What is this man doing?

This man is cleaning another man's ear. In in his hand, you can see some metal wires with cotton swabs on the ends which he sticks deep in his customer's ear. I had this street ear-cleaning done once. I recall the man pulled out a lot of wax, both newly moist and old flaky like. Could I hear better as a result? The misanthrope in me does not want to hear human jaw-jawing so I never went back.