Ear Stretching 101: The Taper Method

Hello Lovelies!

It’s that time again! Welcome back to Ear Stretching 101!!!

But FIRST: I am not a licensed piercer and cannot give you the same professional advice that a licensed piercer can. Everything that I share about my piercings and advice relating to piercings that I share are things I have either learned from my own experiences, researched, or been told by a piercer.

Now that’s over we can get to it! This week is about the Taper Method.

First off, you can go to a professional piercer to help you stretch your ears. If you want to be sure you’re doing it correctly and safely and are nervous about doing it yourself, go to a professional. I however, never did that and opted to stretch my ears at home. The following in this post (and pretty much every post from here on this topic) is all information that I have gathered from my own experiences or from someone telling me how to do it. There has been a lot of trial and error and just simply dumb things done on my part while stretching my ears… so hopefully I can lend my experiences to you so you don’t make the same mistakes.

Ok. Things you will need to stretch your ears:

• Taper Kit - I got mine on Amazon (Link) ONLY GET STAINLESS STEEL TAPERS, PLUGS, EYELETS/TUNNELS ETC. Especially on a freshly stretched ear -yes that includes the first stretch- cheap materials like acrylic can cause infection, irritation, and other problems. It is too porous for a newly stretched ear and can trap bacteria in there as well as omit toxins into your ear as it heats up with your body. Just do not use acrylic. EVER.
• Lobe Lubricant - The best $2 I ever spent was on Lobe Lube (Link) At the beginning I had a pretty painful couple times stretching my ears. There was a lot of friction and some blood and it was all because I didn’t research enough to know that you need to lubricate your taper and jewelry before you put it through your ear. It helps it go in without creating friction and tears, which result in scars. DO NOT USE PETROLEUM JELLY/CHAPSTICK/JOJOBA OIL/ETC AS A LUBRICANT.
• Unscented antibacterial soap - You can find it at Wal-Mart or places like that.
• Non-Iodized sea salt - H2Ocean is good for this. You can find it at Hot Topic, Spencers, and even your local piercing shop.
• I have to make special mention to never, EVER use alcohol based products to clean your ears. EVER. Period. This dries them out and causes a lot of problems. Just look it up on Google.

You really don’t need anything else. If you want fancy plugs/eyelets by all means use them. Just remember, NO ACRYLIC.

Also, NEVER EVER EVER wear your tapers as jewelry! EVER. They are not pieces of jewelry. They are a stretching device. If you wear them as jewelry, your ears can become torn or deformed. DO NOT DO IT.

Now… What you’ve been waiting for: How to stretch your ears with the taper method step-by-step!!!!

1. Wash your hands then wash your taper(s) and jewelry with hot water and antibacterial soap.
2. Take out whatever jewelry you have and clean the piercing in your earlobe with the antibacterial soap and sea salt spray.
3. Lubricate the taper and your ear and gently put it through your lobe. If you have to push hard or feel pain that’s more than a slight pinch, stop. If it’s your first stretch and it’s really painful then you may need to start at a smaller gauge than what you have from the stretching kit. If it’s not your first stretch, wait another week or 2 and try again.
4. Flush the end of the jewelry with the end of the taper and push through gently.
5. Put the o-ring on the front and back of your jewelry as needed.
6. Spray some H2Ocean on a clean q-tip and gently clean around the jewelry to get rid of excess lubricant.
7. DO NOT TOUCH YOUR EARS FOR AT LEAST 24 HOURS. That includes to clean them. They will be red and swollen most likely and will need to be left alone. The most you should go without cleaning them is 2 days. Then clean them 2x a day with a H2Ocean q-tip and no more than that. I would clean with the soap 1x a week for the first week. After that you can do it daily if you really think you need to. When you clean them, only clean around the piercing/jewelry. DO NOT TAKE OUT THE JEWELRY TO CLEAN until at least 3 weeks later or your ears will shrink.
8. Wait at LEAST 3 weeks (this is if you’re impatient and being irresponsible but still don’t want to completely ruin your ears) before your next stretch. Ideally you should wait 1 to 2 months between stretches.
9. DO NOT SKIP SIZES. This is the most irresponsible thing you could do. It can make your ears tear and bleed and just simply hurt you and your ears. Don’t do it. Ever.
10. If you have any concerns or difficulty and need some help, go to your local piercer.

I hope that this helps! Tune in next week for the next part in the series: General Questions and Concerns such as: Why are my ears red, swollen, and sore? I waited 3 weeks between stretches, why isn’t the taper going through? Are my ears infected? How to go from 8g to 6g? Why is my jewelry falling out at night/in general? Why are my ears bleeding/what to do if your ears start bleeding? And potentially more!

XOXO!!! Sarah

PHOTOS ARE NOT MINE. THEY ARE FROM eartapers.com