Lobe Stretching For Beginners- Any Advice?

McChubbin

Hello, kind folks of the Tattoo and Piercing forum. I was wondering if y'all could offer some advice. I'm thinking of stretching my lobes- just a little bit to start out. My ears have been pierced before but have since closed up.
I would like to eventually stretch to a small but noticable size such as the one seen below:

Firstly, I have a few questions.
Will it hurt?
How long will it take?
What is the best tools for the job?
I've seen tapers for sale in Argos but I doubt their usefulness. I have a vague idea of what to do but I'm wondering if I can get this done professionally as I'm something of a clutz and don't want to risk doing myself any lasting damage. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Princess Peach

Lots of good tips here

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055256564

Will knew how to stretch!

McChubbin

Thanks, Peach! I'll go check that out!

finality

McChubbin wrote: »

Hello, kind folks of the Tattoo and Piercing forum. I was wondering if y'all could offer some advice. I'm thinking of stretching my lobes- just a little bit to start out. My ears have been pierced before but have since closed up.
I would like to eventually stretch to a small but noticable size such as the one seen below:

Firstly, I have a few questions.

That looks around 6mm I'd imagine.

Will it hurt?

No, it should never hurt. If it hurts it means you haven't waited long enough between stretches. If there's ever pain when you stretch you need to stop, go back to the old size and wait another few weeks. Make sure to use some sort of lubrication when stretching too.

How long will it take?

I'd suggest getting your ears pierced at a larger gauge, it will save you lots of time. Talk to a piercer about it, you should be able to get them pierced around 3 or 4mm at least. After the initial piercing you should wait 6 months to allow them to heal before stretching. After that wait 3 months between each stretch. So it should take around a year to get to 6mm if you get them pierced larger initially.

What is the best tools for the job?

It's usually recommended to start taping or dead stretching after about 6mm, but steel tapers should be fine for smaller sizes. You should buy a taper and 2 plugs at each size. When stretching you push the taper into your ear until it levels out (with no pain, a very slight stinging sensation is ok). Then line up the plug with the taper and use the plug to push the taper out of your ear, so you go directly from taper to plug. Never wear tapers as jewellery. Also, your plugs should only be made of steel, titanium or glass- acrylic and organics shouldn't be worn after a fresh stretch.

I've seen tapers for sale in Argos but I doubt their usefulness.

They could be fine, even acrylic tapers aren't absolutely awful as you only have them in your ears for a few seconds.

I have a vague idea of what to do but I'm wondering if I can get this done professionally as I'm something of a clutz and don't want to risk doing myself any lasting damage. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Never let someone else stretch for you. They won't know if it hurts so they won't know if they need to stop. It's not difficult to stretch and if you wait long enough between stretches you'll be fine.

Star Lord

You've got good advice so far, but I'd like to add a little to this bit:

finality wrote: »

Never let someone else stretch for you. They won't know if it hurts so they won't know if they need to stop. It's not difficult to stretch and if you wait long enough between stretches you'll be fine.

^ Exception to this (pretty obvious, but stating it anyway!) is a professional (and competent!) piercer. Often if you buy the jewellery from them they may taper/stretch you up to it for free or as good as free. Also means you don't have to buy tapers, or worry about taper quality.

CyberJuice

i would recomend dead stretching and using tape on your plugs rather than taping, taping puts more strain on your ears in my opinion,i found it real easy to just insert the next size of jewelery into my ears for the first 2 stretches with some lube of course.. if you play with your plug in ur ear every night for 15 - 20 mins or so for a week or two before your going to go up a size then it should loosen your holes a little and make the stretch easier.

try stay away from plastic and wooden jewelery in freshly stretched ears and dont stretch with plastic jewelery,it might be ok for you but it can give alot of people bad reactions so just to be safe try using metal or glass plugs,

go to bodyartforms.com you will get all the stuff you need there,i find alot of the shops in town to be over priced on their plugs..shipping usually takes a week and their stuff is priced pretty cheaply. they also have forums over there on the site with alot of info

finality

CyberJuice wrote: »

i would recomend dead stretching and using tape on your plugs rather than taping, taping puts more strain on your ears in my opinion,

Using tape on your plugs is taping, I think you mean tapering. I've had no problems using tapers and imo they're completely fine for smaller sizes, but past about 6mm other methods are recommended instead. Taping is very awkward at small sizes.

i found it real easy to just insert the next size of jewelery into my ears for the first 2 stretches with some lube of course.. if you play with your plug in ur ear every night for 15 - 20 mins or so for a week or two before your going to go up a size then it should loosen your holes a little and make the stretch easier.

You shouldn't need to really play with plugs like that, taking them out and doing massages is better. As for dead stretching, that's easier if you use plugs with rounded ends- it would be pretty iffy with tunnels for example. Tapering and taping are better if you want to wear tunnels right away.

go to bodyartforms.com you will get all the stuff you need there,i find alot of the shops in town to be over priced on their plugs..shipping usually takes a week and their stuff is priced pretty cheaply. they also have forums over there on the site with alot of info

Seconding this, if you have any questions during the stretching process BAF's forums are great.

xEurophia

DO NOT DEAD STRETCH. It can easily lead to a blow out! It is only recommended to dead stretch after you've been sitting on a certain size for a while and you think the next size plugs will not be as loose.

Also it is not recommended to use soap/shampoo or Vaseline as lube , oil based ones are best.

CyberJuice

finality wrote: »

Using tape on your plugs is taping, I think you mean tapering


You shouldn't need to really play with plugs like that, taking them out and doing massages is better. As for dead stretching, that's easier if you use plugs with rounded ends- it would be pretty iffy with tunnels for example. Tapering and taping are better if you want to wear tunnels right away.

yes i meant tapering,i am afraid to do that method,i dead stretched to 2.5mm.. then i taped up to where i am now at almost 8mm..

always used the round edged steel plugs from baf at every size,they come with black o rings and look great,they also hold tape very well even at the 2.5mm and 3mm plugs..i think they are about 8 euro a pair ..



op if your using tape just make sure you get the proper tape,any tape with adhesive on it will hurt your ears and might cause infections or some problems

if your wrapping tape onto your plugs to stretch then u must use bondage tape bought from sex stores or use the ptfe plumbers tape,its easily bought from hardware stores for about 1.50 . im using the same roll for at least 6 stretches now and its still got loads left on it.. you will need to get some jahoba oil or emu oil or naked oil or vitamin e oil for stretching and also for massaging your ears,never stretch without plenty of lube

Dr. Jonathan Crane

xEurophia wrote: »

DO NOT DEAD STRETCH. It can easily lead to a blow out! It is only recommended to dead stretch after you've been sitting on a certain size for a while and you think the next size plugs will not be as loose.

Also it is not recommended to use soap/shampoo or Vaseline as lube , oil based ones are best.

I highly recommend dead stretching. I did it from 8 to 16 and have upsized and downsized plenty of times, my ears were always super healthy and I had lots of flesh around them. If done wrong anything can lead to a blowout, but the majority are caused by tapers and stretching too fast.

Dead stretching and PTFE taping is the way to go OP, but start off like Damo said

DamoElDiablo wrote: »

You've got good advice so far, but I'd like to add a little to this bit:



^ Exception to this (pretty obvious, but stating it anyway!) is a professional (and competent!) piercer. Often if you buy the jewellery from them they may taper/stretch you up to it for free or as good as free. Also means you don't have to buy tapers, or worry about taper quality.

I started stretching by going to Celestial Ring and asking them to taper my ear. €10 for a plug and they do the tapering. Great way to start. This was 4 years ago but I'm sure they still do it, I think Snakebite may too.

McChubbin

Okay, bit of an update, folks. I got my mother to open my old piercings in both ears but we had a lot of trouble with my left lobe. Ever since I can remember, it's been awkward to pierce and no matter how hard we try, the needle won't go through far enough to reopen the hole.
I'll try again tomorrow but for now, I'll stretch one lobe at a time. I've got smallest taper of these in my right earlobe. (the stretcher on the right)

I'm not sure if I'm doing this right. I've provided a picture of the taper in my right ear to give you all an idea of how it currently looks.
Sorry for dragging the thread up but better post here than create a new thread. (Sorry the picture is so huge- I don't have PS on my comp so I couldn't crop it down.)

Atavan-Halen

You shouldn't be wearing the taper as jewellery as it's not suitable at all. What size is it and what material is it?

Also, Please don't say you're using sewing needles or a safety pin or something to reopen your piercings! Please go to a professional and get them redone! They can also pierce at a bigger size if you want to start off at a bigger size stretching your lobes.

McChubbin

atavan-halen wrote: »

You shouldn't be wearing the taper as jewellery as it's not suitable at all. What size is it and what material is it?

Also, Please don't say you're using sewing needles or a safety pin or something to reopen your piercings! Please go to a professional and get them redone! They can also pierce at a bigger size if you want to start off at a bigger size stretching your lobes.

According to the Argos site (where I bought the taper), the stretcher size is 2.5mm and the tunnel is 4mm. I don't intend to wear the taper for more than a few hours. As for reopening piercings, my mother sterilized one of her own stud earrings by holding it over an open flame (ciggy lighter) and used it to reopen the piercing.

In regards to getting the piercings redone professionally, I think this will be the case as my other ear has always been a nightmare to reopen whenever it closes up. My mother is usually the one to reopen them and is convinced it's just a build up of sebum and general oils/skin cells that's causing the reopening difficulties but judging by how hard it was to get the stud through, my guess is that I've developed some scar tissue.

I'm considering asking my local piercer about the possibility of using a dermal punch to open it up but I've heard this is only for the very large gauge sizes.
Still, I'll be heading down to the piercing place after Motivation so I'll see what they can do for me.

hdowney

atavan-halen wrote: »

You shouldn't be wearing the taper as jewellery as it's not suitable at all. What size is it and what material is it?

Also, Please don't say you're using sewing needles or a safety pin or something to reopen your piercings! Please go to a professional and get them redone! They can also pierce at a bigger size if you want to start off at a bigger size stretching your lobes.

Atavan my man, reccomendation for piercer who can start the stretchin process for me (I'd rather get a professional to get me going on it, for varying reasons). I have my ears pierced (gun!) since I was four. I did have a second piercing above the first but they closed. I'd also like to go to a professional as I think my piercings are quite low in the lobe and I'd like to be sure stretching is an option

finality

McChubbin wrote: »

According to the Argos site (where I bought the taper), the stretcher size is 2.5mm and the tunnel is 4mm. I don't intend to wear the taper for more than a few hours. As for reopening piercings, my mother sterilized one of her own stud earrings by holding it over an open flame (ciggy lighter) and used it to reopen the piercing.

In regards to getting the piercings redone professionally, I think this will be the case as my other ear has always been a nightmare to reopen whenever it closes up. My mother is usually the one to reopen them and is convinced it's just a build up of sebum and general oils/skin cells that's causing the reopening difficulties but judging by how hard it was to get the stud through, my guess is that I've developed some scar tissue.

I'm considering asking my local piercer about the possibility of using a dermal punch to open it up but I've heard this is only for the very large gauge sizes.
Still, I'll be heading down to the piercing place after Motivation so I'll see what they can do for me.

1- 2.5mm is too big for first stretch.
2- the jewellery you put in after stretching has to be the same size as the taper!
3- the stud your mother is using to pierce your ear is not sterile and you are seriously risking an infection
4- "whenever it closes"?? If you want to keep a piercing you need to wear jewellery in it almost constantly, why are you letting it close up?
5- you shouldn't wear the taper for any amount of time, use the jewellery to push it out of your ear when stretching. I'm presuming you didn't do that because it hurts, stretching should never hurt.
6- dermal punches should never be used on lobe tissue, they're only for cartilage. When you punch a lobe you're losing tissue that you need for stretching, which is likely to cause problems with thinning further down the line. It's possible to get pierced at around 4mm with a needle, which does not remove tissue.
7- I'd suggest you wait and research stretching more thoroughly before you really damage your ears.

Atavan-Halen

McChubbin wrote: »

According to the Argos site (where I bought the taper), the stretcher size is 2.5mm and the tunnel is 4mm. I don't intend to wear the taper for more than a few hours. As for reopening piercings, my mother sterilized one of her own stud earrings by holding it over an open flame (ciggy lighter) and used it to reopen the piercing.

In regards to getting the piercings redone professionally, I think this will be the case as my other ear has always been a nightmare to reopen whenever it closes up. My mother is usually the one to reopen them and is convinced it's just a build up of sebum and general oils/skin cells that's causing the reopening difficulties but judging by how hard it was to get the stud through, my guess is that I've developed some scar tissue.

I'm considering asking my local piercer about the possibility of using a dermal punch to open it up but I've heard this is only for the very large gauge sizes.
Still, I'll be heading down to the piercing place after Motivation so I'll see what they can do for me.

If the taper is 2.5mm and the tunnel is 4mm, then it's not going to fit! Also, I wouldn't trust argos jewellry. Get yourself something like this http://www.bodyartforms.com/productdetails.asp?jewelry=tapers&ProductID=9326&index=12 And only use a taper as a tool for stretching, as in once you've inserted the taper line up the plug/tunnel behind it and push it through so that it should be one movement from taper to plug.

Definitely go to a pro for re-piercing! Stud earrings are blunt and will just cause un-necessary trauma to your ear. Also holding it over a lighter is not sterilising. If anything it's making it dirtier, piercing equipment and jewellery needs to be autoclaved.

You don't have to get a dermal punch as they can just use a larger needle like 2.5 or 3mm.

hdowney wrote: »

Atavan my man, reccomendation for piercer who can start the stretchin process for me (I'd rather get a professional to get me going on it, for varying reasons). I have my ears pierced (gun!) since I was four. I did have a second piercing above the first but they closed. I'd also like to go to a professional as I think my piercings are quite low in the lobe and I'd like to be sure stretching is an option

I went to Wildcat in stephens green the first time I got my ear stretched as I wasn't 100% with doing it myself and I'd recommend them but any of the reputable piercers should sort you out!

The Big Red Button

McChubbin wrote: »

As for reopening piercings, my mother sterilized one of her own stud earrings by holding it over an open flame (ciggy lighter) and used it to reopen the piercing.

Oh god, that sounds absolutely horrific! :eek: You can't use an earring to pierce your ears/reopen a piercing - they're just not sharp enough!

And a cigarette lighter is not going to sterilise it - you're risking serious infection here!

Seriously, it costs feck all to get your ears pierced professionally - well worth it, if it means you avoid an expensive trip to A&E with a bad infection!

McChubbin

I'm going to ring up Stigmata-Tau (my local tat/piercing place) and see if I can have my ears repierced at a higher gauge. I did have a funny feeling about the Argos jewelary but I thought I'd give it a go. Will update tomorrow if I can get an appointment.
I'm after taking the taper out. One good thing about this is that I can easily reinsert the taper on my own- in the past, I've always had difficulties putting in my own earrings so hopefully the nice folks at the piercing palour will sort me out.

In the meantime, I'm going to wash my ears with soap to minamize any infection. Granted, my mother's always used her jewelary to reopen my ears and I've never gotten infected. Still, not very nice now that I think about it.

In regards to questions as to why I have to get my ears reopened constantly, I tend to go through phases of wearing ear jewelary for about 6 months, then I take them out and forget to use studs to keep the piercing open so they close up on me.

One of the main reasons I want to stretch my lobes is because I can wear ear jewelary but it looks different to the mainstream and frankly, it's more badass. I was never a huge fan of the silver hoops my family seem determined to foist on me but I like the idea of tunnels as they distract from the norm.

How much would it cost to get repierced/stretched in Snakebite? I've heard good things about them.

Princess Peach

I had my god-mother reopen piercings for me a few times with another earring Mothers love to tell you these things are grand :pac:

McChubbin

Princess Peach wrote: »

I had my god-mother reopen piercings for me a few times with another earring Mothers love to tell you these things are grand :pac:

I know. :rolleyes: This is coming from a woman who got a nose piercing in Accesorize in Northside Shopping Centre (BEFORE they did it up) with one of those god-aweful piercing 'guns'. *shakes head*

Princess Peach

I questioned if it was ok and they all said sure, they have been doing it for 20 years, leave holes without an earring for a few years and then ram an earring through one day! It was not a pleasant experience for me :pac:

McChubbin

Okay, so I went down to Stigmata-Tau for advice on what do. Kathy was away on maternity leave so I was speaking with the stand in piercer Nate.
Very nice chap. He took a look at both ears, cleaned them out and explained that while there's no last damage to my ears, the holes have closed up overnight and the best option would be to give them 2 weeks to completely heal up before coming back to the studio to have them professionally pierced at a gauge of around 1.29mm depending on how well they've healed up.

He also suggested as an alternitve option to let them heal up and then get the holes punched which would automatically bring the size up to the 4mm I want to start out with but he didn't recommend it as it tended not to heal as neatly as the first option.
Very on the ball, that guy.

I'm going to let the holes heal up and then I'll book in to get it done professionally. Thanks for all the advice, guys. I kind of figured I'd need to get this done professionally...

Star Lord

McChubbin wrote: »

...the holes have closed up overnight...

Had you not even put any jewellery in them last night after trying to re-open them???

McChubbin

DamoElDiablo wrote: »

Had you not even put any jewellery in them last night after trying to re-open them???

No, I was afraid to in case I did more harm than good.