This is my story of how I stretched my lobes to 1/2". There are methods I used in this story that I would recommend, and some I would not recommend. But anyway, I'll get started.
At A Glance Author Brett Contact Brett@bme.anon When N/A Artist Piercing: My friend Web; Stretching: Myself Studio Piercing: Spencer Gifts; Stretching: My house Location Nashville area, TN My stretching journey began on the day that I got my earlobes pierced. The date was the 23rd of September. My friend, who worked at Spencer's at the time, had the piercing gun they used for ear piercings laying around while we were hanging around in the store. I had already had him gun my helix (which I would not recommend), at school the previous Thursday (which I would also not recommend, I have since retired the helix piercing). So anyway, he gave me antibacterial wipes for my ears and gunned them. Even though he didn't mark them, they were surprisingly very straight and even.
I told him that I was interested in stretching them a bit. So he offered to give me some of the jewelry they had there. I got an 18g 3/8" cbr (which I would soon put into my helix piercing), an 18g 1/2" cbr, a 16g 1/2" cbr, and pairs of 14g, 12g, and 10g 1/2" circulars. I had not intended to go huge back then, as I acquired that desire later on. Even though I liked his 0g flesh tunnels, I wasn't planning on ever going that big.
About 9 days later, I felt the itch to start stretching, and since I still only had one 18g or 16g cbr, I decided to go straight to 14g. I got the first in my left ear without any problems and screwed on the ball. I got the second one in my right ear with slight discomfort, but couldn't get the ball on. My mother then helped me get it on. I kept these in for about two weeks, and then got pretty anxious to go to 12g. These particular circulars had 14g threads so they were both easy to slide in as well. I kept them in for another two weeks, regularly cleaning them as I had started stretching before they had fully healed (again, don't do this). My right ear began to form a small bump, which I believe was a cyst, next to the piercing. I did my best in cleaning it but it didn't go away completely for another two or three weeks.
On November 2nd, I stretched them to 10g. That was a bad idea, as the cyst was still there. As a result I woke up a few mornings later with crusty pus all over my pillow, neck, and right ear. I did a short salt water soak before I went to school and didn't have too much trouble with it after that, except occasional times where pus would seep out of the back of my ear. After having them at 10g for about a week, I began to seriously look at all the pictures on BME of stretched lobes and immediately decided to go bigger.
I went to Hot Topic about a week later and bout a pair of 8g blue acrylic uv plugs (for 14 bloody dollars, too), and took them home and stuck them straight in my lobes. The bump on my right ear disappeared but I was careful not to let it return, and it hasn't since. I then asked my dad if he would order some more plugs from unimaxsupply.com, which he did, considering I would pay him back. The plugs came a few days later. I had gotten pairs of 6g, 4g, 2g, and 0g acrylic black uv plugs, as well as a pair of 00g single flared tunnels. So after a week had gone by with the 8g's in, I decided I could go to 6g. This stretch was as easy as most all of the ones before had been. I had no complications afterward and felt the itch to go to 4g the very next week (this I also wouldn't recommend). So I tried putting them in and they wouldn't go in of course. Not wanting to give up, I cut off a pair of golf tees at about 4g and slipped them right in my ears. I left them in for about 2 days when I switched them out for my 4g plugs. At this point I decided I would need tapers to continue my stretching, so again I approached my dad and he agreed, with the same circumstances as before, to buy me 2g, 0g, 00g, and 1/2" tapers and a pair of 1/2" clear acrylic tubes from bodyartforms.com. These came in about five days. After having my 4g plugs in for about 3 weeks (the longest I've kept a size in, besides my 00g tunnels), I started my stretch to 2g. The taper made everything so much easier and with that, I had my 2g plugs in.
About two weeks later I found myself wanting to stretch more. But going to 0g was no easy task. I took out my 0g taper, and lubed it a bit with dial liquid soap (which helped a lot). After I cleaned and soaked my ear, I stuck the taper in. However, I was unpleasantly surprised that it would not go all the way in. so I left it in about three-quarters of the way and waited about four hours to finish it up. I don't know if I would recommend this but I will say that it hurt. A LOT! But then I followed the taper with my 0g plug and repeated the process with my right ear, finishing that one the next morning.
My right ear began to form a cyst about a week after I had my 0g's in. But I still planned on going to 00g in a week. I figured this cyst would go away once I put some stainless steel in my lobes, as it did before when I went to 10g. It was Thursday morning after I had gotten out of school early because of snow when I decided to stretch to 00g. I did this one in the bathtub. The process was a lot easier on my lobes than the previous stretch had been. I finished with minimal pain and looked in the mirror at my new stainless steel eyelets. Now it was time to rest them until the day I thought would be my birthday.
After 4 weeks with my 00g tunnels, I started craving my 1/2" clear acrylic tubes more and more. So I decided to begin stretching them. I used basically the same method I had used to get to 0g. I left the taper in my left ear overnight this time, then put it all the way through in the morning. I worked on the right ear during the day but didn't manage to finish it until around 4 in the morning.
Overall, I am very pleased with the results. The right ear has become a little uneven with the left ear, but I intend to get that fixed when I get my ears scalpelled to 5/8". I don't have a date or anything set for that, though.