how cotton swabs went from 'baby gays' to 'q-tips'

brought to market in 1923, the ubiquitous bathroom product shouldn't be stuck in your ear.

by sadaf ahsan

published dec 31, 2020

last updated jan 15, 2023

4 minute read

join the conversation

4 minute read

join the conversation

the history of the q-tip and cotton swabs

getty

as it often goes, some of the greatest inventions were created by women, with both the fame and fortune landing in the hands of someone else — usually a man. the lengthy list includes wireless communication, developed by actress hedy lamarr, who never saw a cent from the multi-billion-dollar industry her idea helped create; the modern bra, whose creator caresse crosby sold the patent to warner brothers corset company for $1500 — earning the company $15 million over the next 30 years; and the first computer program, which was written by ada lovelace — her contributions unsurprisingly overshadowed by those of her collaborator husband.

but it isn’t just the big-ticket items women inventors concocted – and lost credit for. there’s also…wait for it…the cotton swab. after watching his wife painstakingly attach balls of cotton to the ends of a toothpick for cleaning their daughter’s ears after her daily baths, which he certainly wasn’t administering, leo gerstenzang thought to bring this trick out into the world. his design featured a ready-made swab that would be (moderately) safer for children, comprised of a wooden swab that didn’t have as much of a risk of cutting or having cotton stuck in the ear. the package itself was designed so that a parent could open it with just one hand and grab a swab with the other all while holding their baby.

soon after, gerstenzang created the leo gerstenzang infant novelty company for marketing purposes, and in hopes of launching a baby product line. his was the first mass-produced cotton swab, all the way back in 1923.

rather oddly, when he first went into production in new york city, he named his swabs “baby gays.” in 1926, he changed the name ever so slightly to “q-tips baby gays.” eventually, it became known as the far more familiar and simpler “q-tips.” that stands for “quality tips,” by the way, but it was never meant to be a product name. it’s actually just a brand name, most common in canada and the u.s.

although first made of wood, cotton swab spindles were later developed with rolled paper, which was safer and less likely to pierce ear tissue. it was an easy shift for gerstenzang in 1958, when he purchased a paper manufacturer. by this time, the cotton swab exploded on the market. so much so that, in 1962, the company was purchased by chesebrough-ponds, an oil business that made its name by producing petroleum jelly, a.k.a. vaseline.

in the 1980s, business continued to boom, and the brand shifted to 100 per cent cotton for all swabs. keen to jump on the bandwagon, unilever acquired chesebrough-ponds and its many, many lucrative cotton swabs. nowadays, you can pick up a box of 500 for just $5, as compared to 1927, when you could buy 60 swabs for an adorable 25 cents.

now, the most common spindle is made of plastic, which holds up better in water and is more flexible. that said, plastic swabs have grown increasingly less popular as one of the most common forms of litter that contribute to plastic waste and raise the risk of marine pollution. in response, some companies and retailers have gone as far as no longer producing the plastic swabs, and opting instead for biodegradable paper swabs. making the first big move, johnson & johnson stopped selling plastic swabs in 2017 in much of the world for this reason.

this is also your personal reminder to quit flushing your used cotton swabs down the toilet, a common practice for an astounding amount of people. as dr. clare cavers of the scottish environmental charity fidra once said to the independent, “the message cannot be strong enough that only the three ps (pee, toilet paper and poo) should be flushed, and anything else should go in a bin.” amen.

even with its quaint history, however, cotton swabs still aren’t used in the way they’re meant to be. sure, way back when gerstenzang borrowed his wife’s bathroom hack, he meant it to be used for cleaning the ear canal. but that wasn’t the product’s key focus. it was meant to be a kind of fix-all, used also for the nose, eyes, gums, make-up, manicures, cleaning out tiny nooks and crannies, arts and crafts, for medical procedures, etc. over time, everything but the ear became their express purpose. and yet, most continue to use them really only for excavating their canals.

in fact, get a load of this stat: in the u.s., between 1990 and 2010, an estimated 263,338 children went to hospital emergency rooms for cotton swab injuries, which equates to about 35 injuries a day. according to the journal of pediatrics, 73 per cent of these cases involved ear cleaning.

now, most doctors don’t recommend using cotton swabs to clean ears, as they can not only injure you, but push the ear wax ever deeper into your ear canal. to make matters worse, all q-tips boxes have come with the following warning for about five decades since their invention: “do not insert inside the ear canal.” much like a cigarette pack warning, it’s gone largely ignored. certainly, it’s difficult to look at a skinny spindle with furry swabs on the ends and not want to ram it into one’s ears, especially if those ears are itchy, but please do so with caution and tenderness. after all, that’s how it all began.

sadaf ahsan is a toronto-based culture writer, editor and stereotypical middle child. she can be reached here.

don’t miss a thing: sign-up for healthing’s newsletter

thank you for your support. if you liked this story, please send it to a friend. every share counts.