Mask strap ear pinch

Does anyone else get pain across the top of the ears where the mask strap pinches them? After a couple of hours in the water I feel the mask strap digging into the top of my ears and I start repositioning it periodically. I know that a mask strap doesn't have to be that tight to keep the mask in place, but it cuts the circulation to the top of my ears anyways. I want to know how many of you get this because I might have a solution.

I always do a few things to alleviate this problem.

1. After trying on a mask and figuring out the length of strap I need I cut off the excess. This in turn allows me to get rid of the plastic piece that holds the free end of the strap to the part of the strap you're actually using. That little plastic piece can really jam into the ear. This of course immediately reduces the resale value of the mask so I only do it when I know I'm keeping it for myself.

2. I get rid of all the fancy snorkel strap clips. I make a snorkel holder by cutting a figure 8 shape out of bicycle inner tube rubber. It looks like the ones that are sold in the dive shops (pictured below) but is much thinner and you can't feel it. The neoprene snorkel holders are close in comfort to the ones I make but they're bulkier.

Some guys like to tuck the snorkel right under the mask strap, I don't. Mainly because I'm so used to having it connected to the mask that the couple of times I tried it I took off the mask and almost lost the snorkel forgetting that it's not connected. The snorkel may also push against the ear creating the same ear pinch problem.

3. I don't wear the mask too tight. I found a long time ago that the mask strap can actually be loose and the mask will still stay on your face. I don't keep it loose nowadays but I don't keep it too tight either.

You'd think that will all this effort I wouldn't have the strap ear pinch problem? I still do. One of the factors that add to the discomfort is that all masks use strap clips that control the strap via ridges built into the strap. Due to the design of the strap clips the strap ridges are always facing inside ie. into your ear. First I thought of carefully slicing off all the ridges that I don't use but that's a lot of work and hard to do precisely without compromising the strap. Then I thought of inventing a new strap clip system that will work without ridges, maybe by pinching the strap. Then I thought that all that effort is not worth it because the mask strap will still pinch the ear regardless.

Remember this useless thing?

My idea is simply to make a couple of neoprene sleeves and slide each end of the strap through one. The neoprene sleeves don't have to be nearly as wide as the normal covers. They will be held in place between the mask strap clip and the part of the strap that starts flaring out and splitting in two. You'll be able to just cut them to length. Maybe one sleeve can incorporate a snorkel holder. I don't believe it will be too bulky. Thoughts?

This is for us cool guys that like to hear the ocean environment and don't wear a hood

It wouldn't sit flat though. The idea is not to make the sleeves one by one but manufacture them. If the idea works.

This thread is almost a year old. I made these neoprene sleeves with my sewing machine right after I posted it, and have been using them ever since. I get no more ear pinch from the mask strap, I don't like to dive without the sleeves, and there are no disadvantages to the sleeves. Here are a couple of pics. I'd like to know if there's interest in these.

And I still don't like hoods.