Earwax is produced by two types of glands in the skin lining your ear canal. Modified sweat glands called ceruminous glands secrete an oily, lipid-rich fluid, while sebaceous glands add their own waxy oils. These secretions mix with dead skin cells and tiny hairs shed from the ear canal walls, forming the sticky or flaky substance you recognize as earwax.
The Two Glands Behind Earwax
Your outer ear canal contains roughly a thousand ceruminous glands. These are a specialized version of the apocrine sweat glands found in your armpits and groin. Instead of producing watery sweat, they release small lipid-filled vesicles, essentially tiny packets of fat and wax, into the ear canal. Sebaceous glands, the same type that lubricate your skin and hair elsewhere on your body, sit alongside them and contribute additional oils.
The gland secretions alone don’t make earwax. Dead skin cells called keratinocytes constantly shed from the canal lining and get trapped in the oily mixture. This combination of gland secretions, shed skin, and fine hairs is what gives earwax its distinctive texture and color. The exact ratio of these ingredients varies from person to person, which is one reason earwax can look so different across individuals.
What Earwax Is Made Of
Chemically, earwax is mostly fat. Its major organic components are long-chain fatty acids (both saturated and unsaturated), fatty alcohols, squalene, and cholesterol. Squalene is the same compound your skin produces as a natural moisturizer. Cholesterol and the fatty acids give earwax its water-repellent quality, creating a hydrophobic barrier that keeps moisture from pooling deep in the canal. The keratin from dead skin cells adds bulk and structure, which is why earwax feels more solid than a pure oil.
Wet Type vs. Dry Type
Not everyone produces the same kind of earwax. Humans have one of two genetically determined types: wet or dry. Wet earwax is sticky, golden to dark brown, and has a higher lipid content. Dry earwax is pale, flaky, and crumbly. A single variation in a gene called ABCC11 determines which type you produce. The wet type is completely dominant, meaning you only need one copy of the gene variant to have sticky earwax.
The distribution of these types follows strong geographic patterns. In populations of African descent, the wet-type gene variant is nearly universal, present in close to 100% of individuals. European populations carry it at roughly 88%. In East Asian populations, particularly in Japan, the frequency drops to about 11%, making dry earwax the norm. The ABCC11 gene encodes a protein that acts as a molecular pump in the cell membrane, transporting compounds out of gland cells. The less active version of this protein produces drier, less oily secretions, resulting in the dry earwax type. The same gene variation also influences whether you produce strong underarm odor, since the apocrine glands in the armpit are closely related to ceruminous glands.
Why Your Body Makes It
Earwax isn’t waste. It serves as a chemical defense system for your ear canal. Researchers have identified a wide range of antimicrobial compounds within it, including defensins, cathelicidin, lactoferrin, and lysozyme. These are the same types of immune proteins found in saliva and tears, and they actively kill or inhibit bacteria and fungi. The environment earwax creates inside the canal is mildly acidic, with a pH between 5.2 and 7.0, which further discourages microbial growth.
Beyond infection control, earwax acts as a physical barrier. Its oily composition repels water, protecting the delicate skin of the ear canal from becoming waterlogged and irritated. It also traps dust, small debris, and insects before they can reach the eardrum. The ear canal has a built-in conveyor belt: skin cells grow outward from the eardrum toward the opening of the ear, slowly carrying earwax and anything trapped in it out of the canal. Jaw movements from chewing and talking help push it along.
How Production Changes With Age
Ceruminous glands shrink and become less numerous as you get older. The result is drier earwax with less of the oily lubrication that helps it migrate out of the canal naturally. At the same time, the hair inside the ear canal tends to grow coarser with age, creating a physical obstruction that blocks the outward flow. These two changes together explain why earwax impaction, where wax builds up and hardens deep in the canal, is disproportionately common in older adults.
Younger ear canals generally handle wax removal on their own. The self-cleaning mechanism works well when the wax is soft enough to move and the canal is unobstructed. Hearing aids, earbuds, and cotton swabs can all interfere with this process at any age by pushing wax deeper or blocking its exit path.
Does Stress Affect Earwax?
Because ceruminous glands are modified apocrine glands, and apocrine glands elsewhere in the body respond to stress and emotion, it seems logical that stress would increase earwax production. But the evidence suggests otherwise. Histological studies have shown that ceruminous glands lack direct nerve connections, unlike the apocrine glands in your armpits. Research measuring cortisol (a stress hormone) in earwax found that the cortisol stored in earwax reflects local production by the glands themselves, largely independent of systemic stress levels. So while anxiety might make you sweat more, it does not appear to meaningfully change how much earwax you produce.