How to stretch your ears safely

WHAT IS STRETCHING OR GAUGING ? .......................................................................................Stretching is a form of body modification that involves expanding a fully healed piercing predominantly an earlobe. Stretching is the means of gradually enlarging the original pierced hole to enable a larger piece of jewellery, usually a flesh plug or flesh tunnel. The hole is enlarged by gently stretching the tissue around the pierced lobe. The newly created hole is kept open using a taper while the tissue heals. Once totally healed the process can be repeated again until you reach your required size. Many people refer to the process using the term “gauging” The information below is our way to show you how to safely expand your ears and medical advice should be taken if you have any concerns.

WHERE TO START .....................................................................................Well, first your going to need your ear pierced. After a fresh piercing its advisable to wait between 4-6 months, assuming there were no complications with the healing process. A standard piercing with a gun from the likes of a “Claire’s” or other similar stores will generally 0.8mm to 1mm. So you should be OK to start stretching up to a 1.2mm, if you were pierced at a piercing studio, your ears were probably pierced at 1.2mm so you can go for a 1.6mm, you always want to be stretching just one size bigger than your are at the moment. Remember it’s a marathon not a sprint, so take your time!

TIME TO START TO STRETCHING .....................................................................................So now you know what size you are, its time to rush off and get some “Tapers”. Tapers, Expanders or Stretchers are slender rods that narrow at one end, and are used to help expand your piercing hole. Now when you are still stretching your lobes you should only use smooth non-porous materials. These can then be easily removed and thoroughly cleaned, generally I would recommend Surgical Steel, Titanium, Glass or Acrylic as good materials to start to stretch with, but people have been stretching there ears for thousands of years, well before those materials were ever even discovered. To start with clean your hands and the taper with hot water and some antibacterial soap. Take your taper small end first and insert into the hole GENTLY push the taper as far as it will easily go, you may find a small amount of lubricant will help with this process. Now it will feel uncomfortable, but at no point should it be really sore and it should never bleed, listen to what your body is telling you go slowly, if you try and stretch too quick this may causes permanent damage to your lobe. Leave the taper in the ear, wait for your ear to cool down before continuing. Now take your flesh plug, flesh tunnel and hold it against the large end of the taper, as if it were part of the taper itself. Finish by pushing the taper through your ear and insert your new plug and you're done.

AFTERCARE AND CLEANING .....................................................................................Clean your stretched lobes at least once a day with a saline solution (salt water). Dissolve 14 of teaspoon of sea salt in a clean cup of boiling water, then let the water cool down, and soak your new stretched area. Sea salt (non-ionised) is better than regular table salt, which can contain chemicals that can cause troubles with your healing process. I find using a cup is the easiest way to apply the solution to your ears as you can submerge your lobes straight into the cup and let them soak for a couple of minutes or so. I wouldn’t use the saline solution more than a couple of times a day, but if you have stretched properly there should be no damage to your lobes so no need to treat them like a fresh piercing. Try to keep your ears clean, remove your jewellery daily and wash your lobes with a antibacterial soap. With any ear stretching the holes can build up a layer of dead skin, bacteria and sweat, this smelly oily substance is called sebum and needs to be cleaned on a regular basis. The build up of sebum is greatly reduced by wearing organic jewellery e.g. wood, bone etc these natural materials allow your skin to breathe more. You should massage your lobes with a little olive oil, only when your jewellery can be removed easily and doesn’t feel tight fitting any more, as this will increase the blood flow to your lobe and helps the healing process.

WILL MY HOLES SHRINK BACK ? .....................................................................................There is no straight answer for this question, it’s all down to the individual. In general I would say stay smaller than 8mm and it’s a pretty safe bet that they will shrink back to normal, but everyone is different there are a few things that can affect how your shrinkage will turn out

FIRST .....................................................................................How quick you stretched up in the first place if you have went to fast you might damaged your lobes and left some scar tissue that might not shrink back.

SECOND .....................................................................................How long you gave your ears to rest and heal between stretches

THIRD .....................................................................................Your own skins elasticity as everybody is unique there is no way of being sure. Ear stretching can be permanent body modification and as such should be taken seriously. Don’t be put off by this, but think carefully before you stretch up to big, and don’t just do it because your mates think its cool. PROBLEMS ONE EAR WONT STRETCH ?

.....................................................................................It’s not uncommon to find one ear stretches faster than the other. This can down to a number of reasons the most common cause is scar tissue due to expanding to quick from your previous stretch. Scar tissue is more difficult to stretch, its not impossible, it just means you have to go a lot slower as there is a higher risk of infection or in extreme cases a blow out (see below). Just take your time, it will still stretch, but it can take a long time so please be patient.

BLOW OUTS .....................................................................................One of the most common problems with stretching your ears is a blowout. The rim inside your Stretched lobe is called a fistula. If you stretch up to quickly it can be forced out the back of your ear by the pressure, creating a lip of skin around the back of the jewellery. Replace your jewellery with a smaller size and allow the blowout to be reabsorbed back into your ear. I you leave it, theirs a chance the lobe will heal in its blown out shape making it difficult to repair.

WHAT TO WEAR WHILE SLEEPING ? .....................................................................................Apart from the obvious spikes on some jewellery that could stick into you, or your partner whilst sleeping some tunnels and plugs have sharp edges, that can dig into your skin by lying on them. Wood and bone tunnels fragile by nature and might break is rolled on during the night. The only items we can safely recommend for wearing while sleeping are soft silicon plugs and tunnels. All other items carry a degree of risk.

MY PLUGS STUCK IN MY EAR .....................................................................................Many people have the problem of not being able to fit or remove there double flared or saddle plugs. By their design double flared or saddled plugs have flares on both ends and have slightly larger ends than the circumference around the middle. The trick with getting them in is to use lubrication, this should help to get them in and out easily. Also you will want to insert them at a slight angle don’t try to force them straight into your ears it will be much harder for them to fit through. Inserting them at a slight angle gives them enough leverage to slip in easier. Remove double flared saddled plugs from your ears every day, as leaving them in your ears for week’s at a time, the ear will shrink back around the smaller centre of the plug making it much harder to remove. Be sensible take them out and clean your ears regularly

JOJOBA OIL .....................................................................................Jojoba oil is a great product. Its best uses are to keep lobes moisturised and reduce scar tissue. By massaging jojoba oil daily on your lobes, it helps to thicken them up over time and to keep the blood flowing around the lobes. It can help to reduce the size of blowouts if used daily. It's also handy to use jojoba oil on wooden jewellery to keep the pieces looking fresh and polished. All you need to do is take a small drop onto your fingers and polish the jojoba oil into the jewellery to give a beautiful shine and enhance the natural colour of the wood.

BLEEDING .....................................................................................If you have slight bleeding then treat as you would any wound. Clean the ear regularly uses a saline solution. After any bleed always wear a sterilized surgical steel item until your ear is totally healed. Stretching causes small tears in your ears so infection is possible. The most common cause of infection is dirty hands. Some slight swelling and redness around the area after a stretch are normal, but if your earlobe is leaking pus, you could have an infection so go to the doctor to get it checked out.