Hey all,
Hows you?

Following up on the post I did a couple of months ago on nose piercings, that you guys seemed to like, I decided to do a post on ear stretching! This may be a long one because there's quite a lot to cover so I suggest you get yourself a brew before starting!

I'm going to throw a disclaimer up now before I start anything so bare with:

DISCLAIMER: I know that ear stretching can be a bit of a touchy subject. Some people are a bit ignorant and think it's disgusting, not natural, blah blah blah; I know it's not natural, it's not meant to look normal or natural. You're stretching your earlobe for goodness sake. It's just fun, I can't explain it really. It's like getting a tattoo or a piercing. It's just another type of body mod. Anyway, for anyone who doesn't like that kind of thing and just generally delicate souls, this isn't a post for you. If you're just a bit curious, I more than welcome you to read on and educate yourself, just don't leave comments saying "ewwww this is horrible!" because, well, I like it and it's a subject that I enjoy talking about, so deal with it and please don't make me feel bad about it by leaving comments putting it down.
Also, I am in no way a professional, I am am just speaking from experience and what I know and things I've learnt from my friend, Marion, who is very knowledgeable in this domain and also from the internet. If I have made any mistakes, though, let me know and I shall change the information accordingly. 

So I got into ear stretching at the start of college. It was my friend, Marion (who is very knowledgable in this domain and guides me through the stretching and all the pain, too!), who had started to do it quite early on when we started hanging out and I had always wanted to give it a go because piercings and body mods and tattoos and all that jazz has always been something I've been interested in and have always been up for trying. So when she proposed to me to give it a go, naturally I jumped at the chance. I'm currently at 4mm but I'm aiming for 8mm for reasons that I'll explain in a bit.


What Should You Use?
Marion gives me tapers. They're long acrylic or surgical steel bars. They have two rubber O-rings that fit perfectly around them and hold them in place and stop it sliding out of your ear. Basically what you do to put it on is just take the lower ring off, slide the taper in, then slide the ring you took off back on it, behind your lobe. I don't know how to explain it very well but basically that's what you have to do haha. However, I've learnt recently that acrylic isn't the best for everyone because some people's bodies react badly to acrylic when it heats up to body temperature and can have a kind of allergic reaction to it. Bref, it's probably best to check and see if you're going to get any bad side-effects from using anything acrylic. You can also use tunnels, however if you do, it's important to use rimless tunnels whilst stretching. I put more enunciation on rimless tunnels because if you try stretching with a rimmed or even double rimmed tunnel (where it had the sides that turn up at the ends), it will be more painful than necessary because you'd be trying to stretch it too much and then stretch it down, just wait until you've gotten to the size that you want before using rimmed tunnels. Other options are spirals and buffalos (those 4 are the most common, I feel) and I personally prefer tapers and wouldn't imagine stretching with anything else. I feel like it's a lot more secure in my ear. I can't explain it that well, but if you ask your local piercer they'll probably be able to guide you as better than I can as to what you should use.

How Long Do You Have To Leave It?
That really depends how you're stretching, and how fast you heal up. What I personally did was I put in the 1mm, then I waited 2 weeks, and tried to the 2mm (though some people go directly to the 3mm because your ears are easier to stretch with the smaller sizes), waited two weeks, tried the 3 and so on. Again, it all depends on how quickly and easily your ears stretch. However, one thing you should definitely NOT do is be impatient. If you don't give your ear the proper time to stretch, you'll end up with a beautiful little blowout (a very painful process when the skin inside the tunnel of skin in direct contact with your jewelry is forced out of the back of the piercing due to strong pressure), so leave your ear the time it needs to stretch properly. It'll also make up-sizing more painful that necessary if your lobe isn't ready.

How Painful Is It?
When you go up a size, depending on how stretchy your lobe is, it can be quite painful and sting, but it doesn't last long, it also makes my ear feel really hot. After that, I rarely even feel it. Though when it comes to the extention of the lobe, that depends on the person. Some people won't feel it at all, some people (like me) do. Don't panic though just because you feel it for one size doesn't mean you'll feel it for every size. I didn't even feel it until the 4mm.

Moving Up Sizes
In my opinion, you should wait 2/3 weeks, like I've already said about 50000 times in this post, depending on how stretchable your ear is (it just is!!), never less, or, you know, blow out. When you are taking out your stretcher to move up, make sure you lube up (ew). What I mean by that is that you should never stretch on a dry ear. Disinfect, put a natural lube on it (I tend to use olive oil if I'm at home and hand cream if I'm at school, though I don't think hand cream is the best choice), then put in the stretcher. The best way to do it is to grit your teeth and do it all in one. It'll be harder, take longer and be more painful if you do it slowly. I generally count to three, grit my teeth and put it in all at once.
Another tip I've learnt is don't take it out for 3 days after having moved up a size. Just take off one of the O-rings, disinfect, spin it a bit then put the ring back on.

Caring For It
This is probably the most important step here. Taking care of your lobe is the best way to make sure you get the best result out of your lobe. What I do is I'll take it out in the shower when I'm washing my hair, then I'll disinfect (two sprays front and back), then moisturise and then put it back in. Like for my nose piercing, I use biseptine.


Healing Up
Your ears will heal up until you get to around 8mm. After that you'll be stuck with the hole, that's why, as I mentionned earlier, I'm only going to go up to 8mm. So that I'll still have the option for it to heal up if need be for work or something like that later on in life.
Personally I don't think it's a good idea to stretch your ears then heal them back up, stretch, heal up, over and over. It'll just damage your ear lobe and that's the last thing you want - having a manky looking ear lobe is not sexy.

Price
This depends on where you buy your stretching materials (tapers, tunnels, ect...). I'd recommend Crazy Factory. It's really affordable and even though I've never personally used them, Marion has and she says they're really good and she bought the tapers she gives me on there. I actually find it surprisingly affordable to stretch your ears compared to other types of body modification.
Age and Parents Authorisation
You don't have to be a specific age to stretch your ears. Though saying that, I'd probably flip my shit if I saw someone under 15 with stretched ears. Since it's something you can do yourself, unlike a tattoo or a piercing that I strongly disuade you to do yourself, you don't necessarily need your parent's authorisation, except obviously if you them to buy you the stuff - if not, go ahead, I got Marion to give me her old tapers and I was away.

Hope this helped! Do any piercing experts have anything to add? Let me know down in the comments.