose. We're never going to get all the corner that we need here...well, not a corner, but that sharp bend is not going to happen naturally unless I do some other things.
So, we're going to pull it back off. You can see we already have a slightly improved rounded shape here.
We're going to exaggerate that gently with our fingers. And we're going to smooth out that nose just a little further to make sure that we get a rounded shape.
Some people like to take their — again nicely cleaned — finger to really make make sure that it's rounded. It just depends on whether your fingertip and your nose match in size if that's going to work for you.
So we get that overly exaggerated now, and we're going to get it back on and push that, again smoothing it all the way with both hands into our face.
And you can see now we have very obvious curves that I've molded in, and aligns naturally to the top of my nose with no obvious holes, and that's all that we're going for.
We get our eye protection back on...and we can see better...and now we are fit to face the day!
I do want to stress, if you have a limb difference or mobility issues which limit or prevent a two-handed molding, you're going to want to come up with a modification that avoids recreating that crimp — that hard corner — because a two-handed [sic, this should be "one-handed"] pinch can do that even sometimes in masks that don't have it.
This is a vented 3M 8511, and if we just pinch it with one hand, you can see it makes a pretty tight bend. That's narrower than my nose, and my nose is pretty narrow.
So we need to do things — again, with a finger, a Sharpie marker, whatever accommodation works for you — to keep that rounded shape, and then get the rest of the forming equally rounded into the indent.
And that is really the whole trick! It's 30 seconds that could save your life. So you should just do it. [chuckles] It's the whole thing.
Have good masking! Stay safe out there! I love y'all. Til next time...