I’m going to have my ear lobes stretched and get tunnels put in, I’m just curious as to how much this usually costs (in UK £’s) and how long it usually takes? I know you have to wait months to let the lobes stretch, but I’m only looking to get 6mm/8mm max.
I’ve looked online but everywhere I go talks about doing it yourself but I want to get it done properly by a pro.
My left ear is already pierced, my right isn’t. Would that make any difference at all?
Thanks.
You wanting to stretch both or just the pierced one?
I used to do this for a living (in UK) and in my opinion it’s much less traumatic to do it yourself. The best thing you can do is wait for your piercing to heal totally then start putting extra normal sized rings (the type you’d get from claires accessories or something) so you’ll have 3 or 4 normal hoops in each hole. Do that to the point that you can pull a small/medium sized stud through the hole. GO SLOW when you’re putting the rings in to start, only 1 every few days depending on how your ear heals.
Once you get to the point that you can pull a stud through go to a piercing shop buy the smallest taper, coat it in vaseline and wiggle it through your ear leave it for about 2 weeks and repeat with a larger taper.
Only go up 0.5mm every 1-2 weeks, if you over do it your skin will lose its elasticity and will NEVER shrink back.
I used to have 10mm in my ears and now they’ve shrunk back to normal. I went to a shop to jump from essentially a 2mm to a 5mm and my god did it screw up my ears I got a pretty hefty infection cos the skin in my ear tore and it set me back about a year as far as stretching went.
Patience is key. Don’t rush it. It should only take 3 or 4 of months to get to a 6/8mm.
Yeah you need to leave it in all the time.You can find some pretty little ones though, doesn’t have to be those great wopping metal things if that’s not your style.
I did mine with some tiny little clear plastic purple ones. They were teeny tiny, only got me upto 2mm but they were stuper pretty and looked liked normal studs from the front. If you shop around you’ll find soemthing that takes your fancy. 🙂
Its pretty cheap the steel tapers cost more then the plastic but itll be cheap for you if you wanna just go to 6-8mm, id say maximum 20 pounds lols.
Alright bud Ill tell you what I know and what I did. I pierced my ears and let them heal for two weeks (normal stud) till I could sqeeze the area pretty hard without any pain etc…
Thos alchohol swabs/bottles of the stuff is the way to go coat the tappers with that before streching etc…
Pretty much I started with a 4mm shoved that right in, best off doing after a shower I found and then going to bed considering the pain throbs although It kinda feels good if you like a burning sensation/ache in your ear, pretty much for the next few days turn the “Taper” just in your ear so it doesnt stick I guess you could call it that . Well if you pull it out its gonna have scab/dried blood on it and fuckin hurts when your putting it back in so leave it in till its healed as I said before leave it in until its not tender/doesnt hurt. Took me about two weeks before I moved up to the next one. Anyway I moved to a 6mm ( I went up 2mm each time depending on how fast my lobes healed ) Did the same shoved it in went to bed woke up its tender although just dont knock it around, although I got smacked in the ear with a football it bled so be careful. Anyways follow as I said and you should be sweet.
Also from what Ive gathered holes close up pretty fast when they are small I left my out for a day by accident and I had to restrech it.
This is what I can do now with my 14mm Hole ;D
Hope this helped
this would be my personal advice and im not a profesional piercer etc etc.
the most important thing when stretching is to take your time, its not a race, its something that takes different amounts of time depending on the person and method.
i used tapers to stretch mine (im now at 10mm in both ears). massage your ear with some sort of lube (my choice is bio oil), slide the taper in slowly. it shouldnt bleed or be too painfull. just a slight sting.
in my opinion you shouldnt keep the taper in for too long as it hangs on one side and can give an uneven stretch. once the taper is in just line up the jewellery to the end of the taper and slowly push the jewellery in while removing the taper.
even once your ear feels healed, force yourself to wait a few days longer between each stretch. usually you should wait 3 weeks to a month before stretching again.
by the way it is an addiction
hope that helped!:)
glad to read that , i did this , started with my second hole on the left and just put earrings in till i could fit a belly ring in then kept that in my ear for about 2 years also able to wear other earrings together with it . then about 2 years ago i did it to the other three holes, i wear only 5mm bone hooks in my first holes and 3mm bone spirals in the second and have now a third hole i wear regular earrings in now, didnt know how far you could go before you wont be able to get your ears back to a normal size i think i will at least double the first hole and move the bone earrings i have now allong a hole and settle there – i have other persuits in the piercing relm to interest me – but i always thought i didnt do it properly cause i just stuffed earrings that fit into the holes
for me it cost £3.99 for the actual stretcher and depending what size tunnel you want the size 10mm tunnel and 12mm tunnel for me was £5.99 and when i got my stainless steel 12mm it was £8.
It’s actually quiet cheap just don’t rush it. It took me around 7months to get to the size i wanted to. If you rush it you could split your ear and then you would have to wait for it to all heal and start from scratch so it really is worth taking your time.
Alright bud Ill tell you what I know and what I did. I pierced my ears and let them heal for two weeks (normal stud) till I could sqeeze the area pretty hard without any pain etc…
Thos alchohol swabs/bottles of the stuff is the way to go coat the tappers with that before streching etc…
Pretty much I started with a 4mm shoved that right in, best off doing after a shower I found and then going to bed considering the pain throbs although It kinda feels good if you like a burning sensation/ache in your ear, pretty much for the next few days turn the “Taper” just in your ear so it doesnt stick I guess you could call it that . Well if you pull it out its gonna have scab/dried blood on it and fuckin hurts when your putting it back in so leave it in till its healed as I said before leave it in until its not tender/doesnt hurt. Took me about two weeks before I moved up to the next one. Anyway I moved to a 6mm ( I went up 2mm each time depending on how fast my lobes healed ) Did the same shoved it in went to bed woke up its tender although just dont knock it around, although I got smacked in the ear with a football it bled so be careful. Anyways follow as I said and you should be sweet.
Also from what Ive gathered holes close up pretty fast when they are small I left my out for a day by accident and I had to restrech it.
This is what I can do now with my 14mm Hole ;D
Hope this helped
haha oh man that looks terrible.
Handy if you’re a carpenter though…
meowgie it looks like you have a blowout.
tapers are shit. once you get past 5mm you should use teflon tape to stretch. Wait atleast a month between sizes then wrap 1-2 layers of tape around your plugs every 3 or 4 days and keep them oiled up so they dont dry your ears out, then in a week or two you put your plugs of the next size in only wearing surgical grade implant steel, titanium, teflon, or glass. no acrylic or organics.
Okay, here’s how it goes…
Get pierced, and let your ear heal.
At lower sized, just buy a taper, put it through your ear, and then follow the tapers with some plugs. Wearing tapers fucks your ears, so don’t do it.
Just do .5-1mm every few weeks or so.
Also, if you ever feel pain when going up a size, then don’t do it. It shouldn’t hurt at all. You may feel a little discomfort or pressure, but never any pain. If you feel pain, that means you ripped your ear, and you need to let it heal.
I was at an inch, and was able to shrink back down to 0g no problem, so, i’d take my advice.
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