Close Gauged Ears

Whether it's for a new job, a wedding, or the fact that you're just really missing dangling earrings, you've decided that it's time your well-loved stretched ears get the boot. Here are three different methods you can use to reduce the size of your stretched holes. Keep in mind that once you've reduced the gauge of your jewelry, it's much easier to stretch them out again.

Steps

Reducing the Size of Your Stretched Holes

  1. Gauge correctly in the first place. The best chance of your ears healing depends on how nice you were to your ears during the stretching process. If you barged ahead and sized up every other week, you most likely caused small tears and potentially ripped the delicate tissue of your holes. If you allowed them to heal for at least a month before sizing up, that will speed up the healing process and your ears will thank you.
    • Remember never to stretch dry. Always use some kind of lube, like a special stretching balm, Vitamin E oil, or coconut oil. Stretching in or after a hot shower has been said to help with the stretching process. Also, tapers are not meant to be worn as jewelry, because the weight is uneven, so only use them for stretching. Don't use acrylic or silicone tapers; although acrylic tapers are the cheapest and easiest to find, acrylic can't be fully sterilized, and silicone tapers can cause blowouts due to trapped bacteria.
  2. Decrease the the gauge you are wearing by 'going down' one size. For example, if your normal gauge is a 000 (10.4 mm), put a 00 (9.26 mm) in your ear.
    • If you have gone above a 12 mm g, it is unlikely that you will experience much shrinkage. This is because stretching your ears involves (surprise, surprise) stretching--you stretch the tissue of your ear and then allow it to heal. If blowouts, tearing or infections occur, scar tissue builds up which can sometimes keep ear lobes from shrinking back to normal once they have been stretched. Of course, everyone's body is different. Just be aware of the potential that your ears might not shrink back without surgery.[1]
  3. Wear the smaller gauge for a week. You should wear the smaller gauge until your ear has shrunk down so that this gauge fits well. This may take only a few days for some people, and longer than a week for others.
  4. Repeat this process until you are wearing the smallest gauge. The smallest is a 17g (1.14 mm). Most wire earrings are .812 mm and studs are 1.02 mm.[2]
Image: Wikimedia Commons

Massaging Your Ears with Oil

  1. Take your jewelry out of your ears. DO NOT put antiseptic in your ears, because this will cause them to dry out and sting like hell. Instead, clean your ear pieces with a saltwater soak, and soak a cotton ball in the saltwater solution and hold it up to your ear holes.
  2. Massage your lobes every day. Use oils like Jojoba oil or Vitamin E oil. These oils will help repair the scar tissue caused by stretching your ears and will speed up the healing process.[3]
  3. Moisturize your ears after showering. This will help the skin become softer and make blood flow to the area. Moisturizing after showering also helps get rid of dead skin, allowing the holes to heal without irritation or infection.

Using Restorative Cream

  1. Remove your jewelry from your ears. Run a cotton swab under water. Gently clean the holes with water.
  2. Put a small dab of hemorrhoid cream on a different cotton swab. Hemorrhoid creams like Preparation H work well. Hemorrhoid cream will reduce the scar tissue that has built up due to damage the stretching has done.[4]
    • You can also use store-bought 'ear butter' like Holey Butt'r instead of hemorrhoid cream.
  3. Rub the cream around and in your gauge holes. You can also apply the cream with your finger or tissue if so desired.[4]
  4. Massage your ears with the cream. Repeat this process every day. You should notice a difference in size within a couple of weeks.

Tips

  • Remember that everyone's ears are different; your ears may take a longer or shorter amount of time to heal than other ears.
  • Skin-colored plugs can be purchased if you have a certain event where you would like to hide your stretched ears, but do not actually want to get rid of the holes.
  • If your ears shrink, they will usually stretch easily again. If you decide you do want to stretch again, it should be easier to stretch them than the first time.
  • Sea Salt Soak: 1/8 non iodized sea salt per 8oz of water.
  • If you have the funds and the time, surgery is another, much more costly way to get rid of your stretched holes. Consult with a surgeon about your options. But remember this will cause scarring and you should not try to stretch again after surgery because they literally sew the holes closed, and if you decide to re-pierce them to a normal size, they are going through scar tissue which will be very painful.
  • Think about the type of material you use. Glass, steel, or titanium are the best options because acrylics, silicone, and organic materials will absorb your dead skin cells and potentially fuse to your ear.

Warnings

  • Do NOT twist your jewelry ever. This will cause micro tears which will slow down healing and hurt!
  • The jewelry you put in aren't called gauges, and it's called stretching your ears, not gauging. The gauge is the thickness of the earring itself. Yes, people will know what you are talking about if you refer to it as gauging, but anyone serious about body modification will laugh at you if you call them gauges. There are many different styles and some popular ones are tapers, spirals, plugs, and tunnels.
  • Don't take out your jewelry after newly stretching them because this will slow down healing.
  • Ears might not always go back to their original size. Some ears, when stretched too far, will not shrink down to a normal earring (usually 20g or 18g) size.It is universally accepted that 2g is the point of no return.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://onetribe.nu/faq/ear-lobe-stretching-faq
  2. ↑ http://www.zukiimports.com/gaugesize
  3. ↑ http://ask.bme.com/2007/10/29/closing-stretched-lobes/
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 http://www.bodymod.org/forum/printer_friendly_posts.asp?TID=10751

You may like

Retrieved from "https://kipkis.com/index.php?title=Close_Gauged_Ears&oldid=319476"