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gauging - 2g to 0g; tips?
16/f
i've had gauges for about 2 years.
i'm aware of the risks purely from experience and research. i know what i'm doing.
however, i know this is the last gauge i'm doing and i know its size difference.
some tricks i've used in the past were icing the gauge.. but that's about it
i'm also pretty wary of the risk for infection. it's happened before at a 6g, and i'd like to avoid it.
point being, i'd like to know the best things to use to make this less painful and safer.
i heard to take a shower first or soke the piercing, which sounds brilliant.. except i've always iced it down for the pain. so which do i use?
also, what kind of lubricant should i use? i'm not going to go out and buy something, so suggest something more likely to own. ie. lotion, liquid handsoap
and yes, this is a taper and the 2g's have been i my ears for 6 months, they're frakkin healed.
any advice is really appreciated :)
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This is a terrible idea:
"i'm not going to go out and buy something, so suggest something more likely to own. ie. lotion, liquid handsoap"
...handsoap, lotion, and other perfumed products can lead to the infection. Antibacterial soaps can cause a pretty bad infection from inhibiting the growth of the healthy cells and good, healing bacteria. It takes easily twice as long for a piercing to heal after using something antibacterial.
If you are going to use something, use something like lanolin, unpetroleum jelly (NOT Vaseline), vitamin e oil, emu oil, or jojoba oil. Many people say massaging the lobe with vitamin E before the stretching dramatically helps to loosen up the tissue and make things slide in smoother. If you can't find anything that you're willing to dish out a little money on, water-based lubricant used for sexual purposes should be safe enough for your last gauging.
Using lotion or soap is just asking to lose your lobe, develop cat-butt, or have a pocket of puss. It's like begging for an infection.
Stretch your lobes after a nice, warm shower. The skin will be slightly more elastic and will stretch easier. Icing them may help reduce pain, but it will only cause more trauma to the area. You should never have so much pain that you absolutely need a pain reliever any way. If there is such a great amount of pain then it means STOP, and that you are going to need to work up to the last stretch a little at a time. Stretching should never be so painful that you cannot deal with it. You should never bleed either. Take you time. Sometimes stretching to the next size isn't as easy as people make it sound. Don't be afraid to make this a few days process.
Nix the ice idea.
Try after you've had a nice long shower in warm water.
Use something sanitary for lubricant that isn't going to kill health cells or leave you with a nasty infection.
Stop if it hurts too much and work your way up to the full gauge.
After gauging, soak your ear in a sea salt or saline solution twice a day for the next two to four weeks. Do not use antibacterial anything. Do not use alcohol, peroxide, or soaps.
It may also be helpful to leave the taper in for another 24 to 48 hours, avoid using flared plugs for the next two weeks, and use organic plugs to allow the tissue to properly breathe.
Be patient. Some people have built up scar tissue that makes the lobes harder to stretch out. You have to be patient or you can have a blowout, leading to infection.
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