Some Neti pot pipes are ½ to 1 ft long, increasing natural water pressure which requires some caution (less water, angle not close to vertical - they usually don't mention that in the instruction leaflet). It's even posible to swap jala neti for sutra neti, using for example a soft rubber catether.
I got a bad "swimmer's ear" from blowing my nose too forcefully after a jala neti during a cold many years ago. Mucus (not much water at all) came into the inner ear. Since that, I self-pace[
] the neti and the bhastrika or kapalabhati after.
Natural cures that gave relief:
- a small clove of garlic in gauze (to get it out afterward) into the ear
- fresh thin-sliced onion on the ear with absorbent cotton and flannel overnight, sleeping on the painful side. That one is a big hairwash & laundry warning...
- homeopatically diluted lovage, Levisticum D6 (D5 or D3 might work too), 2 to 6 times a day
- aconit ear oil, in Europe it's from Wala.de in Germany (they don't seem interested in foreign languages however,
www.walaarzneimittel.de/arzneimittel/a-z/?letter=A&medicine=10000 )
I abstained from milk/dairy, avoided sustaining headstands for too many minutes, and kept the ear warm in draught or cold weather. In the winter, I don't exaggerate haircuts.