First off, I'm going to be real honest: While stretching my ears, I did not follow any recommended procedures and how I sized up my ears is most definitely NOT a good way for anyone else to do it.
At A Glance Author kyrie Contact kyrie@bme.anon When It just happened Artist myself. Studio my bathroom. Moving on. :]
About a year ago, I decided to gauge my ears for the first time. I was a pretty clean-cut kid. With the exception of one belly-button piercing (I ended up taking it out after two months), the only piercing I had was the standard Claire's ear piercing, courtesy of my mother when I was a baby. A friend of mine had gauged her ears and had them at a 6g, I believe, and I loved them. Obviously I was very inexperienced at sizing ears, so I walked into a jewelry shop, bought a pair of 8g and walked out. I didn't exactly know how I planned on getting my probably 20g sized piercing holes to 8g, but eventually found a way. That night she gave me a pair of 12g earrings, but no amount of pushing would get those puppies through. I eventually gave up. The next day, I went home, found my old bellybutton barbells and got to work. I first shoved a small sewing needle through my ears, then was able to slip a 14g barbell I had into my ear. It didn't really hurt, but my ear had a dull throb to it. Because of my lack of instruments, I had to do my ears separately and over a period of a few days. After wearing the 14g in one ear for a day, I jammed the 12g barbell through it. It hurt a little, but once again, it was the dull throb. Luckily, another friend of mine from school had his ears gauged and he offered to borrow me some 8g spirals, so I could slowly size my ear up until I reached the 8g size. Even with the small end of this taper-like plug, it was an immediate struggle to get it through my ear. For a few hours, I sat in bathroom, slowly trying to get the spiral to a point where it wouldn't slip back out. This is the part of the sizing process that hurt. A LOT. Being the obvious amateur and very inexperienced person I am, I used nothing but water as a lubricant. Finally, after about two days of "baby-step" pushing, I got the spiral pushed through to the end. I took my 8g plugs and pushed them on through. Since they were hollow, they collected ear junk on the way through, and being metal, they were a little sharp and not rounded. This, while very brief, had a painful sting. While working solely on one ear, I still had managed to get the other spiral in my other ear, and began focusing on that one. After a few days, I had the same successful and painful result. For the first few days, they throbbed a bit, but I could still sleep on them and they weren't irritated as much. My week of hard work was dissolved into nothing, however, when my mother noticed what I had accomplished and immediately ordered that I take them out. Being a year away from eighteen, I was powerless and reluctantly removed them. Within a week, my ears were back to normal. Luckily, I have no scarring, tearing, or disfiguring from my hasty procedure.
Keep in mind, this sizing process took me about a week to move from a standard ear piercing to an 8g. I used no lubricants except warm water. It was probably an unsafe method, but I'm a person who likes quick results and not a lot of work.
My main story, however, has just occurred.
About a week or so ago, I finally turned eighteen. Believe me, I've been counting down the days until I could begin stretching my ears without being told to take them out and as soon as that glorious day came, I was hell-bent on finishing my mission. I couldn't find my old 8gs, so I bought some new ones the other day. Purple, too. Along with the plugs came talons, and since the friend who borrowed me the spirals took them back and has since left for college, I was forced to once again work with what I could find around the house. Unfortunately, it had been a year since I last sized them, and because I rarely wear earrings, my ears had closed completely. I still had the holes in the front of the earlobe, but they had closed completely throughout. With no other choice, I grabbed a small sewing needle, and re-pierced my ears. Sticking some standard, probably 20g, studs in them, I left them alone for a day. Last night, I grabbed a bigger sewing needle, this one from my actual sewing machine, and pushed it through until the bigger end of the needle was able to slide in and out of my ear. This time, I had some bleeding. Because the bigger end of the needle was the size it was, I was able to skip the 14g barbell and go right to the 12g. After wearing that for about two hours, I grew impatient and began working with my talons. It took a good hour to get it in, and what a painful hour that was. Once again, I used to lubricants, just warm water. Right now, as I type this, I'm sitting with one 8g talon in my left ear, and the 12g barbell in the right. My right ear has always been the difficult one, but over the course of the next few hours, I hope to get the other talon through. I used some o-rings to keep the left talon in place and slept with it in. The pain has gone away for the most part. I plan on keeping them on the down low from the parental units, but sooner or later they'll find out, I'm sure. I'm legally an adult now, though, so there's only so much they can do. This time, I refuse to take them out. Too much work and pain to go to waste.
Overall, my sizing experiences have been accomplished with only warm water and crude tools. I've had no blowouts and the first time, my ears pretty much went back to normal. I consider myself to be an unusual circumstance due to how little of time I sized my ears in and how inexperienced I was sizing them. I definitely would not recommend my methods to anyone, but I suppose I'm just proof that it can be done, if you're willing to take the risk.