I can't explain why I decided to stretch my lobes. It wasn't necessarily that I saw someone and thought they were "so fucking cool and/or hot." It wasn't that an authority figure had specifically banned stretched lobes, and I was rebelling.
At A Glance Author Sarah Contact Sarah@bme.anon IAM arpeggiated When N/A It just seemed like a natural step.
At my interview at Sears, I was hired. My manager said I couldn't have my nostril screw in while working. I bought a few retainers, but I kept losing them, and my piercing went through a lot of unnecessary stress. So I decided, in the interests of continuing to have a cute nose, to remove it. 'Well, what now?' I asked myself. In the month I had had my nostril pierced, I had grown used to it. I felt naked now. And I still don't know what told me to start stretching, but I began.
I bought a set of 14ga plugs from Hot Topic. I had had my ears pierced when I was 6 years old by a gun at an Afterthoughts store. In time, my ears had loosened up enough that inserting the 14ga didn't hurt.
Sooner than I expected, the plugs were falling out. So I toddled back to the store and bought a set of 12ga plugs. At this time, my "goal" was 10ga in my first set of piercings. Then I would have 12ga in my second set, and a 14ga in my lone third piercing on my right ear.
These 12ga plugs just slipped right in, and I bought a set of 10ga in anticipation for my next stretch. I don't remember how long I waited, but soon enough, my 12ga plugs were loose, and again, the 10ga just slipped right in.
When I bought my set of 8ga, it was too soon. While I was inserting it into my left ear, I had a slight tear. I didn't downsize at the time, but the next day, when I was at work, I lost it, and ended up putting a 10ga in. When I got home, it stretched up easily back to an 8ga.
Obviously, I'd passed my first goal of 10ga. My new goal was 4ga, so I could buy a pair of the Kaos eyelets BME/shop was selling. Since I was at an 8ga, I bought my next pairs of jewelry from BME/shop. I bought a pair of 6ga pink acrylic plugs, and a pair of 4ga clear Kaos, in the longer style.
The 6ga plugs would not slip in easily, and I had never been impressed by tapers. I got a roll of Teflon tape, and began slowly taping my 8ga plugs. Within a week, I was able to slip in the 6ga plugs, and I left them in for at least a month.
But try as I might, I could not get the Kaos eyelets in. The flare, even though it was flexible, was still too much for my lobe. I ended up smoothly cutting off one of the flares from each plug, to slip it in as a single-flared plug. With lots of tape, lots of lube, and lots of patience, I was able to wear my first pair of tunnels.
It's really exciting the first time you can see light through your lobes. Slowly, it stops being so exciting, but it still makes me giggle each time I see light shining through my ears.
So I had met my goal, again. I was thrilled with my 4ga ears... except that I lost that feeling of control and bliss I got when I was actively stretching my ears. So I bought a 2ga taper.
I decided instead of buying jewelry that would tempt me into stretching, I would slowly stretch with the taper, and buy the jewelry after I had the piercing stretch itself out.
By being patient, my stretch from 4ga to 2ga was quite easy, even though this is a rather large stretch. I did the same for 0ga, but it wasn't quite so easy. When I had finally gotten the 0ga tunnels in, I went to work. I noticed my ears were really warm, and people said they looked swollen, but I thought it was just from the stretch.
When I got home, I went to clean them and found blood. I began an immediate downsize, going down to 4ga, as the only jewelry I had in 2ga was acrylic. I began salt soaking and babying my ears. And I gave up on the KY lube and began using vitamin E oil. I found the KY to be sticky and I just didn't enjoy the feeling of it on my ear lobes.
After the tear from hell, I re-stretched my ear to 2ga, and eventually back to 0ga with no more problems. I bought quite a few different pairs in this size, and stayed here for quite a while. I bought my first pair of organic jewelry, as well as my first real pair of double-flares. I made it a point to massage my lobes regularly to break up the scar tissue that had resulted, and sleep without jewelry in some nights.
However, I still wasn't feeling finished. I bought a pair of non-flared cat's eye plugs in 00ga, and began taping again while they were on the way. When they arrived, I had no problem sliding them in, and began to tape them as well. However, they didn't take to tape very well and would become very sticky to my lobe, and I gave up on that idea and went to buy a 7/16" taper.
I didn't use the taper much, and waited until my lobes were just happy and relaxed enough to accept a 7/16" plug. I had bought a pair of very smooth dogwood plugs, and ended up buying a pair of coconut wood double-flared plugs in this size. I stayed here for quite a while. Occasionally, I taped them a little larger, or would downsize back to 00ga, depending on my mood.
And next, I bought a pair of 1/2" single-flared Pyrex tunnels. Pyrex is a great material to stretch with because it is so smooth. These tunnels slid right through my ear with no fuss. Within a week, I slipped in a pair of double-flared plugs in Pyrex. Although Pyrex is much lighter than metal, the weight from a 1/2" thick piece of glass is still rather substantial, especially to someone used to acrylics and woods.
I kept this pair of double-flared glass in for quite sometime, buying a few other pairs, but unable to ease their larger flares in. I bought a pair of double-flared horn plugs from Onetribe. Within less than a day of putting them in, I developed a huge blowout on my left ear.
When I returned home from class that night, I immediately took out the plug and started a salt soak. I downsized both ears to 0ga, where I had a pair of silicone plugs. My eyelet on my right ear was nearly falling out, and the one on the left was held in very tight by the swelling. I slept without plugs that night, and did a salt soak in the morning to loosen up all the crusty lymph that had formed over night. I added about a drop of tea tree oil to each 1 cup saline solution, and the piercing stopped lymphing completely in around 5 days of twice-daily salt soaks.
Very, very slowly, I began to restretch. I left a pair of 0ga in for a week, and began to increase the size, listening very carefully to my body. After it healed, my ears began to stretch again very easily, and I was back to 1/2" within two weeks.
I do plan to stay at this size for at least two years. I have invested quite a bit of money in many different pairs of plugs, and I have invested quite a bit of time in babying my ears. I love my ears, and I especially love organics, which almost completely absorb any odor from the increased surface area.
The most important thing to remember when stretching is to take it slowly, and listen to your body. Stretching isn't a race to see who can make it to the biggest size the fastest. Although I still don't know why I started stretching in the first place, I know now that this is what makes me whole and complete. I couldn't imagine myself with "normal" sized ears.
This is my new normal.