Stretching from 20g to 14g- questions.

[ligerzero100]

Last sunday the 4th I stretched my ears from a 20g to 14g using acrylic tapers. I didn't have any plugs at the time and it's been 4 days since I stretched them. I'm going to be able to get plugs tonight. I was wondering if putting them in right away would be a good idea or if I should just wait until my ears completely heal.

[Hybrid]

Well going from 20g to 14g in one day is a bad idea unless your ears have been pierced for years and have stretched. Also, you never want to stretch with the actual tapers, they are tools, not jewelry! Always buy plugs at the same time you get tapers.

[LaurenRoyer]

Like i went from a 14g to an 8g in like 5 minutes. It hurt like hell but i kept in the tapers for a couple days until i could twist them in circles and then popped in some plugs. I cleaned them with alcohol everyday to avoid infection and they healed pretty quick so i wouldn't sweat it, but you need to make sure your cleaning them daily.

[TheGreyEyedMonster]

no thats a very bad way to stretch your ears. stretching with tapers is fine, that's what they are designed for. but you're supposed to put plugs in immediately after. don't skip sizes. the smaller ones are a foundation for stretching and you may not think it but it can form a lot of scar tissue, even if you think you dont see any. itll seriously fuck up your ears.

dont clean your ears with alcohol, it dries out your ears. just clean them with soap and water daily in the shower. if you cannot take out your plugs, soak them with sea salt soaks. dont put too much salt into the mixture or it will dry out and irritate your ears.

id suggest downsizing or even starting over completely. at those small sizes its much easier to stretch with CBRs than with tapers and plugs. but hey, if youre not gonna do that then at least clean your ears properly.

tl;dr: DONT SKIP SIZES. STRETCHING SHOULD NOT HURT MUCH, AND CERTAINLY SHOULDNT BLEED

[Hybrid]

Dam me and my failure to communicate, I meant don't wear the tapers. Just listen to ^grey^ she knows what she is talking about. Also on a side note, anyone that goes from 14-8g in 5 minutes is fucked on future sizes. All the scar tissue you will get built up would be a difficult to get rid of.

[LaurenRoyer]

I guess it's a good thing I'm stopping at a 4g double flare hmm?

[TheGreyEyedMonster]

call me monster ;)

and u say u wanna stop at 4 now. haha i said id stop at 2 and now i want 00 with the ultimate goal of 5/8.

[corazon_de_oro]

no thats a very bad way to stretch your ears. stretching with tapers is fine, that's what they are designed for. but you're supposed to put plugs in immediately after. don't skip sizes. the smaller ones are a foundation for stretching and you may not think it but it can form a lot of scar tissue, even if you think you dont see any. itll seriously fuck up your ears.

dont clean your ears with alcohol, it dries out your ears. just clean them with soap and water daily in the shower. if you cannot take out your plugs, soak them with sea salt soaks. dont put too much salt into the mixture or it will dry out and irritate your ears.

id suggest downsizing or even starting over completely. at those small sizes its much easier to stretch with CBRs than with tapers and plugs. but hey, if youre not gonna do that then at least clean your ears properly.

tl;dr: DONT SKIP SIZES. STRETCHING SHOULD NOT HURT MUCH, AND CERTAINLY SHOULDNT BLEED

This is exactly right. Listen to this!

Also, to add something else: people think it's okay to skip smaller sizes because it's only a fraction of a mm from one size to the next, but small sizes are actually worse to skip! When you think about it, if you skip from 20G (0.8mm) to 14G (1.6mm), you're doubling the size of the hole. You wouldn't go from 6G to 0G, would you? And small sizes set the foundation for future stretching; if you go too fast and build up scar tissue when you first start stretching it's gonna be really hard for you in the future.

And yeah, never put alcohol anywhere near your ears. It does absolutely nothing to promote healing, it just kills healthy cells.

[TheGreyEyedMonster]

corazon your avatar is disgusting xD

[ligerzero100]

Unfortunately nobody on here has actually answered my question.
Thanks for all the advice, but you've only reiterated things i've already found out >.<