Not OP, but I also suffer from hearing loss and wear hearing aids. Hearing loss in most people is not linear and certain frequencies are more compromised than others. This shows up as dips in an audiogram report. For me, I can hear low frequencies just fine. In fact, I can make out most words spoken by my male coworkers even without my hearing aids, due to their speech falling below the range of my hearing loss. I have a much harder time hearing females because their vocal range is higher in frequency so it comes through as very muddy. My hearing aids have open domes that pass sound, so they don’t act like earplugs for the frequencies they’re not amplifying.

My hearing aids also have the ability to pair with my phone and play music, but I never use it because they sound godawful because the drivers are miniscule. Fine for reproducing the mid and high frequencies required to boost audio in my hearing loss, but physically incapable of producing anything below probably 2-300 hz.

Everyone is obviously different, so not saying OP has the same situation as me, but based on their description of the problem and discounting the hearing aids as part of the solution, we’re probably fairly similar.

That’s because it’s been debunked and what you’re sharing is misinformation.

Modern M50 has masks happily seal on a 1/4 inch beard. Additionally, if the intentions of this policy were protective rather than racist, why would they apply all the time? Making soldiers shave in garrison to be ready for a gas attack is stupid. They only issue masks when deploying, because nobody is about to gas Fort Hood.