I stretched too fast, need some help please

[basslinebaby]

I recently decided I wanted to stretch my pierced ears.
I started at whatever size the piercing gun (bad choice I know, I was 15 and didn't know better) does it it, so like 18g.
I went to a store and got what I *thought* were 10g tapers, figuring I could start there safely.
I had those for about 2 weeks. When I got a series of gauges in increasing sizes, I discovered that the 8g in the package slipped right through my supposed 10g holes. I'm thinking my 10g was actually a mislabeled 8g. This forced me to jump to a 6g. It took me about a week to go through the 6g. And then I went to a 4g, which I had in for about 3 weeks. Now my 2g are in,have been for maybe 2 weeks, and I've been told I stretched WAY too fast and am in danger of ripping/snapping my gauges.
So basically, I started too large to begin with, or skipped a size bc of mislabeled tapers and only took 8 weeks to go from a 8g? to a 2g.

So my questions are this...
1) how do I know if my lobes are going to rip/snap? Warning signs?
2) how can I prevent this?
3) did I mess up my ears completely?

I always use soap and warm water when stretching, my ears never hurt when I stretched, I always used tapers, they never bled or got yucky, and I've been using vitamin E oil on them both to lubricate when stretching and rubbing it in daily.

Sorry for the long message :/ but any help would be greatly appreciated

[corazon_de_oro]

Well, the best thing you could do would be to downsize and give your ears a chance to relax a bit... even if you haven't had any problems yet you could develop thinning and scar tissue in the future. Go up one size at a time, leaving at least 6-8 weeks between sizes. Ditch the antibacterial soap, all it will do is dry your ears out and delay healing. Stretching should never cause pain or soreness and you should never have to force the next size in.

[KAISERROLLS]

If you make it a year without thinning or cat butt happening your lucky. From what ive learned not everything is quick and noticeable right away such as a tear or "rip" like you wear mentioning. My advice is the same as Lindsay's slow down! and downsize if it doesn't break your heart too much to do so. Dont skip anymore sizes either, and i woud highly recommend going from a 2g-1g instead of a 0g first. a 3mm stretch isn't the greatest idea for healthy ears, even though people do it all the time.

[basslinebaby]

my ears never hurt, and they aren't sore at all, so I thought I was ok. I'd prefer not to go down a size, but I'm not going any further anytime soon either. my goal size was 2g.

what are some warning signs if it is in danger of snapping?

[corazon_de_oro]

Even if they didn't hurt you can still develop problems down the road. Even if your ears are fine now you might notice them start to get wrinkly with scar tissue (also known as cat butt) or get thin in spots. It's very unlikely they'd actually snap at such a small size if you're not stretching any bigger.

If you really don't want to downsize, at least start doing daily oil massages to break down scar tissue. Vitamin E, jojoba, and emu oil are all good to use.

Did you really skip sizes and stretch that fast without even the slightest twinge of pain? If so, you're very, very lucky and a unique case.

[basslinebaby]

Thing is, I started at what I thought was a 10g, but when I tried to go up to 8g it slipped completely through like a 10g would, so I just went to my 6g. I'm thinking I either got 8g mislabeled as 10g to start with, in which case no I didn't skip sizes, I just started larger than I thought I did, or never got my 8g and jumped directly to 6g. Either or, no I never felt any pain while stretching. I'd put them in, they'd go about halfway, leave em for a day or two, and when they were loose I'd push them through some more until I felt resistance again. It only ever took me about 4-6 days to make it through a taper. I figured it would hurt too, but aside from some minor sensitivity immediately after a stretch, I never felt anything really.

[ViolentJayne]

Thing is, I started at what I thought was a 10g, but when I tried to go up to 8g it slipped completely through like a 10g would, so I just went to my 6g. I'm thinking I either got 8g mislabeled as 10g to start with, in which case no I didn't skip sizes, I just started larger than I thought I did, or never got my 8g and jumped directly to 6g. Either or, no I never felt any pain while stretching. I'd put them in, they'd go about halfway, leave em for a day or two, and when they were loose I'd push them through some more until I felt resistance again. It only ever took me about 4-6 days to make it through a taper. I figured it would hurt too, but aside from some minor sensitivity immediately after a stretch, I never felt anything really.

The thing is that really isnt how you are supposed to use a taper . A taper is a tool meant to guide in a plug . The taper should fit all the way or your ear wasnt ready . It should only take a min or 2 to slide a taper thru , Its a common miss conception that you should work a taper in over hours or days . I thought the same thing when I first used a taper ( luckily I sensed something was odd and removed the taper and did more research before I tried it again . See when I used to hear " go slow when stretching " I thought people meant work the taper in slowly , now I know what they actually mean by " go slow " is to be paitent and wait several weeks 6-8 between stretches and they werent talking about taper speed at all lol

that being said ,if you have had your ears standard pierced for years and you wore heavy or dangely earrings your ears had probably stretched on their own over the years so skipping sizes without realizing or starting at 10 G like you said with out pain is quite possible .

when I decided to stretch I hadnt researched much and estimated that because I could wear two 14 ga cbrs in each lobe with room to spare that a 6 g would be a good place to start . I was a little off . and the 6 ga taper would not go in . so I got an 8 and it slid in with a lil loseness so I technically started at 8 ga with no pain no resistance ..
but it took Me almost 3 months from there to get to 6 ga without pain or resistance . and from there 4 months to get to 4 ga

so make sure to do SLOW down from now on If I were you Id go back to 8 for a bit but if you dont please at least wait to move up for at least 8 weeks . you really need to wait longer just incase your ears havent had time to build more collagen

[ViolentJayne]

here is something from Pauly unstoppable that Ive probably copied and pasted about 20 times on these boards but it explains perfectly why you should wait - and it has nothing to do with pain tolerance or anything like that



" The general reasoning behind why you should wait a minimum of a month or so to stretch all boils down to collagen and skin elasticity. Sort of long story short when you stretch your ears you are stretching out the spaces between the collagen molecules of your ear skin, your body needs time to fill back in those gaps with more collagen, when you rush and stretch before your ear has had a chance to replace those molecules you then make the gaps bigger, in turn making the areas weaker and thinner, this is what causes thin spots and weak spots, that’s why it’s imperative you do not stretch faster than your ears want you to go, and you don’t skip sizes. In the same respect when you skip sizes you are stretching those spaces out so far it takes the body wayyy longer to fill them in and sometimes just can’t at all, which is again where you get thin spots. So take it from me take your time have patience and don’t skip sizes your ears will thank you for it and you will thank me later if you listen to me that is, but who am I just some crazy guy with a lot of shit in his face ha-ha "

[basslinebaby]

The thing is that really isnt how you are supposed to use a taper . A taper is a tool meant to guide in a plug . The taper should fit all the way or your ear wasnt ready . It should only take a min or 2 to slide a taper thru , Its a common miss conception that you should work a taper in over hours or days . I thought the same thing when I first used a taper ( luckily I sensed something was odd and removed the taper and did more research before I tried it again . See when I used to hear " go slow when stretching " I thought people meant work the taper in slowly , now I know what they actually mean by " go slow " is to be paitent and wait several weeks 6-8 between stretches and they werent talking about taper speed at all lol


I had no idea that that's not how tapers were used. How are you supposed to get the next size plug in if you haven't used a taper to stretch it to that size? And if you can shove an entire taper through your ear all at once I commend you. Because I tried that with my first taper and it hurt! So I figured the way to do it is working your way through it....I'm so confused.

[basslinebaby]

this site
http://www.arka-shop.co.uk/acatalog/ear ... -kits.html
is where I got my information on ear stretching from...they say to use tapers that way. I think everyone is different in the way that they get up to the next size. My ears definitely would not have tolerated going through an entire taper all at once.

the site says "I prefer to stretch up very slowly, moving an expander further in, gently stretching the hole, over a period of a few days... an expander, also called a taper or stretcher is what you need for this. An expander is just that, a shape that expands the hole as you push it into the ear"

so...that's what I was doing. Seemed to work fine. My ears went up sizes fairly easily with no pain whatsoever. My only concern is that I went a bit too quickly.