Woman Kept Getting Headaches — Then an Ear Camera Revealed the Shocking Cause

In July 2025, a woman named Megan Lindley from South Yorkshire, England, started having strange earaches and headaches she couldn't explain. She had recently been diagnosed with two autoimmune diseases, so more aches and pains were the last thing she needed. Curious and worried, she decided to look inside her own ear using a small camera. What she found left her shocked — and relieved at the same time.

Lindley noticed that something felt odd when she cleaned her ear. 'It sounded weird if I were to use a cotton swab,' she said. 'Almost like I was using a toothbrush inside my ear.' She began to fear that an insect had crawled into her ear canal, which is a worry many people have had. While that fear is common, experts say insects in the ear are actually pretty rare.

A medical review found that foreign objects in the ear canal affect about 1 percent of people. Most of the time, the objects are things that people — especially children — put there themselves. One study of 126 patients found that insects were involved in only 18 percent of ear cases, making them less common than many people think.

Lindley's boyfriend had recently bought an earwax camera for his own ear problems, so she decided to use it to investigate. 'The app was free,' she said. 'You could download it, connect it to Wi-Fi, and then click the camera icon.' The camera was simple to use and let her see deep inside her ear.

When Lindley looked at the footage, she saw a series of strange black strands inside her ear canal. Her first thought was terrifying. 'My heart dropped because I believed it was a spider, which I'm terrified of,' she said.

After looking more carefully, she realized the strands were not a spider at all — they were a stray eyelash. Even though it wasn't an insect, the discovery was still alarming. The eyelash was sitting right next to her eardrum, which made it both surprising and uncomfortable.

Lindley believes the eyelash got into her ear while she was sleeping. She wears 'cluster lashes,' which are fake eyelashes people apply themselves and which are meant to last three to seven days. 'My guess is that one fell off while I was sleeping and landed in my ear,' she said. It's easy to imagine how something so small could go unnoticed until it caused real problems.

Getting the eyelash out was harder than expected. 'It took 10 minutes to remove because it was stuck to the inside of my ear,' Lindley said. She described the process as 'a little tricky' since the lash was so close to her eardrum. After it was removed, she had some headaches for a short time, but those went away on their own.

Now Lindley wants to warn others, especially people who wear fake eyelashes. 'A lot of people wear eyelashes, especially the cluster ones,' she said. She hopes that by sharing her story and the camera footage, she can help others avoid the same painful and scary experience. Her advice is simple: pay attention to any strange feelings in your ear — even if the cause turns out to be something as small as an eyelash.