Would You Want Artisanal Q-Tips?

When does a mechanical touch become preferable to a personal one?

Your Q-Tips Used To Be A Lot More Authentic

When we were writing our history of Q-Tips, we found a lot of interesting nuggets (yes, they were originally called “Baby Gays”). But one fact in particular stood out.

On the patent application for a Q-Tip manufacturing machine, the inventor noted that without a machine, they were forced to roll Q-Tips by hand. The factory was in New York.

If you’ve put two and two together, you’ll realize that means Q-Tips used to be artisanally made in Brooklyn, New York.

Q-Tips were hip.

But Q-Tips Are Better Than They Used To Be

Q-Tips used to be more authentic. But before the manufacturing process, they were worse. The sticks were wood. Sometimes, only one side had a cotton swab. The rolling was irregular. And because early Q-Tips were treated with boric acid to sanitize them, hand-rolling made that treatment inconsistent.

Today’s Q-Tips are efficient, environmentally improved(made from paperboard sticks instead of wooden ones), cheaper, and more consistent. They’re better (even if you aren’t supposed to put them in your ears anymore). Q-Tips have been improved because the human touch is gone. It turns out our fingerprints mess things up.

So why do we want them elsewhere?

What Makes Artisanal Soap Better Than Artisanal Q-Tips

I won’t venture to answer what makes artisanal work worthwhile (that’s been better answered by serious thinkers and parodists). But the next time you stop at that artisanal craft fair booth, ask yourself one question: why am I not using artisanal Q-Tips?