Advice please.

[stardust__]

Okay so I stretched my ear before I started reading these boards or anything (I was at a festival and the people who sold me my tapers and my friends with stretched ears were giving me advice). Anyway from everything I've read it seems I may have done a ton of things wrong and was wanting some advice on what to do next.
Basically I went from a normal ear piercing to 2mm which I assume from the size conversion charts counts as skipping sizes, at least the time between this was fine as I have had my ears pierced for years. There was little pain, a bit of a stinging sensation and some pressure at first which was very much bearable and disappeared soon after the stretch was complete. About six days later I went up to 3mm (again from this board this seems to be a much greater stretch than I assumed) with even less pain during and after. There was no blood stretching or after though there has been a little bit of build up of 'crust' from the hole which comes away quite easily after a SSS.

So basically the question I have is will this be ok? From the looks of it I've not had a blowout or anything of the like. Also is it alright to stretch in 1mm jumps rather than 'gauge' jumps? Especially since the larger stretches seem to go up in 2mm jumps and I'd much rather stick with 1mm. Sorry if these questions seem stupid, and please do not get upset with me for making some mistakes as I now realise this and would just like some advice to prevent any issues and to continue in a safer way.

[ViolentJayne]

I would probably down size at least one size and never skip sizes in the future , yes 6 days was way to fast depending on how long your ears were pierced and how loose the were you may not have done to much damagae but the fact that its crusting suggests at least some micro tears ... in the future wait at least 6 weeks smaller sizes ( under 6 ) and wait 2-3 months between bigger stretches and yes mm is actually better than using the ga system .. good luck

p.s do some seas salt soaks a few times a day then in a week or so start using some type of oil emu naked or vit E I use vit e and it works great you can find it in the drug section of most stores about 5 $ ... also always use some kind of oil or lube when stretching it just makes it so much more comfy and easier just lube your ear and the taper

when some people hear go slow ( they think this refers to the speed at which you insert the taper ) it actually means wait a long period of time between stretches .. a stretch should not actually cause damage to the tissues it should be no different than changing jewelry .....

[stardust__]

Thank you very much for the advice. I'll go put my 2mm back in shortly. I originally tried to stretch it with 3mm and no lube and it would only go a tiny amount in and was agony and the 2mm with lube was perfect, silly me should have probably seen that as a sign. As you said the mm system is better than the ga system would you say it is okay to go up 1mm at a time? Or should I find places which have tapers with smaller measurements? After seeing someone who had managed to tear their earlobe in half I really do not want to risk something as disgusting or stupid as that just because of impatience.

[corazon_de_oro]

You can go 1mm at a time after 3mm (and even then you can find in-between sizes if you can't make the jump). Before 3mm, the sizes go 1 (18G), 1.2 (16G), 1.6 (14G), 2 (12G), 2.4 (10G), 3 (8G).

[stardust__]

Brilliant, thank you a ton. I'll probably look online for a 2.4 then because not many places round here sell very many good tapers. You guys are great help.

[corazon_de_oro]

No problem! Try bodyartforms.com... you can get a taper and a pair of steel plugs for $5 so you don't have to wear the tapers. Tapers really shouldn't be worn at all, especially at larger sizes.

[stardust__]

Thanks for the site, I'm going into town tomorrow to get stuff. It's easier for me than getting things from American sites due to the time it takes for shipping etc.

[corazon_de_oro]

Try going to a piercing studio to look for jewelry, they might have better quality stuff than stores. Just beware of any advice given to you by people there; a lot of piercers don't know what they're talking about when it comes to stretching.