I started being interested in ear stretching at about 15 years old. When I was younger, I used to think they were odd but never repulsive. I can always remember liking the way metal and color looks against the skin. I can also remember stumbling upon this website in search of ideas for a new piercing as well as on BAF.com. It was at that very moment that I decided that my ears were for the stretching. I read a lot of first-hand accounts of stretching and went through the forums at BAF before determining exactly how I was supposed to stretch. I also want to say that I decided to stretch not to look cool ar bad-ass but simply because I liked the way they look and because they are interesting.
At A Glance Author Emily Contact Emily@bme.anon When N/A I determined that for most people a stretch from 14g to 10g would be ok because the difference in milimeters was not that big. I went on BAF and bought 10g tapers and 10g acrylic plugs. When they finally arrived in the mail, I slid them through my ears without much trouble. A little burning was new to me, but not particularly painful. I could hardly wait to get the next size (I bought a set of 8g and 6g tapers and plugs from BAF again). Both those stretches were harder because they did a little more than sting. Although they recommend waiting a while (a month or more) between each stretch, I have never had too much of a problem waiting about one or two weeks and then moving on to the next size. After the 8g and 6g stretches which were basically the same as the 10g, except a little more burning and for a long period of time, I decided that it was time to move on to a 4g. I bought spirals and 4g tapers. I don't remember too much about that stretch except the same burning.
However, after having these 4g spirals in my ear for a while I decided to take them out because for some reason I was missing the way regular 18g earrings looked. I thought I would be ok with never stretching again but to no one's surprise, this stuff is addicting and I was really missing my stretched ears. I decided to stretch back to a 4g (my ears had only closed back up to a 8 or 10g so the restretch was quite easy).
Now it was time to make the move from 4g to 2g and I bought some 2g tapers and clear acrylic plugs (a favorite of mine -- not too complex o distracting). This stretch, like all the others before, was quite easy with minimal burning (sometimes an unavoidable "This hurts like a bitch!!" came out from me but nothing too bad).
I couldn't stop there. I really wanted to be at my target size... a 0g. But once I got the 0g tapers and plugs home from the mail I was in a state of awe. Instead of all the others stretches before, a 2g to a 0g was 2 milimeters difference instead of only one. Numerous times in the span of about a month I tried to stuff those 0g tapers into my ear. They went a little less than half way through my ears but wouldn't budge any further after that and it was the same each time I tried. I was quite frustrated because I couldn't find an 1g plugs or tapers to use as a stepping stone to 0g. I looked through the forums and found that most people preferred to use tape instead of tapers to stretch from gauge to gauge. They put a small amount of tape circling around the plug/taper and increased the amount slowly over a period of time.
Well, the taper idea hadn't worked for me thus far so I thought why not try this. I put some masking tape (the yellow kind) around the taper and gauge and stretched it through...thank god, only a little burning and it was fine (only one more milimeter to go to a 0g!). I put some more masking tape on the plug about a week after the initial taping and putting it through my left ear was no problem. On the other hand, the pull through the right was considerably worse/harder and downright scary. I thought I had had a blowout (didn't exactly know what it looked like) because the back of the ear skin was caught/pulling on the taper. I was scared shitless for a few days (I didn't want to mess up my ear for life) but luckily, after a while the back of my ear looked normal and I had no problems with it hurting, etc.
So here I am now at a 0g that's taken a little less than a year (with interruptions) and loving how it looks. I still want to go bigger because as many have said, stretching is oddly addictive. I've bought plugs in 00g and 7/16in. to have them ready if I decide to go bigger using the taping method (no more tapers for me!). Unlike most, I've never done any salt soaks or used any emu/blah blah blah oil and my ears have turned out perfectly fine but every person's body is different of course. Overall, this stretching experience has been great and extremely interesting...if you're thinking about stretching, go for it (think before you do and why you're deciding to do it, of course)!! I'm really glad I made that step to stretching.