Ear wax will naturally migrate outwards out of the ear canal. However, this skin migration does have some barriers, and will only work if the wax has not been pushed deeply in to the ear. The use of hearing aids can be one reason why wax is pushed deeply into the ear. Another is the use of earplugs – either for listening to music, or to prevent loud noise from factories. There are some people that have very narrow ear canals; with these people ear wax can become stuck in the ear and will block the ear. Of course, we cannot forget the use of Q-tips (which inevitably do more damage than good) that push the wax further down the ear canal!