What is ear stretching ?

A gradual process of stretching your ear with piercing jewellery. Most people usually have ears pierced to a standard size, which makes it difficult to accommodate newer, fashionable earrings that happen to have thicker posts. So how do you stay hip?

Well, you could go to a professional ear piercer and get a larger hole pierced, but that involves quite a bit of pain and suffering. Besides, what do you do if the piercing turns out to be too big and too much, and tomorrow you change your mind and don't want to be walking around with two glaringly obvious tunnels in your ears? Gauging your ear piercings is a better option than losing a good bit of your ear. Later, if you're not happy with the stretching, you can just leave off wearing the thicker earrings and after a while your piercing will return to a smaller size.

What is used to stretch the ear piercings?

There are different ear gauge sizes. Standard size ear piercings are usually done with an eighteen or twenty gauge needle. The larger the piercing, the lesser the gauge needle number. To stretch existing ear piercings, tapering rings and tapering inserts, usually made of metals like gold, silver or steel, are used. As their name indicates, these devices taper along their lengths from small to big and can be used according to requirement.

What are the things you should remember before you gauge your ear piercing?

First of all, don't attempt anything on your own. It is always best to consult a professional ear piercer and if possible to to gauge your piercing under his or her supervision. On your own, especially if you have little or no experience, there is a chance you might hurt yourself and end up with an infection or a scar. Then go easy and have patience with the whole process. Go from one gauge size to another gradually and allow as much time as needed for your earlobe to heal in between. This can take anything from one week to two or more. It really varies from people to people. See what suits you.

How to gauge your ear piercing?

The process of gauging your ear piercing is slow and gradual, but that beats going about with your ears heavily bandaged. What you should do is select a gauge size that is next in size to your current one and buy metal earrings or insertion tapers in that next gauge size. Metal ones are a better idea than ones made of metal or other materials as the chances of infection are considerably reduced.

Once you have the tapers in the correct size, wash your hands clean, sterilize the inserts, grease them with a little oil or petroleum jelly, and then carefully insert these earrings through your piercings. Do one ear at a time. Go very carefully as they are not going to slide through at once and you don't want to tear your ears. Manipulate the holes using medicinal soap and warm water. After you finish inserting the tapers, dry your earlobes, apply a little more of the petroleum jelly, and leave your ears to get used to the new, unaccustomed weight. Your ears will feel sore for a couple of weeks until they get used to the new size.

Keep the piercing holes clean by washing them gently twice a day and be sure to dislodge the crusty formation daily. Disinfect the taper inserts too with a regular application of alcohol. The soreness aside, if there is any bleeding or abnormal pain or any signs of infection, go and see a doctor at once. With enough care and patience though, that won't be necessary. The tapers will stretch your ears as required. You can check by moving your inserts – you know your ear holes have stretched when you are able to move the earrings about easily and without experiencing any discomfort. It could take you upto two weeks to reach this stages. Wait until your ears are fully healed before you start wearing regular ear piercing jewellery. If you want an even larger ear piercing, then just repeat the entire process with the next ear gauge size.