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Stretching piercings
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
I was wondering if anyone could tell me if there's a law on stretching your pierceings because im thinking about stretching my ear pierceing. also is there any advise people can give me in maintaining it, like what to use to clean it, how often to clean it, the best material of expander, how big to go and how many weeks to leave a certain gauge in before going up by 1 or 2 mm etc.
thank you
Kat
xxxxx
thank you
Kat
xxxxx
0
Comments
this seemed like a good link:
http://www.tribalectic.com/StretchingGuide.asp
i did start slowly stretching my cartillage for a bigger bar (i have a scaffold, industrial whatever you what to call it), but the captive rings annoy the fuck out of me, and you really need another person to help you when adjusting them or replacing them...
One thing to say; stretching is permanent. It's forever. So, if you're not sure, don't do it.
Next, stretching can be done in may ways. I first chose to keep adding BCR's until the holes had stretched enough to fit a 1.6mm belly bar in, and then bought bigger and bigger steel BCRs.
Another way to stretch is to let your piercer do it - they'll do it with a steel taper and then insert the jewellery in once stretched. Not cheap, but the best idea if you're at all unsure doing it yourself.
Then there's acryllic tapers and claws - they all require you to wear them whilst you use them to stretch. They are held in by 'o rings' but can be tricky to use.
I recommend seeing your piercer who'll either do it for you, or instruct you how to do it efficiently.
If you're going to do it yourself, you need to know a) only stretch 1mm at a time, any more than that and you can give yourself 'blow-out' or 'cats bum' which isn't pleasant and very painful and b) leave a minimum of 4 weeks in between stretches, this allows the skin to 'rest' and heal.
Also try not to wear acryllic jewellery whilst you stretch and only wear it once you're fully healed.
Theres no law regarding it but general advise is to take it slowly, only do it once your original peircings have fully healed and in small increments, I've seen what happens when it goes wrong. Speaking to profeesional piercer can also help if you want to DIY.
Think it's up to 6mm; any larger and it doesn't heal.
I agree with whoever posted the Tribalectic link, they're an extremely good site and the community there is very helpful.
Its after 8mm that it doesn't go back to the original size (or so i got told by the person i bought my stretchers from).
My advice would be to start by putting a belly bar through the piercing. Then go up to say 3mm, then 5-6mm, ect ect. Once you get past a certain point (for me it was 6mm), it doesn't take half as long.
I'd also say try to grin and bear the pain of the first one, cos it doesn't hurt much after that. I'd use vaseline too.
DON'T however go too big too soon. With my ear that im doing now i thought 'fuck it' and went from a 3mm to a 8-10mm and it really hurt!!!
Happy stretching!!! :thumb:
Oh and always ALWAYS stretch in ONE MILLIMETRE INCREMENTS, Don't skip sizes, because you WILL pay for it.
If stretching is done properly, it should only mildly hurt, and should not be agony like the above poster has implied.
I think it depends on the person's ear and the size of the stretch to be honest. My boyfriends ear is 12 and he did 8-10-12 and they all went in fine, no rips teasr blood blah blah, lots of people do go up in 2's and quite a lot of plug sizes to by go up in even numbers anyway.
I never said it should be agony if done right. Only if you go too big too soon, which is what i did. I totally agree it should be done in small increments but most people can do it in 2mm increments.
And as for the size before it will go back properly, it can be 8mm. Everyone's different i have mates who have gone to 10mm and have gone back to the origninal piercing with no problems
And no, all piercers I've ever spoken to have recommended 1mm increments. I won't argue over with anyone over that. Any more than 1mm and you can so easily tear the skin.
They are out there! lol. - Here, in fact And, here hehe.