Advice for a newbie

[lilyphem]

Hey all,

I just started stretching my ear lobe piercing. It's an OLD piercing lol; I had it done when I was 9 and now I'm 33. I'm trying to be very careful; oiling it regularly, massaging the lobes when I'm showering.

The thing I'm finding is that as I move to each gauge I'm finding that it only stings for a day or three max, then after that it's a matter of two weeks before it's completely sensation free. I guess I'm moving up a gauge every three weeks, but I'm no where near jewellery yet. I've started on the smallest tapers I can get, and am moving up from those.

My questions are these;

(1) what's the best amount of time to wait. I'm getting a lot of mixed answers from researching, so I'm interested to know what experienced people have found
(2) does the age of my lobe piercing make a difference? I've got quite a few piercings, and I have noticed over the years that I heal pretty quickly, but I don't want to jump to conclusions as stretching is a new thing to me;
(3) are tapers ok to use? I've got surgical steel ones, and I read lots of sites saying they were ok to use. Now I'm reading "don't use tapers, use tape" and I figure it's too late now. I never push the tapers further than they'll go comfortably with a small amount of stinging, and when I've moved up a gauge, if it's really stingy I don't go up.

I've not had any bleeding, and very little discharge from the piercing at all. It's been a walk in the park....so far I just want to make sure, as I start to move to the larger gauges, that I do it right.

Thanks y'all

[corazon_de_oro]

Stretching should never hurt or even sting at all so it sounds like you're moving too fast. The idea of stretching is to be able to move up to the next size with no pain or resistance once your ears are ready for it. This usually takes about 6-8+ weeks for most people.

An older piercing will usually be easier to stretch than a newer one but it depends on many factors like whether or not there's scar tissue, what type of jewelry you wore, etc.

Also, tapers are perfectly fine to use for the stretch itself, just don't wear them as jewelry. Get a pair of single-flare/no-flare plugs at each size.

[lilyphem]

Thanks for that.

The stinging is only very minor, I figured that was just part of the "stretching process" so it's good to know that. It goes away pretty quickly though; it's very similar to the stinging you get from a really new piercing....

I'm still only on very small/thin tapers, so I wanted to make sure things were ok before I proceeded to the thicker ones. That's interesting to know about the plugs; I figured I would just leave the tapers in until I got the gauge I wanted then move to plugs, but I will go and invest in some once I get somewhere near a size where I can get a plug lol

Thanks so much for the advice hey; I really appreciate that. I've got 15 piercings, so I'm in the know in that regard, but stretching is a whole new box of frogs