Ear stretching ?

Okay, so I blow glass, and I have done plugs before, but I always feel just a little out of my element - since it's an item I've never personally had any use for. I'm tired of asking people all the time about their various preferences, and I want to see for myself! I've been thinking about this for a while - it's not just on a whim.

I haven't worn earrings for quite some time. Five years ago I took them out for a sweat and never felt the need to put them back in. At that point, I had 2 holes in each lobe, and one on my right cartelidge.

So after thinking about stretching my ears for all this time, I finally decided to see if I even still have holes, and (surprise!) they're still intact. Actually, the second lobe piercings are closed up, but the main piercing and the cartilidge are both fine - no pain or anything, it's as if I've been wearing earrings all these years.

Now, I don't want to guage WAY up (and I'm just talking lobes here, I will leave the cartilidge as it is). I figure the smallest plug I can do in glass is a 4, so that's where I will set my sights. What I'm wondering about, though, is the time between here and there. Do I have to go "get them stretched" (I already know I do NOT want them punched)? Or can I just take baby steps with stainless steel rings - it seems like I could already stuff 16-14 g rings in there no problem, then wait a while and step up slowly, until eventually I can make little baby glass tapers and let them and time take me up to a 4. Does this make sense? I'm not entirely familiar with the usual process, I just know how my own body, and the piercings I have, seem to work.

Again, please be aware that I'm doing this for the experience, the journey, and so I will know better what I want to be doing in my future glass endeavors - NOT BECAUSE OF A TREND! Any advice or info y'all could give would be appreciated!

 

You can go get them stretched, or you can do it yourself.
Usualy, piercers will charge for the jewelry and *maybe* a little extra to stretch them, but it isn't much if they do charge for the stretching. Piercers rarely charge for it, though - just the jewelry.

If you want to do it yourself, then yes, you can just start with 16 or 14ga. steel rings. If you're planning on making tapers, great. You can usually find small things to taper with. I make 14-8ga. tapers out of fimo or polymer clay because it's hard to find things that small to use as a taper. Small cheap dollar-store paint brushes (the ones with bristly plastic/nylon brushes and colourful plastic handles... little kids' watercolour paintbrushes, basically) usually come anywhere from 8-6ga. right up to the bigger stuff, but nothing huge.
You can also just play with your earrings a lot. Most of my stretching was done by playing with my jewelry a lot until I could easily (or fairly easily) get the next bigger gauge in, give them a week or two to rest, and then do it all over again until you get to where you want.

I've stretched my septum (00ga.), lobes (14ga. to over an inch, now they're back at 1/2"), cartilage (16ga. to 1/2", now back at 2ga.), navel (14ga. to 2ga.) and a couple "others" myself either using home-made tapers, "household item" tapers, and by playing with/pulling at jewelry... they're all well-healed and incredibly happy.

The key is to take it slow, use lube, and never force anything. If it tears, scar tissue may not be visible, but can make it MUCH harder to stretch further.

 

Yeah, I want to do this but I'll definitely not rush it. I want my end result to be holes however big I'm comfortable with in the end, but having stretched well and gradually, to where when I take the jewelry out I still have a round hole there, you know? A way-back friend of mine did hers in too big a rush and due to some tearing, they look fine with jewelry in- but when she takes them out they hang really freaky and misshapen.
Do you really need to taper with the smaller sizes (like smaller than 10) or can you pretty well just stick it in? Of course, I can make glass as small as I need to, but I'd just be nervous about applying pressure with glass too small, lest it snap.

Thanks for the advice!

 

I've done mine by myself, and all i did was go to my local jewlery store and but a stainless steel earring the next size up. When i would put it in I would just put a little of that ear cleaning stuff they give you, (i stil had like a whole bottle), im at a 12 right now,, but tommarow im going in to get my 10's w00t. ive also heard of one of my friends using vasaline as lube for it and that worked well, and i never had any problems going up a gauge, it always just slipped right it.

 

i have always wanted my ears stretched. however, i wouldn't want that my entire life so i haven't done it.

 

Yeah, okay, so I just ordered a set of sss tapers, and the rings I will start with. Since it's been so long since I wore ANYTHING, I'm gonna start with 16g captive bead rings, wear them for a few weeks before I get the 14g. From there I will guage up with the tapers, lots of lube and lots of love, every few weeks. Yee-haw, this is gonna be fun! Can't wait to get the shit in the mail

 

Well, good luck and happy stretching.

When I started, I thought I would just go up to 00ga or 1/2" ... then I decided I'd just go wherever I was happy, and ended up stretching them up to 1 1/4" before I lost my plugs and let them go. I had 1/2" black spirals (I made them) and decided to put those in... there's still space in the holes, with the spirals, so they're probably about 5/8" and not getting any smaller.
As a general rule, anything up to around 00ga. or 1/2" will close back up to "normal" if you decide to take them out - bigger stretches might take longer and not shrink completely back, depending on how big they were stretched.

 

Yeah, I don't plan on going super-big, but a minimum of 4ga, because that's the smallest plugs I can do. I figure it's just as well that I'll be taking it slow, because my bf thinks I'm a weirdo for doing this and it'll take some time for him to get used to it. Honestly, I really think it'll look really good, plus the placement of the holes I have is just perfect, with plenty of room on every side.

 

I met a guy last night at a DJ battle who had stretched his ear lobe so far he was wearing a wine bottle cork in it... looked kinda cool...

 

I have mine stretched to an 8g and if I take mine out, they look barely bigger than normal holes... I'm just planning on keeping mine an 8 til I decide that I don't want em anymore, or til Im SURE I wanna go bigger... I'm really nervous about getting em too big and not being able to shrink em down, you know?

 

Yeah, that's why I plan on not going bigger than 4g for now (I think 4 is the smallest I can realistically make good plugs)... Who knows, I might decide to go bigger after all - I figure people don't really ook at your ears that often anyways, and if it shrinks down SOME and I can fill it with a slightly smaller plug, it would look almost normal. i would not, under any circumstances, stretch bigger than 00g.

 

that's nothing..

look around online.

 

Here is a picture of what my left ear used to look like. The right was the same, minus the cartilage.

The lobes were at 3/4" at the time (I had them to 7/8" before I lost the plugs), and the cartilage was at 1/2" (biggest I've ever had it).
I haven't had jewelry in the cartilage for over a year now, and it's down to about 0ga. permanently. I lost the plugs in my lobes after I got them to almost 1" and now I have black spirals in them, they're just under 1/2" and there's at least a few extra millimetres of space with the spirals in. I haven't had anything in them that actually fit (big enough) for 2 years and they aren't getting any smaller, either.

 

Okay, so I have my first set of rings in. I'm glad I started with 16g because I've only ever had regular, standard, wire-hook style earrings in before, and even this was a little bit of a stretch.

One question - does anybody hae any practical advice for sleeping? I have long dreadlocks, which I think is what's getting in the way. No matter what I do to keep them up off my head they still keep getting sandwiched under my ears. So my ear'll feel fine and start to get totally healed during the day, and after I've slept half the night they're hurting again. By the morning they really hurt, and then after I've been up an hour they feel fine. I'm certainly not wussing out from a little bit of pain (in fact, on a weird level, I'm really enjoying the pain - does that make me a freak?) but I don't want to impede the healing process, especially since they have to be healed up before I can stretch them again.

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

its just about the same for the pain when you first start stretching after you sleep as it is after you first get your ears pierced...it will go away in due time.....

i have mine at a 4ga. right now....i want to go bigger...but haven't really had the time to go shopping for new plugs....but it is kinda funny though because i got into some trouble last year and was in jail for a little over 3 months and then was in rehab for about 2 weeks---so all together about 4 months---without anything in my ears....and as soon as i got my plugs back i shoved the 4 right back in....it hurt like a bitch at first and stung for about an hour or so...but there is no permanant damage or anything...the one thing that i did gauge while i was in jail was my tongue....one of my cellmates was a piercer and she helped me do it....i had a 12 guage when i went in and she gauged it to about a 6 in one shot....talk about some pain....but i am back to a 12 again because one of the guards saw it and made me take it out so it closed back down real fast.....i have been slowly tapering it so that i can fit the 8 that i have in....i will get there eventually.....but good luck hummblebee with your stretching....just kind of go with it...if you feel that you are ready to go to the next gauge then more than likely you are.....i skipped some when i did mine...i went from a 16 to a 14 then to 12 then an 8 and then the 4 that i have now

 

Yeah I'm definitely not going to rush through it, I want the holes to heal up nicely each time... Plus the time between is good for my bf, who thinks I'm crazy. Plus it'll give e a few weeks in between to spring for new jewelry. I'm just looking forward to getting up to a 4 and being able to put my own designs in there!

 

Yeah, I had mine professionally stretched from 16 to 8's.... My piercer in Maine did it, John, and he was real sketchy about doing so much in one shot... Just be easy with them, take your time. Mine healed fine, but, like I said, I had a piercer do mine, too...

 

My stretching was basically waiting for the last one to heal and then jamming the new one in. I was a little uninformed about better methods for a while. Just pull on them the day before you're putting the bigger ones in, and again before you do it. I used a little water make mine go in easier.

My ex girlfriend made me my last couple plugs (ceramic/clay) and I'm up to a 2 gauge now. If I can ever get her to make a 0, I'll be feeling pretty good. Meanwhile, I'm trying to find a place to maybe do my other ear for symmetry. hahah. And dreadies! hells yes.

 

Maybe I should have started a new thread... No, I'm sure this'll be seen... So I have those first rings in still, My ears were sore for a few days but fine now. My bf gets paid tomorrow so I can finally order jewelry to guage down to where I'm going (I'll have glass once I get to 4g, but till then I'm just going with cheapo surgical steel, it doesn't bother my skin at all...) Now, last time I ordered a little pair of cbr's, thinking I knew what I was doing, and I could barely get them in my ears. I'm thinking this time of just ordering 1/2 inch horseshoe-style circulars. Any ideas/opinions on this? Are they easier to get in? Seems like I'd just stick them in from the front, and the back bead screws in, right? I'll be getting them in 12g, 10g, 8g, and 6g if that makes any difference. I'm sure it would be easier to check them out at a shop, but I'm working my butt of @ home at the moment, and they're sooooo much cheaper online anyway. I just want something that will be simple for me to put in myself, you know? Thanks for all the help guys!

 

http://wiki.bmezine.com/index.php/Threading

That is important... especially when you're using the jewelry to stretch. External threads (the bottom picture on that page) can catch on the skin inside the piercing and tear it. Internal threads are way better, because obviously, there is no threading on the outside of the bar... which is, after all, the part you're sticking through your piercing.

That said, I also think that circular barbells would be a really good choice. From experience, since they have two beads on them, it gives them a bit of extra weight... not that it's noticable, but the jewelry will move around more (when you move your head, etc) and help stretch the piercing naturally.