Bulletproof For BJJ Podcast 69: Cauliflower Ears 

After almost two years of BJJ I am at the point where I dont have cauliflower ears, but my ears really hurt when I touch them or try to put my head sideways on a pillow 😂

Watching this with a freshly stitched cauli and the humor is making my ear hurt too much.

Love these podcast, keep it up guys

I met JT today in Belfast. Very knowledgeable guy and very down to earth. Gave us some amazing tips. Thanks

Legends! I lived in Oz for 7 years, now In Hawaii. Just started Jits- you guys are my best mates. Couldn't Imagine going on this journey with out yaz. Thank you! Oss! For cauli ears***Magnets for clipping the ears.***. Those strong earth magnets!

Caulibuds are good. Expensive for what they are, but works. You're right about there being no info. I had to research heaps before draining mine. Wish I saw this vid a year ago!

Had a small cauliflower ear pop up about 2 weeks ago, is it worth draining?

Found that clothes pins work good for compression as well, you can unwind the spring on them to lessen the clamping force. Magnets work ok as well but found that in order for them to get enough compression they ended up being heavy. The clothes pin trick worked best.

You guys should look into bone conduction headphones. No inserts and you can still hear things around you because they dont block your ear canal.

Hahaha I actually remember this!! Love your work bro

So I had cauliflower ear at a few different times throughout my life. The first time was in college and I never did anything about it, it wasn't too big though and it healed up fine because of the location I guess. Then about 2 months ago I got it again kinda bad but on the inside of my ear... It was very painful and I couldn't even fit an earbud in there to listen to music. lol Didn't do anything for about a week and it was getting worse, so I tried draining it myself. I couldn't do it! I couldn't get that first good initial poke to start draining, and finally gave up after just stabbing at my ear about 10 times. Friend of my got me and appointment with a great ENT doctor and he gave me the option of draining or cutting and stitching. From what he said the draining method would've filled back up again unless I kept it under constant pressure and wouldn't heal up as well. I opted to have him cut it and then he stitched it from the back of the ear through to the front to pull the skin down to the cartilage. The procedure took maybe 15 minutes total? It was very quick, and I just had some gauze on it for the remainder of the day. Took a complete full week off from class and then when I went back I just wore my headgear during rolls. My ear healed up pretty well, you can't really see a scar or anything because of it being the inner ear maybe so that's good. I think if I ever try the draining method again I'll definitely need help from a friend to do it. lol

Got one after 6 months. Drained it myself, it came back and then got rid of it for good the second time with magnets and headgear for a few months.

got mine 10 days ago, hurt a little for a couple weeks when laying on it, then suddenly got red & round went to the hospital, after several hours they cut & stitched it(quite quickly, only the waiting before took forever) 1 week later removed the strings, it's looking alright today, now I just have to keep myself in check and not train bc it's still a bit swollen & putting on the headgear hurts just stick to Gym & Cardio for now:(

Wrestled since i was 14 started bjj at 17... im 26 trained off and on the whole time. Still no cali ear. Lowkey kinda want some so i look scarier.

Right around the 3 year mark. Have a big one on my smashing side. Started as a little red and then boom one day it just ballooned up. Had it drained twice, it’s back. I don’t want to stop training. We’ll see how it goes maybe I’ll get headgear

Best way to clamp is to buy neodymium magnets. They come in all sizes. Clean them and use those as a clamp.

I’ll come back to this when it happens. Right now I’m looking for how to prevent it 🤔

So you need to stick your ear multiple times in one session to get the most blood out so is it hard to find the original entry for the needle? I wonder if there are thin gauge needles that hold more liquid then you could drain it every other day or come up with a protocol? I have so many questions after this video now haha

Yea I’m just over a year into jiu jitsu and got some cauliflower ear. I feel like I can’t fight good enough yet to back up my ear 😂 but damn trying to drain it and keep Home Depot magnets on it was such a pain in the ass. Right now it’s just a little swollen cuz I didn’t keep the magnets on long enough. Seems like you gotta keep em clamped down for like a week straight or else it swells right back up.

My college teammate was injured so badly his freshman year that it ended his wrestling career. He was so disappointed that he never got any cauliflower ear that whenever he would drink too much he would try to get us to give it to him. I distinctly remember him once trying to smash one of his ears between two pieces of lumber.

400 hrs total trained 100 is live rolling, never got it. Don't mind it if I do. Syringes are on Amazon. CVS didn't want to sell me any. Needed them for test so I'm ready for ear draining lmao Oh and my fingers are kind of jacked up but my ears are fine. I tape them now and that helps.

Some people are just more pre disposed to it. The one time mine got swollen was from doing takedowns

Yeah I really think it's just a beginner problem from ripping your head out of things and then you're prone to it after that I only see white belts dealing with it but then they have it as a chronic issue I've been doing this shit for 15 years and my ears are perfect, worst I ever get is some mild irritation Meanwhile theres a white belt draining in the bathroom after class at least every week

Ok boys, from my experience of draining both ears. DRAIN it and press it after 2-3 weeks ask your ent to inject cortisone on the ear to finish reducing the inflammation

As a frothy white belt I kept ripping my head out of Guillotines and headlocks. One of my ears got very red and inflamed. Very painful. Had to wear ear guards for a couple of months until it went down. Haven’t had a problem with my ears since cause I don’t rip my head out of headlocks anymore 🤣

Critical care surgeon and lifetime grappler- first off don't worry about injecting air bubbles. You CAN create big problems with air embolisms, but you need to inject waaaaay more than the 1cc-6cc syringes you are talking about. Secondly, disinfect the whole ear, and drain, you'll be fine.

Hi Guys, I have had cauliflourears on both ears as a white belt, and both times I have had my ears cut open and drained and stiched back after being sent to emergency. by my GP. Each time I have had to take several weeks off until they healed, and I still have obviously different ears. NExt time I may try draining my own ears

Took me a long time to get it but I literally did it from ear to hip smash style passing. Shit got mashed. And ya after it was mangled, coach was using me for guillotine escape demos and killed me. Lol Long story short, I left it and now it’s all hard and shit lol

I got cauliflower ear after 6 months of training on both ears.

Caulicure magnets

How many of you guys got cauliflower ear gradually over time rather than one big balloon? At what point did you realise it had turned into actual cauliflower?