Noise-cancelling headphones that don't feel like a giant nutcracker?

[sadpapercourtesan]

I really need to be able to cancel noise when I'm trying to work, but the only noise-cancelling headphones we have are causing me almost as much grief as the noise. They're perfectly good ones, but I panic at the sensation of having something so big around my skull, it feels like my head is being crushed even though they aren't actually too tight

Does anyone else struggle with this, and is there a solution?

I've not tried them but keep getting advertising for these.

www.lg.com/uk/active-noise-cancelling-earbuds

Had the Bose in ear ones when they first came out. Biggest waste of money!

But I know what you mean. I see people walking about with the big over the ear ones and they look so comfy on them, but try them on and it feels like they're swallowing me up!

Thanks @LizDoingTheCanCan, I've tried similar ones to those earbuds, and found that they only cancel outside noise when you're listening to music - I need silence. Glorious, total silence. If anyone has tried these, do they work without playing anything through them?

I can't stand the feel of them myself but dd has bone conduction earphones that she plays white noise through and she says they have been life changing.

@sadpapercourtesan which headphones have you tried? We all have Bose noise cancelling ones in our family - very comfortable, I've worn mine for 10 hour flights with just the noise cancelling function and it really reduced the volume/quality of the flight noise for me.

We've not tried noise cancelling earbuds though.

I can't stand the big noise cancelling headphones either as the pressure on my head makes me feel ill.
I got a pair of AirPods Pro recently and one unexpected bonus I found was that you can just put them into noise cancelling mode even when you're not listening to anything. I find it very helpful at times when the household noise gets too loud! They're not cheap but absolutely brilliant.