Stretching Tips and Hints
Lobes : If you are counting on getting your ear lobes stretched, you may as well start out with 10ga or 8ga piercings. After 6-9 months you need to be prepared for your first stretch.
Captive rings work fine in this example because they are not intensely heavy and they’re straightforward to worry for. When you get to 4ga or 2ga, begin wearing lighter jewelry like eyelets and plugs. When inserting wood plugs that are just a touch too tight, try putting them in a zip-lock baggie and then letting them sit in the refrigerator for 10-20 minutes. The cold causes the wood to confine and then they will warm and expand in your ear. This should really only be done with healthy ears and plugs that are a little too tight to get in simply.
A new, tight sponge can be cut to about bigger than the plug you would like to wear. Wet the sponge and squeeze it into the lobe. As the sponge dries and expands overnite it can stretch the ear rather a lot. Use caution taking the sponge out, as the skin can get quite a grip on it. Weights are likely the most typical way to stretch lobes, but they are not always the simplest way. Unless the weight is distributed to all of the tissue within, the piercing the sole stretching going on is where the weights really touch the skin. Massage regularly with jojoba oil or additional virgin olive oil, but avoid plant oils as they generally tend to become rancid swiftly.
Tongue : not only is the tongue a favored piercing, but stretching it is beginning to become more favored.
Special care must be brought to avoid damaging the soft palette and the teeth and gums. The balls of a barbell get bigger with each gauge. At last the scale of the balls alone can make wearing jewelry most unlikely. At high gauges, custom jewelry with domed balls or disks work better than huge barbells.
Stretching the tongue could cause an extraordinary quantity of discomfort…sometimes far more than the first piercing. It’s often better to start out huge ( 10ga ) than to hang around for a thinner bar to cure and stretch later on. Piercing with 14ga and 12ga bars doesn’t hurt any less than a 10ga, and if you are intending to stretch, why not begin with the bigger bar? Often swelling can last a tiny longer with the 10g bar, but in the long term, it will not matter.
Cartilage : Cartilage is a firm, structural support for the ear and nose. Unlike skin, it doesn’t have its’ own blood supply.
Cartilage receives just about all of its’ blood from the encircling skin, so stretching cartilage is an highly slow process.
If ear cartilage is stretched too fast the tissue can become so tight that blood can’t get to the cartilage which could cause necrosis ( tissue death ). Cartilage can also crack or even crack like glass. This damage can be irreparable and even threatening to your fitness. Slow way down when stretching cartilage, way down…maybe once a year for some. The thicker and more firm the cartilage, the slower you have got to go.
Nipples : If you like your nipple piercings, you will doubtless love them as they’re stretched bigger. Nipples can be stretched to great sizes with patience and time. But be cautious, heavy jewelry, or jewelry that gets knocked around a lot, can end up in keloiding, migration and refusal.
Go slow and steady.
Genitals : generally, genital piercings are straightforward to stretch and have a tendency to do so all alone with time. These highly vascular areas heal extremely fast and produce new skin at a fantastic rate-especially Prince Alberts and Labia. Hear your body.
Navels : Since navel piercings take such a long time to cure, it can be 3-4 years before some navels are prepared to be stretched. Navel piercings are glorified surface piercings, so they need additional attention to size, weight and time. Hear your body.
Septums : the correct placement of a septum piercing places it thru skin instead of cartilage. However even a superbly placed septum piercing can be nearly most unlikely to stretch ( depending on the individual nose ). This is a simple one to “listen” to as it can become very distressing to stretch, and remain agonizing for days after a stretching.