At A Glance
Author	soze
Contact	soze@fork-bomb.com
IAM	instigator
When	A week ago

This essay is intended to add to the small pile of experiences discussing stretching with Kaos silicone eyelets. There is a dearth of information on this topic, and a whole lot of hearsay. I will attempt to cut through the horseshit as much as possible. When I discuss Kaos eyelets, I am referring only to the new ones; I have no experience with the original design ones which use a different finish on the wearable area.

I detailed my stretching from gunned lobe piercings to a respectable 6g in my Anal Retentive Stretching Diaries, volumes 1 and 2. I then tape-wrapped with bondage tape, one size per month, up to 7mm. I would have stayed at 2g (roughly 6mm), but the Pyrex plugs I had bought from Industrial Strength were more of a 7mm according to my handy Vernier caliper. (Gotta love being an engineer for having useful measurement tools around.)

My lobes had been at 7mm for about two and a half weeks before I decided to experiment. A debate about Kaos eyelets had broken out on an IAM forum called "Acceptable Body Jewelry". Some piercers shared their horror stories (and in one case, horror photos) of clients who had come in and asked them to clean up and salvage their lobes. There followed a few people who came into the forum to support stretching with Kaos. I couldn't stand it any longer and had to find out for myself.

I had had experience with Kaos eyelets previously in my horizontal clitoral hood; I have worn Kaos eyelets successfully in my hood at both 2g and 0g, but I did not use them to stretch it. The silicone feels very tacky when you first receive it but a soak in some dish soap, a good rinse and dry cycle, and working them in your fingers for a bit afterwards makes them just dandy. However, I did notice that they suck up lubrication very easily. Not only must you be very liberal in your initial application of a water-based lubricant during insertion (I used Astroglide), but overall my labia seemed slightly drier.

I dug up some experiences talking about stretching with Kaos as well. In all but one of the successful experiences, the writers used vitamin E oil as their lubricant. I also noted that those who had positive Kaos stretching experiences had all used the new, longer eyelets rather than the original design. I found all of this interesting: why were people

Curious about that, I read everything I could on the Kaos Softwear website. The product FAQ discusses how one of the writers lubricates their lobes daily, and only mentions the non-water-based lubricants jojoba oil and silicone sex lube. Combined with the discussion one paragraph down advising against chemiclaving Kaos silicone due to its absorptive properties, I speculated that the silicone itself was wicking enough moisture out of the lubricant or surrounding flesh to make the natural tackiness of the silicone work against its wearer, adhering to their flesh.

I decided to forge on in the name of science (or, at least, cool jewelry) on a Thursday evening. I packed a Ziploc baggie of a lube packet, a pair of 2g Pyrex no-flare tunnels, and some O-rings and put it in my messenger bag; I was working on a project for my fraternity's Founder's Day to happen on Saturday and knew I would be on the go away from home. If the Kaos eyelets had to come out, they would not have to wait long.

I got set up on my coffee table in front of my couch. My clear 0g Kaos eyelets were fresh off the drying rack, and I had a bottle of pure vitamin E oil with some Q-tips for application next to it. I played with the eyelets, working them in my hands while reading until I felt both they and I were ready.

I began on the right. I took out my 7mm Pyrex plug and set it aside. I took one Q-tip, soaked it thoroughly in vitamin E oil, and ran the Q-tip around in my hole. The oil was much goopier than I expected. Once I was satisfied that my lobe was not going to get any oilier, I reloaded the Q-tip and lubed up the eyelet. I had a couple of false starts trying to get it folded up properly, but I finally got it folded long enough to get the eyelet in. I was used to rocking in taped plugs; these went in surprisingly easily until they unfolded. And then I realized just how ridiculously long the wearable surface was. I had a millimeter of jewelry sticking out on either side before the flare. I folded the jewelry down a little again and did what I could to get it further in. I didn't mind if the plug stuck out a bit in back, my ears lie pretty close to my head.

The jewelry felt pretty tight in my ear, but not uncomfortable. I waited a minute or two to see if I had done any damage, but it just got a touch of the post-stretch itchies and went on about its day. I repeated the process for my left lobe, managing to get the eyelet to unfold a little further back in my pierce, then cleaned up for the night.

Over the next few days I noticed a couple of things. My lobes were a bit more sore when laying on my side in bed; in hindsight I think this was partially just a product of having the jewelry getting twisted a little due to its length. I also noticed that the post-stretch itchies showed up again for the first day afterward; when taping up, they usually subside in perhaps ten minutes. I did not re-apply vitamin E oil or any other lubricant during this time. Instead, I abused my ears a bit over the next two days. Headphones while doing last-minute modifications on the project, wangling the eyelets while putting a pair of 4g horn spirals through them for the formal event, and drunk fraternity brothers squishing my ears afterward ensued. On Sunday, I noticed that my lobes complained slightly while taking out the horn spirals that I had slept in.

Monday afternoon would be the moment of truth. In some of the less successful stretching experiences, writers noted that they had no problems until they went to remove their Kaos eyelets. That was when they noticed that their flesh had adhered to the silicone and all hell broke loose in trying to get them out. I was admittedly nervous.

I tried to fold up the right eyelet to pull it out and it would. Not. Budge. I watched my skin flex right along with the jewelry. I pushed the eyelet from the rear towards the front lightly; it still did not move.

I remembered my research. I figured that if my skin had adhered to the silicone it was due to the lobe and subsequently the jewelry being too dry. I decided to get as much vitamin E oil applied to the silicone and lobe as I could. After letting it soak in for a minute, the Kaos eyelet was willing to move a little. I put a little more oil on and kept working the eyelet until it had lubricated the entire piercing and was moving freely. It took a couple tries to get it folded again while in my ear, but it did not take quite as tight a fold to pull out than it did to put in. I slipped a 0g Pyrex single-flared plug into the hole with no difficulty. The process on my left lobe was the same and a little easier, probably because I knew what I had to do.

Overall, my Kaos stretching went fairly well. I am now comfortably at a 0g, with less trauma than tapering causes me and less time than tape wrapping takes. I am keen on stretching up to 00g with Kaos eyelets, but with much more care taken that my ears are properly lubricated. I am hesitant to consider using Kaos eyelets to stretch any other piercing, though, as the lobe is pretty much the most resilient piercing there is. I would not recommend using Kaos eyelets without proper lubrication; as they say about anal sex, too much lubrication is just enough. I certainly would not go up more than a size at a time with proper waiting periods in between so one's flesh is healed and elastic again. If you listen well to what your body is telling you, though, and you meet the criterion of hale and healthy lobes, go for it. It's a comfortable and easy way to stretch up.