I've never actually written down the full story of my lobe stretching, so here it goes.
At A Glance Author Jo DiGennaro Contact Jo DiGennaro@bme.anon When It just happened In about the eighth grade, I started wearing multiple "dangly" earrings in each ear. I was only allowed to have one hole in each, so it was my way to rebel a little bit. At the same time, my best friend got her naval pierced and was going crazy buying tons of new jewelry for her tummy. My ears were loose enough to fit one of her (new, clean) barbells through each hole. She thought it looked cool, and did it also.
As time went on,(about freshman in high school now) I wondered how much bigger I could get my ears to stretch, since it didn't hurt at all to go up to whatever gauge standard barbells are. I went online and bought a pair of beautiful 6ga spirals, thinking that since the jewelry tapered to the thickest spot, I could use them to go slowly to my desired gauge. It looked really stupid while I was stretching, but actually worked! I didn't use any lube though, so my ears were ripping with each push. I had some really nasty crusties and my ears were constantly pussing, so I waited about a month to go up any higher.
My stretching partner, however, bought multiple pairs of tapers, starting at 14ga all the way to 8ga, and she was going nice and slow, without any complications. We bought some new jewelry, and I decided to go ahead and stretch to 4ga with acrylic tapers. It felt pretty alright, not too much burning. I was smarter and used some neosporin for lube that time. I left those in for another month until it was prom. My boyfriend did not like my stretched ears, so as a favor to him, I took out my stainless steel claws and wore some pretty dangly earrings for the night. When I got home, I immediately put the claws back in. There was a little bit of bleeding, but not much pain. In my ultra excited-from-prom-night state, I thought it would be a cool idea to put in some cool 4ga plugs I'd bought. They were double flared, and no one had ever told me that you really need to stretch to nearly the next size to put those in, so I just got some lube and shoved them in. They were pretty sharp on the corners and I sliced up my holes pushing them in, but in they went. They throbbed a lot, so I took some ibuprofen and went to sleep.
The next morning, I discovered that both of the plugs had popped out in my sleep. I really hadn't expected that since they were so tight. I attempted to put the claws back in, but my ears screamed in pain and bled a lot, so I gave up. (My boyfriend wasn't too sad for me.) I mean, I really gave up. I stopped stretching completely and let my ears shrink back down and heal. Meanwhile, my friend was sporting beautiful 4ga tunnels.
About a year or so later, I decided to try again. Partly because I was really mad at myself for giving up, and partly because I'd spent over $100 on different sizes of jewelry and didn't want it to all go to waste. I started out the same way as before, with first just a few extra earrings and then the naval barbell. This time, though, I used actual gauges between 12ga and 6ga and took over a month to get there. I left the 6ga in for a month, and just recently moved up to 4ga claw tapers. I stupidly only bought one, though, so I had to stretch one at a time. My left ear went alright, a little burning when the taper went in, but fine pretty quickly. I was able to put in the double flared plug from before with no problem at all.
My right ear, however was a bit more of a problem. The taper REALLY hurt going in, but the pain went away pretty quickly. I slept on my left side, which was happy as a clam with my pretty plug in. The next day, it was sore and red, but I just took some ibuprofen again and went on with my day. My other ear had only taken a few days to be plug-ready, so I assumed that the right one would be like that as well.
I'm leaving for a Debate team tournament and will be gone all weekend (yeah, I'm a total nerd like that) and wanted to have my ears match for that. I had tried earlier (yesterday) to put in the plug, but it sliced my lobe again and bled a little, so I went back to the taper with neosporin a plenty. Tonight, I tried again. When I took out the taper, there was a bit of bleeding and a visible wound inside, but I was really determined to get that plug in. I told myself that I wouldn't force it if it hurt too much, so I wouldn't blow out my ear or anything. Surprisingly, it went in quite fine. I used a q-tip and some warm water to wipe up the blood and all is well. I haven't taken and ibuprofen and I feel totally fine. I'm glad that I went ahead and did it.
In a month or so, I'm going to move up to 2ga. I have acrylic tapers again and some awesome stainless steel tunnels with stars on the inside.
My friend is at a 2ga still, she's not sure if she wants to go any higher. She's wearing big mother of pearl spirals these days. I'm only going to go up to 2ga or 0ga because I think that I'd look really stupid with anything bigger. I wear an ear cuff on one ear and it exaggerates the stretching look.
So that's that.