my first stretch

[shawt15]

hey people, i got my ears pierced about 3 weeks ago. i was tired of having earrings so i decided to put on those like 16g half, upside-down circle things (idk the official name) i'd had them on for like16 hours now and they are still sore. i don't know if its normal or what they should feel like so any feedback would be nice, thanks

[LexBladerUk]

Sounds like impatience! First piercings take their sweet time to stop hurting, and most piercers recommend only removing the stud after 6-8 weeks.
Painful process, in every way... :P
If you have either sterling silver or stainless steel studs, keep those in. Those metals are the least likely to react with the body so they will help heal the piercings faster. Keep them clean, and you can always pop an aspirin before bed if sleep is a bit nasty!

Hope this helped :)

[shawt15]

well my initial piercing stopped hurting like.. 2 weeks ago lol i've had these 16g's in for 2 days now and they are still a little sore, especially in the morning cuz they like stick in my ears and i can move them. i've been cleaning twice a day and all that and they look fine. but it was definitely impatience. lol im not gunna stretch for about a month or so now to allow my ears to heal obviously. but im just curious is if im doing it correctly and if everything i feel is normal.

thanks

[WindowLicker]

What size did you pierce at? I can already tell you you weren't ready to put new jewerly in, regardless of the size, but if you stretched which I'm assuming is the case, you REALLY shouldn't have stretched. Take the half circle whatevers out, put in your original jewerly, keep those in for a few months, then try stretching.

[shawt15]

i pierced at normal size, im assuming thts 18g. why wasn't i ready? how can u tell?

[shawt15]

also, if i leave in my 16g's what's the worst tht could happen?

[WindowLicker]

Normal size is 20g. That means you skipped a size which is never good to do. I know you weren't ready because you should wait 6 months after getting the piercing done before you do your first stretch. When you stretch you cause microtears in your lobes. When skipping sizes those tears are bigger than usual which lead to bleeding and tearing your lobes in half if done too much. Because the tears are larger you're also at a bigger risk for infection. When they do finally heal your lobes will be full of scar tissue which first off isn't very cool looking and secondly makes future stretching incredibly difficult. As another member on here said a while ago, those smaller sizes set the foundation for the larger sizes. If you set a crappy foundation then your ears will look terrible in the future, it'll be very difficult to get to the sizes you want, and you could very easily rip your ear right in half. If the very worst wasn't that bad why would I bother telling you to take them out. If you want our advice don't second guess it. MOST of us know what we're talking about.

[shawt15]

i've never ever seen 18g gauges. online, at hot topic, or at spencer's so i thought 16g was the next size. i think i should be fine, i am cleaning regularly and im not planning to stretch again for another month or 2 so they can heal. im only going to 8g so its not that big.

[WindowLicker]

Then why ask for advice?

[caadam]

You know, I like this forum. I like the people who come on here who are sincere, who need answers, and those who gives answers with sincerety, patience, and respect.

At the same time, I get really bummed out when I see things like this happen. I know I'm new to this forum, but I've been writing in forums and dealing with users online for years. Heck, I'm a moderator in a few forums just like this myself to hundreds of users.

Seeing this, people going back and forth impatiently, starting disputes and just scoffing and insulting one another is probably not a very wise choice, don't you think? Maybe it's just me, but I would be removing people left and right from my groups if people were fighting with each other this way. It's unbelievable!

How can we create a community of people who want to represent positive body mod practices if we can't even treat ourselves positively? Even IF we come across someone we feel like are doing something wrong? What, yelling and spitting profanity doesn't help any; it just throws more fuel on the fire and makes this forum look even worse than it is.

It's just disappointing... it makes me feel bad because I want to be here and enjoy talking to people with the same interests as me, and yet I watch someone getting treated like crap. It doesn't matter what they do; that shouldn't be happening on a public forum for everyone to see and expect to have a good reputation.

All potential goes down the tubes if this is how people are going to respond to others, on BOTH sides. Where is the admin? Where are the moderators?! Who's suppose to be keeping an eye on this and draw the line? This is ridiculous.