All gear increases sebum/sebaceous gland activity. Its an androgenic response in almost all who use aas. Part of the game :/ its the reason for acne, cystic acne, ear wax, sweat, most all expressive skin glands, etc. Kinda gross, I know, but q-tips and showering often helps a lot.
Wanna hear something gross?? This past weekend I popped a huge scalp cystic zit. No doubt from high test/eq, as well as, wearing hoodies up and skull caps when training.. anyways, I couldn't see it (it was huge on the crown of my head), but damn I sure could feel it! And when I popped it, I sure did hear it too! POP!! And then I had a "There's Something About Mary" moment. I couldn't find the damn sebum/junk/infectious sputum that erupted out of the top my head!? Anywhere! Looked all over the bathroom....then I looked up. Mind you, I have a 12 foot ceiling in my bathroom. Yup, 2" diameter sebum/blood mix splattered on the ceiling
... a little excess sebaceous gland activity story for ya. There's worse stuff than excessive ear sebum activity