Skipping Sizes
Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2010 2:58 am
Greetings to all fellow lobe-adventurers, my name is Beanie. I am going to document my perosnal stretching experience to try and warn some of you and provide reason into a most commonly asked question in the involvement of ear stretching, Skipping Sizes.
First of all, when you start of stretching, I seriously reccomend starting with a small size taper - Not a plug or a tunnel i.e, inserted by way of dead stretch. The reason for this being, Skipping large sizes when first beggining stretching can seriously and permanently damage your lobes, sometimes even to the point of no return. My first ever stretch was a 0mm to 6mm stretch ( 18g to 2g). I did this by numbing my ear for about half and hour then jamming a red 6mm taper into my lobe. This as you can imagine was extremley painful and I found myself with an ache that lasted for the next 3 days. As this was my first proper stretch, I took good care of it. I checked everyday for rips and gave it salt baths twice a day. But what I didnt know was that I had created vast amounts of scar tissue in my ear, which over the next few months of stretching caused my ears to rip and to bleed at every oppurtunity. I was soon at 8mm and over a period of 7 months, I had stretched both my lobes to 18.
Blowouts are rather common in ear stretching, particularly for people who do not clean their ears and skip sizes. At the time, I was using 18mm silicone tunnels (similar to KAOS silicone) to try and reach my goal of 20mm (3/4"). These tunnels were excellent, simple and easy to bend. Unfortunatley, because I skipped sizes, The silicone stretched out against my small lobe and ripped it to shreds as I skipped 6mm from 12mm to 18. This soon became infected, swollen and bulging with pus as it was nearly impossible to remove the tunnel without feeling nauseous because of the pain. This took over two weeks to heal, after i wrenched it out of my lobe and went to the doctors to fetch Foban cream, a healing cream that is good for infected and dry skin. After they healed and the pain was over, I was struck with a crust that spread all over the lobe and around my now downsized 10mm hole. This crust only responds to everyday use of Vitamin E oils and is irritating and sore.
I warn new stretchers to take the advice so commonly ignored, DO NOT SKIP SIZES. The pain is immense and do not dismiss the occurence of infection. If your lobes ever appear swollen and red and sore to the touch, visit a GP or family doctor.
The only good thing I have found from skipping sizes, is after the infection and dry crust is gone, your lobes are extremley stretchy and can safely skip 2mm a day without pain of uncomfortability. But it is seriously not worth the sleepless nights and aches.
I hope this has helped somebody, please leave feedback,
Cheers, Beanie.
First of all, when you start of stretching, I seriously reccomend starting with a small size taper - Not a plug or a tunnel i.e, inserted by way of dead stretch. The reason for this being, Skipping large sizes when first beggining stretching can seriously and permanently damage your lobes, sometimes even to the point of no return. My first ever stretch was a 0mm to 6mm stretch ( 18g to 2g). I did this by numbing my ear for about half and hour then jamming a red 6mm taper into my lobe. This as you can imagine was extremley painful and I found myself with an ache that lasted for the next 3 days. As this was my first proper stretch, I took good care of it. I checked everyday for rips and gave it salt baths twice a day. But what I didnt know was that I had created vast amounts of scar tissue in my ear, which over the next few months of stretching caused my ears to rip and to bleed at every oppurtunity. I was soon at 8mm and over a period of 7 months, I had stretched both my lobes to 18.
Blowouts are rather common in ear stretching, particularly for people who do not clean their ears and skip sizes. At the time, I was using 18mm silicone tunnels (similar to KAOS silicone) to try and reach my goal of 20mm (3/4"). These tunnels were excellent, simple and easy to bend. Unfortunatley, because I skipped sizes, The silicone stretched out against my small lobe and ripped it to shreds as I skipped 6mm from 12mm to 18. This soon became infected, swollen and bulging with pus as it was nearly impossible to remove the tunnel without feeling nauseous because of the pain. This took over two weeks to heal, after i wrenched it out of my lobe and went to the doctors to fetch Foban cream, a healing cream that is good for infected and dry skin. After they healed and the pain was over, I was struck with a crust that spread all over the lobe and around my now downsized 10mm hole. This crust only responds to everyday use of Vitamin E oils and is irritating and sore.
I warn new stretchers to take the advice so commonly ignored, DO NOT SKIP SIZES. The pain is immense and do not dismiss the occurence of infection. If your lobes ever appear swollen and red and sore to the touch, visit a GP or family doctor.
The only good thing I have found from skipping sizes, is after the infection and dry crust is gone, your lobes are extremley stretchy and can safely skip 2mm a day without pain of uncomfortability. But it is seriously not worth the sleepless nights and aches.
I hope this has helped somebody, please leave feedback,
Cheers, Beanie.