Stretching. Part I
What’s stretching?
Stretching is the ways in which one can steadily enlarge a pierced hole in the body. This is done by a touch stretching the tissue, causing micro-tears to form, and keeping up the hole at the new size till these tears utterly heal. The method is then repeated. This may be done a just about unlimited number of times so long as it is done properly so permitting for highly stretched holes to be produced.
How frequently should I stretch ; how long does it take to heal?
Stretching is an awfully individual activity, and there’s no set time-frame which will work for everybody. You need to only stretch when your ears are absolutely healed. As a rule, most of the people feel that their ears are healed after roughly one month.
When you are feeling that your ears are healed, then wait another 2-3 weeks before stretching. A good guideline is one stretch each other month.
Maximum size that may heal up ( often known as the ‘growing up’ complicated )
This query pops up quite constantly, and sadly, the answer’s very vague. Everybody’s body is dissimilar, and so everybody’s lobes will shrink up to a different point. Talking generally, two gauge is widely considered the ‘point of no return’ - where your lobes become seriously less certain to cure even to the dimensions of a standard earring.
Stretching isn’t a precise science and shouldn’t be treated lightly.
There’s never any guarantee that your ears will shrink back up. If you’re going to stretch, please ensure that you’ll be cushty at that size as an old wrinkly person, and with having your kids and grandkids ask you why you have great holes in your ears.
Stretching Techniques :
Before even deliberating stretching techniques, it is really important to talk about correct waiting periods. When stretching, you want to only stretch one size at a time ( 14-12, 12-10, for example. ) - and you may wait till your ears are fully healed before stretching again.
Tapering
Tapering is the handiest way to stretch your ears with nominal stress.
To taper your lobes, you need to get a taper ( a metal or acrylic device that tapers from your ending gauge down to your beginning gauge - as an example, the huge end would be a ten gauge & the tiny end would be around a twelve gauge ). When you have the taper, lube it up with some water based lubricator like KY Jelly and slide it thru your ear in one liquid motion. When you get to the end of the taper, butt your jewelry up against the end of the taper in order that it looks like an extension of the taper, and push the taper the remainder of the way thru with the jewelry. This complete process shouldn’t take more than a minute or two at longest, and is generally only a few seconds.
Note : This process shouldn’t ever be painful! There could be a slight discomfort from the pressure, but there should not be anything more than this. Your ears should NEVER bleed while tapering!
Tape Wrap
The ‘tape wrap’ methodology of stretching is an alternative method of stretching for bigger gauges where tapers are less available and noticeably costlier. To use this technique, get a roll of PTFE ( Teflon ) tape at any shop. Once your lobes are totally healed, take out your present jewelry and put one wrap of tape around it, then reinsert the jewelry in your ear. You can do this every couple of days as your ear adjusts to each new wrap of tape - thus continuously stretching your piercing up to the following size. While this technique works quite well for many of us, some folks find the Teflon tape gets stuck / attached to the interior of their ear after insertion, so making removal of the jewelry noticeably harder. If this occurs, you may also try bondage tape, which is available on the net and at most adult stores.
Caring for stretched lobes :
Allowing lobes to chill :
there are numerous advantages to permitting your lobes to chill for one or two hours every day.
While wearing jewelry, regardless of what type, stress is being put on your lobe, so limiting the flow of blood, oxygen, nutrient elements, and so on. To the base of your lobe. Over time, this may cause your lobe to thin out, and also make it become irritated. One of the finest paths to relieve this issue is to take your jewelry out for a couple of hours every day to permit the piercing to breath and increase blood flow to the base of your lobe. Over time, this may promote more fit lobes, including thickening the tissue, therefore providing more space to stretch in the future.
There’s no unswerving rule on when it’s a brilliant idea to start permitting your lobes to chill. We personally believe that at ANY size it is valuable to leave your plugs out for at least a little while, and that at any size bigger than two gauge ( quarter ‘ ) any one should be ready to leave their jewelry out overnight. If you’re nervous about leaving your jewelry out, take it out for a gradually longer period every day till you find the quantity of time that’s the longest you’re feeling happy with.
If you have difficulty reinserting your jewelry after leaving it out, a hot compress for 5-10 minutes and some lube together with a taper will swiftly resolve your problem.