Earstretching.net

Hey guys! Love the site so far! Got a question or two.

I've been at a 4g for about 4-5 months now. Love it! However, occasionally when I take my plugs out to clean them, my ears will bleed. It's usually only my right ear, my left one seems to be fine. (It will bleed, but rarely.) I soak it for a few minutes, clean it up, and it's good to go. It'll do this on average once a week. No idea why. They do not hurt at all. I waited about a month and a half between each stretch, and each time I did stretch, the taper went through very easily. My girlfriend was jealous because I could literally just lightly press the taper and it would slide through. No pinch, no sting, nothing. I can only assume this means that the ear is not fully healed. I do not know what else to do and it's causing me to get discouraged.

My goal is 0g, but until I see no blood, I do not want to stretch again. I've tried searching, but almost every single thread or post I find is about someone skipping sizes or stretching once a week, etc. None applies to my situation.

Any help is appreciated, and thank you guys in advance!

how long did you wait to stretch after the initial piercing ?

Thank you for your time Jayne!

Roughly two months. I had seen various places list 6-8 weeks as the average heal time, while some had up to 6 months. When I had my labret and eyebrow (2) pierced, it only took a few weeks for them to heal. (Or at least felt/looked healthy) I figured that 2 months would be ample time before my first stretch.

Did that have anything to do with it? If I recall correctly, they were pierced at a 14g initially. I'd love to get rid of this problem, but if nothing can be done, I will end up removing them to prevent further damage.

Any advice, tips, etc is greatly appreciated. Again, thank you for your time.

best explanation on what you need to wait I have come across - pauly unstoppable
The general reasoning behind why you should wait a minimum of a month or so to stretch all boils down to collagen and skin elasticity. Sort of long story short when you stretch your ears you are stretching out the spaces between the collagen molecules of your ear skin, your body needs time to fill back in those gaps with more collagen, when you rush and stretch before your ear has had a chance to replace those molecules you then make the gaps bigger, in turn making the areas weaker and thinner, this is what causes thin spots and weak spots, that’s why it’s imperative you do not stretch faster than your ears want you to go, and you don’t skip sizes. In the same respect when you skip sizes you are stretching those spaces out so far it takes the body wayyy longer to fill them in and sometimes just can’t at all, which is again where you get thin spots.

long story short just cause your ears were healed to the touch doesnt mean they had recovered enough to stretch , porbably should downsize a size or 2 and wait a good 5 or 6 months to re start