By Andrea, Wichita, KS
My boyfriend was wanting to gauge his ears for a very long time. I kind of did, but not really, it just looked cool to do, but I knew there would be some pain in the process of doing it. My parents look down upon it and are very strict and won’t let me do anything like it since im only fifteen.
Since his parents are extremely nice and have their ears gauged, they talked me through the whole process, since they said I could go right to a sixteen from a normal ear piercing. I couldn’t get the darn thing in, I used petroleum jelly, lube, peroxide and alcohol, and it wouldn’t go in. 🙁
By that time I was getting really frustrated. I stopped trying to for a few days until my boyfriend came over and tried doing it for me. (I absolutely hate people touching my ears) He tried, and it still wouldn’t go in. so later that night after he left, I tried putting them in again.
I used lube on them and I was really frustrated that I wasn’t able to get them in yet and my boyfriend was already at a fourteen by then, and so I pushed it in, (I was barley pushing it in the first few times) I felt so accomplished. I took a picture on my phone and sent it to my boyfriend and he replied back that he was proud of me.
I looked up online about how to take care of them, and so everyday in the shower i wash them with warm water and soap, and in the evenings I use peroxide. I waited two weeks before going up to a fourteen. Right now, I’m waiting to get twelve’s. I’m probably going to wait two weeks for these fourteens to heal.
My boyfriends at a ten now. I’m planning on going up to at least six or four. When I first got my fourteens they slid right in, no pain at all. I’m guessing there won’t be a lot of pain with any of the other sizes going up now. I would suggest to anybody to do this to their ears if they wanted to.
The pain at the very beginning is worth it. It feels like just popping a huge pimple, but on your ear. The cheapest gauges I found were at Spencers. For a pack of 3 pairs of the same gauge size was $ 9.99.
12 Responses
You should ALWAYS wait at least a month between stretches, and it should not be painful to do.
The pain you’re describing is the lobe tearing – it’s basically just giving way under the pressure of you trying to ram a bigger plug in it than the hole is.
The correct way to stretch is with a taper – you use the taper to gradually make the hole bigger THEN put your plug in when the piercing is at the size of the plug. This puts much less stress on the ear lobe and won’t cause the scar tissue you’re building up by ‘dead stretching’ (just sticking plugs in without tapers) – scar tissue makes it harder to both stretch further and to downsize in the future.
I’d suggest you do a lot more research into ear stretching (not gauging!!) before continuing any further – it’s a serious body mod, with serious future consequences if not done properly (and even if done properly, but taken too far)
Well good job so far, buh you will be enduring some more pain. I am currently a size 4 [in gauges] & it is probably tha biggest i’m going becuz it is a good size. Reccomended cheap place to get gauges is tha fleamarket. They sell pairs for only $5.
i dont agree that you should get any type of jewelry from a flee market except necklaces and rings because any other jewelry that you get even if you do clean it rlly well it can still have a disease on it i dont reccomend it. go to a business and get your earings or lip rings and so and so fourth.
Auto meter is and will always be the industry leader.
I wish you all the best on doing things yourself. I don’t think going the cheap route is the best in the case of piercings as it can lead to infection and worse. Of course I am a bit biased towards quality gear because I had an infection before and it got really nasty.
Anyway good luck!
just suck it up, dont be a puss. the red and the worst pain goes away after a couple hours. you dont always have to wait a month to gauge up. i went from an 8 to a 2 in almost two weeks (currently and 3/4 4 months later). and you should find out if ur allergic to some materials like some metals, latex or silicone so you dont end up getting infection and have to start over. and cheap gauges are okay to use as long as u clean them well.
Waiting a month between gauging up is dumb! I went from a 14 to a 4 in a week. It’s not that painful until the low numbers and it’s not that bad.
that seems so little to me now but they were huge back then. im at a 3/4″ right now. the pain only gets a little worse once you get passed a 2
get your terminology right…
it’s not ‘gauging’, it’s stretching.
a good way to remember it is ‘I STRETCH my ears so I may wear JEWELRY of a certain GAUGE’
http://forums.bodyartforms.com/forumdisplay.php?31-Stretching-questions-amp-care
reading through this forum is the best thing you can do for your ears.
listen to the first comment… although dead stretching (just putting in larger jewelry) is a legitimate way to stretch too.
if you do use tapers, DO NOT WEAR THEM. use them to stretch, and then immediately put a ring or plug in.
I’m at a 0ga now, and plan on waiting the 2 months reccommended to me by my piercer to stretch to a 00ga.I’ve stretched my own ears everytime,even occasionally skipping sizes, and everything healed up fine. After doing a bit of research I found out that skipping sizes and stretching too quickly can cause some major damage to the tissue. Even now when i take my plugs out the skin is wrinkled from scar tissue. so not pretty. Stretching your ears is a major thing,past a certain size may require surgery if you ever want to wear “fashion” earrings there again, though the size depends on your ears and how healthy the stretching was. Always wait AT LEAST 2 weeks between sizes, longer the larger the piercing is. Tapers are fine to wear to let your ears adjust to the new size. Remember, stretching should NEVER hurt.
Good luck and happy stretching!
you’ve ripped you earlobes. you should only start at 2mm or 3mm diameter, tops, then increase really gradually in 2mm increments.
It’s called STRETCHING!
Gauge = the size
Stretching = the verb