It will help if you understand the different types of jewelry available to choose from as well as how ear gauge sizing works. The following chart should help you understand what all of those numbers you will see when shopping for ear stretching mean. Gauges- Millimeter -Inches. Ear Stretching Jewelry Types:.
Tapers are primarily tools as opposed to everyday ear jewelry. They are used to perform the actual stretching and should be replaced with jewelry within a few hours. Even though many of the tapers you can buy are very attractive they simply are not designed for long term wear as there is a danger that the weight of a taper can tear your delicate ear tissue. The exception to this would be any tapers composed of lightweight materials such as acrylic. Looking to only strerch one size? Checkout our single tapers.
Plugs: Plugs are solid pieces that cannot be seen through and are designed for long term wear. This is something of a slang term that has become popular over the last few years. People that use it are usually referring to jewelry for stretched ears. Truth be told, there are more people searching the internet for the term"ear gauges" then "ear plugs" when looking to purchase jewelry for stretched ears.
Initially you should purchase both tapers and long term ear stretching jewelry in the gauges you will be stretching to. Make sure you really like what you are buying as ideally they will be worn for at least a month before you gauge up to the next size. Keep in mind that while gauging up you will need a lubricant of some kind. Jojoba oil is a great choice. Vitamin E oil will also do the trick you can break open a standard Vitamin E capsule and use the oil if you can't find the real thing.
In a pinch you can use Vaseline or a generic petroleum jelly, but it's really not the best choice. The very best time to stretch your ears is when you have just stepped out of a hot shower. It is at this point that your earlobe skin is at its softest and most pliable.
You will also be beginning with nice, clean hands, something that is also very important. Begin by massaging a small amount of lubricant onto your ear and then slowly insert the taper, small end first, into your ear piercing. At this point pay attention to how you feel as stretching should not be painful!
If you feel pain you should stop immediately as pain is sign that your piercing is not ready to be stretched. However, some minor discomfort and light resistance is normal so just be patient. Next, align your long term jewelry with the larger end of the taper as if it were an extension of it.
Push the taper through your ear along with the jewelry and then move on to your other ear. As you move on to larger sizes you can try a different method, one that is known as taping. This involves adding small layers of tape such as PTFE, Teflon or bondage tape around a piece of ear jewelry and reinserting it into your ear. We offer them in 1mm increments from 2mm up to 28mm. The smaller stretch means a quicker heal time and less scar tissue. The backs of these plugs are rounded to make insertion easier.
The wearable of the plug is fairly long to help accommodate any initial swelling you may have. As with tapers, be sure to lube the plugs and your ears before stretching. Tapers - A taper is a long cylinder-shaped tool that is your desired size on one end and several sizes smaller on the other, with a gradual size increase between the two. Tapers are often used for the smaller size stretches, generally under 2g 6mm. The first few stretches 14g — 8g , depending on your elasticity , you might be able to just put in the earring.
Treat a stretched piercing as a new piercing. Go To Tapers. Tape Wrapping - Once you get to a larger size, generally around 0 gauge then using the tape wrapping method is a good option to use for stretching. It's the method almost everyone uses over 1 inch. To stretch with the tape wrapping method, take a set of plugs in your current size and do wraps of tape around them to slowly increase the size of your piercing.
Only use PTFE or bondage tape. Remove the tape and clean the jewelry and your ears. Apply new tape daily. It is also recommended to apply jojoba or another skin conditioning oil daily to keep your skin moisturized and more elastic. Every week or two, do an additional wraps to continue increasing the size of the plug.
After about months, you should be at your next size. It's highly recommended to use a set of single flare plugs or tunnels, so you can easily trim the excess tape. What's good about the tape wrapping method is you can really take your time and slowly increase the size of your piercing without the healing issues of tapers. It's a lot slower than using tapers, but it is a really efficient and gradual way to stretch with minimal risk.
Go To Tape. So once you have decided on what size of taper you need to use, the next part is getting the stretch done. The first thing you will need is a lubricant to use on your taper. Lubricant will make the taper super slick, so it will slide through easy. Lubricants make a stretch easier. Lube up your ears and also the taper. There are three different measurements that you are going to see when it comes to ear stretching sizes, millimetres mm , inches " , and gauge g.
For example, the same gauge plug can be 3. We want to make it easier for you to figure out what sizes to use, so see our chart for the different ear stretching sizes below:.
Here you can see the most popular ear stretching sizes in. Standard ear piercings are usually done at 20g or 18g for traditional earrings and that works out at roughly 1mm. This is usually where people start stretching from from there you can go into the next size up which is usually either 14g 1. This means that whether you want to stick with smaller gauge sizes or go all out you can always have some awesome jewellery to show it off!
If you're just starting out stretching check out our collection of small ear gauges.
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