I'm jealous of my best friend's earlobes. I have actually asked her if we could trade, and been semi-serious. Sound strange? Allow me to explain. She has big, squishy earlobes, fabulous for stretching. I, however, don't. I have tiny ears and very little lobe. This makes stretching slightly more of an undertaking for me.
At A Glance Author allie Contact allie@bme.anon When A year ago But back to the beginning: I had my lobes pierced with a gun (I didn't know better then, and neither did my parents) when I was five. Being raised in Southern suburbia with conservative parents, I spent the majority of my life sheltered from all that is subcultural. As such, I didn't even know that gauging existed outside of aboriginal tradition until I went to college. And there, through God's grace, I met my best friend, Krista (IAM: lattejunkie09), who helped me bring out all the counter-cultural inclinations that I had quelled my entire life. She kept talking about how she had gauged her ears to an 8 before and wanted to stretch them again, and encouraged me to look into it myself (we have a history of doing absolutely EVERYTHING together). The more I looked at pictures (she also introduced me to BME) and talked to her, the more I liked it for myself. As an added bonus, modifying an existing piercing would be more likely for my parents to allow than putting a new hole in my head. So, around February, I made a phone call, and after about half an hour of heated discussion, Krista and I were on our way to Hot Topic.
The one break that I caught through this whole endeavor was that, after 14 years of wearing earrings, some of which were pretty heavy, I was already at a 12. Krista already had a pair of 12 gauge CBRs that fit perfectly, so I bought a pair of 10g acrylic tapers. These dang things took me a solid week to get all the way in, all of which was spent in at least slight pain. My. ears. do. not. stretch. But, I'm not so easily dissuaded, especially with grand plans of eventually having 1/2" earlobes floating in my head. I stayed at a 10 for about two months, and bought a pair of pretty dangly metal gauges that I wore most of that time.
The stretch to an 8 was relatively easy; they went in with a little lube and a slight pinching sensation, and felt fine by the end of the next day. I stayed at an 8 for three months.
And it all went downhill from there.
Around that time, I developed a lump on the back of my left earlobe. At first I thought it was just a blackhead, and left it alone for a while. Well, it eventually transformed into two smaller lumps, and then one big one. To this day, I still don't know exactly what it is. For a while, it was sore and felt fluid-filled. However, when my mother tried to lance it (with a sterile needle - she is a dental hygienist, so she's a stickler too), nothing came out. It got a little smaller a couple days later, so I just left it be. It is still kind of amorphous, but has not given me much trouble, so I'm leaving it alone for the time being.
The reason I stayed at an 8 for three months was that I tried twice, unsuccessfully, to stretch up to a 6, and had to wait for my ears to heal again each time before I could try again. I had a pair of very small glass crescents, which may have had something to do with my trouble getting them through. I finally enlisted my little brother to put them through for me. That attempt was the exact opposite of the preceding two. It took about half an hour, because the crescent kept popping all the way through. This happened about three or four times with each ear, and after each time, we had to take the gauge out, wash the lube off of it and my ear, put antibacterial gel on the gauge and my ear, then lube the gauge and my ear, and try it all over again. We finally got it through properly, put the O-rings on, and called it a day. Unfortunately, my ears picked this stretch to swell, and they were still pinching badly two days later. I don't usually change gauges before my ears are healed, but in this case, it was necessary; the space between the tips of the crescents was too small and left no room for my ears to swell. So I put in a pair of (unfortunately) externally threaded spool plugs that had been given to me. Let me tell you, that HURT. I will never, ever again buy ANYTHING externally threaded, even for a healed piercing. It is not fun to get in and out. Once the initial pain of having effectively subjected my freshly-stretched ears to a cheese grater had subsided, though, they were fine for the remainder of the time.
The stretch up to a 4 has definitely been the most taxing. As with the 6, I tried myself a couple of times, to no avail, before asking my brother to help again. Well, I thought the repeated popping through was annoying; my ear nearly blew out going one size up! Alex, my brother, got the first 6g crescent about halfway in before it stopped making any headway. I told him to push a little harder, felt a sudden searing pain, and winced. Alex, insightful as he is, decided that perhaps we should wait until another day. I talked to a friend of mine, who used to be a piercer, a few days later, and he suggested electrical tape as a more gradual alternative. So I got some tape, and added a layer every so often. Even that very gradual method of stretching gave me some trouble. Each new layer of tape hurt for at least a day, and I continued giving my ears at least a week to heal after adding each new layer of tape. I finally got my 4s in last night, and going from just a shade under a 4 to an actual 4 has been the single most painful experience I have had since I started stretching. I'm pretty sure that this is the biggest that I will reasonably be able to go. My ears seem to be saying "no," so I'm not going to tempt fate and try to stretch them further, at least not for a LONG time.
Throughout this whole ordeal, I have followed a pretty regular cleaning regimen: sanitize the gauge and my ear with anti-bacterial gel each time anything goes in or comes out. Immediately after a stretch, this means cleaning the gauges at least once a day, but often two or three times. Once my ears have healed completely, this tapers off, to about once every few days or so.
I know that not everyone's ears are quite as temperamental as mine are, but my personal philosophy is that I refuse to be the reason that a parent can say to their child, "That's why I won't let you do that." Hence, I strongly suggest being overly cautious, letting your ears heal completely between each stretch, making sure that everything is clean, and stretching up no more than one size at a time. And, if there is one thing I have learned from this, it is that some people are not intended to have certain mods. Listen to your body. If it says no, don't argue.