Stretching with kaos software is a bad idea in my opinion, I learnt this the hard way a while back, when they where pretty new and hardly any one had them. I was at 22mm and was looking for way to stretch my ear more because it was hard to find tapers that are higher than 18mm, and I don't like the look of the heavy bcr's that you can use to weigh you ear down. I've heard of how you can make tapers for modelling plastics and heavy metal tunnels didn't seem to stretch my ear very well because I have quite thick lobes. I was told when I got the tunnel that they where 100% safe and easy to stretch with... you fold it up and put it in your ear and it will unfold and stretch up. This seemed like the best thing for me at the time.
At A Glance Author Brandon.L.I. Contact Brandon.L.I.@bme.anon When N/A At first it wasn't a problem, then it became sore and began to puss after about two days, it wasn't the most pleasant of experiences I woke up one morning with a load of dried puss on my neck and cheek. My ear was in perfect condition before I put the plug in, and it was only a 2mm stretch, so I thought it must of been a reaction to the silicon the tunnel was made of, I tried to remove it and found that my skin had bonded with the plug. I was left with no tunnel at all and a bloody mess from where I had to tear the plug off my ear. I had to wait a long time before I could begin stretching my ear again because of the mess it was in, I had to start from scratch. With nothing in my ear except a lot of blood and puss it was hard to sleep for a few days because it was still sore and I kept rolling onto it. One night I woke up with my pillowcase stuck to my ear because the wound re-opened and bled onto it. The healing took about seven months for it to be ready to be re-pierced.
I consulted a few of my friends who are piercers and a my uncle who's a doctor and it turns out that when your skin becomes irritated, for example stretching, it begins to heal even if the skin isn't broken, and because of the organic texture that the silicon plug has, my ear healed to it. This doesn't always happen but in my case it did, and in piercing I would say its best to be safe than sorry.
I realised that it wasn't a reaction to the silicon because I can wear kaos if my ear is fully healed. They are good because they are comfy and light which is good Because my ear is at 30mm, tunnels that are heavy tend to stretch my ear which I don't want because I think 30 is the perfect size for me.
When I began stretching again I realised that the same applied to O-rings but on a smaller scale to the kaos plugs because the O-rings are only touching the side. When I had just stretched and put in a plug that had O-rings on them a small scab would form round the edge of my stretcher where the O-ring were.
Since the problem with the kaos plug I have taken stretching a lot more seriously and developed a few rules for myself when doing so. I don't stretch more than 2mm in a month, when I stretch I don't use plugs that have an organic texture or 0-rings. I don't like to use tapers because they can produce a build up of flesh at the back of the lobe that can blow out and leave the stretch misshapen, then u have to down size or buy a plug that pushes the skin in at the back tightly in so it heals.
There a lot of ways to stretch your lobes but the best way that I find to stretch my lobes to stretch is with electricians tape. The tape is about a 1/4mm thick, so every one or two weeks wrap one layer of tape around the plug and keep doing so till the plug u want can fit easily. When I reached large gauge jewellery of about 24-26 stretching became a lot easier because the weight of the plug stretched it on its own. Some people disagree with this method bit it's the one that is safest, cheapest and easiest for me.
Now I'm at the gauge I've wanted for a long time (2 x 30mm) and have a collection of plugs that fills my desk, and with out a doubt my kaos ones my favourite, but I wouldn't use them if my ear isn't fully healed or becomes irritated.