Headphone dents are fairly common, especially if you spend a lot of time with headphones on, whether you’re gaming or just listening to music. Headphones are popular because of the sense of immersion they provide, something regular headphones can’t quite replicate. 

It’s easy to get lost in that world and completely forget that you’re even wearing headphones. The same thing happens with earbuds but not to the same degree. After a long session, you’ll often find what seems like a dent in your head but don’t worry, it’s not permanent.

Can a Headset Dent Your Head?

It may feel as if you have a dent in your head, typically in the outline of your headphones. But this isn’t actually a dent in your head. The human skull is extremely hard and it would take a lot more than the pressure from a headset to deal that kind of damage. 

For your skull to crush would require somewhere in the region of 520 pounds of force, so to actually compress bone would probably take a lot more.

Even if your headset was so heavy that your neck couldn’t support its weight, it still wouldn’t change the form of your skull.

Unless you were wearing headphones as a newborn baby, before your skull was finished growing, they’re not going to do anything to actually damage your skull. You have a good deal more skin and muscle surrounding your noggin than you think, and it’s that that gets compressed just like a memory foam bed mattress.

When you get up, there is a dent in the bed shaped like the outline of your body. But, as you probably know, it will pop back out before you know it. The same goes for the area around your ears and where the plastic headpiece runs up and over the top of your head – similar to the indent a ring will make in your ring finger.

A Headset Might Dent Your Hairstyle But It Won’t Dent Your Head

If you’ve ever worn a hat, you’ve probably experienced “hat hair,” where your hair takes up the shape of your hat throughout the day. It’s usually stiff and doesn’t want to fall back into place. Gravity will do the trick eventually, or a good hair brush. 

Just because there’s a thick bar running up and over your hair and your hair is compressed around your ears, doesn’t mean that your brains will leak out of your ears pretty soon. What you’re playing or what you’re listening to might do that, depending on what it is, but not the headphones. 

Sure, it’s aggravating, but if you don’t like the way over-the-ear headphones refuse to play nice with your hair, your only real option is a good pair of earbuds. While there are some extremely good earbuds out there, the immersion level of a solid pair of over-the-ear is tough to beat.

Should You Worry About Your Headset Dent?

Other than how goofy you might look for the next half an hour or so, there’s really not much to worry about. Of course, you can wear your headphones too tight, and doing so will cause other problems, such as headaches and loss of circulation in the skin that’s compressed beneath the headphones. 

Your skin is your largest organ. Although the liver is your largest internal organ, it doesn’t compare to all of that skin. Like your lungs take in oxygen, your skin needs to breathe as well. Wearing a headset for hours on end won’t deform or dent your skull, but it might cause other problems. 

  • Dizziness
  • Hearing loss
  • Ear wax build-up
  • Tinnitus
  • Hyperacusis
  • General ear pain
  • Headaches

Over-the-ear headphones create a degree of pressure inside the ear canal, especially if they get a good seal around the ear when you put them on. The noise exacerbates that pressure. Anytime there is excess pressure in the ear, especially if both ears aren’t perfectly balanced, you can suffer from short-term vertigo. 

Ear wax build-up is a natural result of wearing headphones too much. It’s not as big of a deal with over-the-ear headphones, but you should keep your ears clean all the same. Tinnitus is that never-ending ringing that you get in your ears sometimes and it becomes more permanent when there is damage to the inner hair cells due to loud volumes.

Hyperacusis is the next step up from tinnitus. What happens is you develop a high degree of sensitivity to loud noises. By that point, you will want to throw your headphones in the garbage. 

Ear pain and headaches are typically short-term but are also serious warning signs that you should turn the volume down and loosen up the headphones. Headaches result from the long-term pressure on your temples, not to mention reduced circulation, especially in the capillaries just beneath the skin.

Related Article: Can Headphones Break If Too Loud? (Explained)

How To Avoid Your Headset Denting Your Head

Firstly, try out any headset before you buy it to make sure it fits the shape of your head and feels secure without applying too much clamping pressure. If your headset feels too tight, try to loosen it. Wearing a beanie or shifting the headset band from the top of your head to the back can also make any indentation in your skin and hair less visible. 

You could also try a headphone type that doesn’t require a band to go across the top of your head.

Perhaps earbuds would work for you or a headset that just attaches to one ear.

You could even try out Human Headphones, the headphones that just slot over your ears and do not require a band to go over the top of your head. Human headphones also double as a Bluetooth speaker, if you have a use for that.

Bottom Line

You’re not going to get a permanent dent in your head from wearing over-the-ear headphones for too long. However, that doesn’t mean that prolonged use is any less dangerous. 

Any of the above-listed side effects is an indication of unhealthy overuse of your headphones. At the very least, you should loosen them up so they’re comfortable but still provide a good fit. Be careful how much you crank the volume up as well. You can’t undo long-term hearing damage.