Stretching Lobes

A couple of months ago I began stretching my ear lobes, what some people might incorrectly refer to as “gauged ears”. Now don’t get me wrong, if you don’t know now you know but breaking the habit of using the wrong terminology can be a little difficult at first. Another misconception I had was about the length of time it took to get there. I don’t really know what I was thinking, I know it doesn’t happen overnight but the length of time it takes astounded me.

When you first begin the process of stretching your lobes you would start out with a size like 12G or even as small as 14G. (the higher the number the smaller the size it is) another way to measure them is in Millimeters. While stretching you don’t want to go up to fast because instead of stretching the skin around the piercing you will be more likely to rip or tear it causing damage to the area making it harder to go up to larger sizes. Now the amount of time to wait in-between sizes depends from person to person and is not set in stone. I’ve only been stretching my lobes for a couple of months and I’m already at 5MM as of this morning. I actually stretched up this morning because my 4MM tunnels had “fallen into” my ear and the tapered end had gotten stuck inside my ear. This might have been caused from having the retainer on the back too tightly against my ear, It may have been partially because of the way I was sleeping on it, but I had figured if it is stretchy enough to fit that large tapered side in then I might be ready for the next size up. So far it seems I was right.

My first couple of stretches up I didn’t wait very long, having not much knowledge on the process I had wanted to see some results, I quickly learned that I wasn’t going to go anywhere fast but still tried pushing a couple a little farther than I should have. I had purchased a kit of tapers (metal rods that are smaller on one end than the other used to help insert the jewelry into the fistula and having access to a bunch of sizes made it easier to size up quickly, but I was going too fast. It can also cause the shape of your ear lobes to change if left in too long as they are not weighted properly to be worn as jewelry.

Using tapers can be dangerous as its easy to go to fast and cause damage to your ears, upon doing some more research into stretching lobes I found another method of stretching that is used commonly called dead stretching. This involves just putting in the next sized jewelry once your ear has had time to grow accustomed to its current size, Arctic buffalo, a store in Omaha Nebraska, recommends around 3 months in-between sizes but says it can depend from person to person.

after learning about their store and their glass tunnels, I had grown curious and after purchasing a couple of their single flare plugs I’ve grown to like them. When I’m ready to size up (like this morning for example) I’ll buy a couple of tunnels in the next size in a couple different colors so I’m not going to fast and I’ll have some variety and I’ll have the next size when I’m ready for them but not pushing myself too far. Check out their website to see more of what they offer and support a great business by clicking on the picture above.

So Far I’ve been Stretching my lobes for about 6-8 months now. I’ve found that dead stretching is a lot easier and seems to be less irritating than using tapers, I had only used tapers for the first couple of stretches because I did not know better. I got a second piercing done on my lobes that I plan on stretching once they are fully healed and ready, the plan is to have the first hole to 5/8ths and the second one to somewhere around 00G. Currently They sit at 1G (7MM) and 14G (1.6MM), the 14G one is a fresh still and has not yet been stretched.