I started with a gunned piercing in each lobe when I decided to begin stretching. I did lots of research on the internet before I started my journey with stretching any piercings.I knew once I decided to start stretching I wanted to do all the stretching myself. I take a more personal appreciation that I am modding my body exactly the way I want to and doing it myself. I do however realize I could never do the actual piercing myself, so I resign my personal modification to stretching.
At A Glance Author b3av3r Contact b3av3r@bme.anon When A month ago I have stuck to my original plan for all of my lobe stretching. It has been recommended to me by several experienced stretchers and I have sort of tailored it to fit my healing times. I seem to have a pretty good healing time (seems to be on the quicker end of the scale) so I cut down a little bit of time but not enough to cause problems (that I can tell). I begin by doing vitamin e rubs for about two weeks prior to the actual stretching. This is my biggest jump so far, seeing how I only went from gunned to 14g (I know a big jump and dumb on my part) to 12g to 10g and now on to 8g.
I have been stretching constantly since I started having downtime only when the stretches were healing. As soon as I felt everything was healed and ready to stretch I went to the next size. It has been roughly 6 weeks since I did my stretch to 10g give or take a couple days. I begin my vitamin e rubs and do those for two solid weeks. This pushes my healing time to about two months between stretches. I plan on waiting a little longer now since the size differences will be larger. Finally after two slow weeks of rubbing down my ears I was ready to make the stretch to 8g. I was very excited since this was a nice sized jump and getting another step close to my goal (2g).
I had a concave IS stainless steel taper. The concave end makes butting the jewelry up much easier. Of course being bigger makes holding everything much easier as well. I began by cleaning off my lobes with a mixture of Satin liquid soap and warm water. I scrubbed both of them and my hands down really well then rinsed everything off. Now I was all nice and clean and ready for the stretch. I know a lot of people like to do stretches after a shower cause it makes the skin stretch easier but I have yet to do that procedure. I might start this now that I am going to larger gauges but we will see.
So I have clean lobes and hands and ready to stretch. I take a little bit of my Satin soap and lube up the entire length of the taper. This always makes things difficult to hang on to. I have to make this part any easier, just hang on and try not to drop the taper.
I push the taper in my lobe and everything slides in perfectly smooth and easy. Right at the end (I suppose when it reaches the larger size) I feel a slight tingle or pressure. As if someone is pushing from the inside of my lobe outward. Not painful at all and almost not noticable. I push the taper flush with the front of my lobe and hang on to it out the back of my ear. Again since everything is lubed up and slippery this can be slightly difficult. After a few stretches I am getting pretty good with it.
I pick up my new circular barbells and butt the end up into the taper. Again the concave shape on the end of the taper kind of holds the jewelry so it doesn't slide around everywhere. At this point I basically just hang on to the taper coming out the back of my ear and push it through my lobe with the jewelry.
Next thing I know my new jewelry is firmly in my newly stretched hole and I am ready to move to the other lobe. I always rinse the soap off very well and then do a warm sea salt soak immediately after doing my stretches. My aftercare is the same as with new piercings of course. I do warm sea salt soaks two to three times a day, and keep it clean with my Satin soap. I keep up this routine for about 2-3 weeks. I can't go by feel for my lobes have never been sore or painful at all after a stretch. I also get so little lymph I can't see it or notice it at all.
Well that is my story of my last stretch, hopefully will have a new one when I go up to 6g in another month or so.