I've been stretching my lobes for about a year and a half now. My goal is 00g (10mm) not huge but it's all I want really. My right ear has been so easy to stretch and has been 10mm for four months now, but my left has been the biggest pain ever!

I had it at 8mm for three months and I started to tape up, really really slowly, one wrap of the tape every week and if it played up I either wouldn't tape up that week or I'd take the tape off and start from scratch. This has been ongoing for two months now.

My friend (who has 22mm ears) said to try a silicone stretcher as that was what he'd used (he quite nicely gave me one) and I spoke to my piercer who said it too would be ok. So wednesday night (2 days ago) I put it in (hurt like nothing on earth btw) and has been throbbing ever since. I've been doing sss twice a day as well as using a q tip to get the gunk out of it.

Problem is the lobe has swollen right up and I don't know whether it was the trauma of the stretch or whether its the silicone tunnel as I've heard bad things about them?


Edited by Xenie - April/13/2012 at 5:34am

Silicone is not a good alternative to stretching and neither are tapers. It should NOT HURT when you stretch your ears. Some ears will resist and take longer to stretch but it's important to listen to your body and not over do it. If it's being stubborn, do not force it. Give it more time. Sometimes a couple months is not a long enough period to let your ear heal before stretching again. Some lobes need more time! I recommend removing the jewelry, putting in some steel or titanium, and doing sea salt soaks until the problem has cleared up. Then, you can try again. A wrap a week may be too much for your lobe so when you're ready to stretch again, try a wrap every two weeks. :)

NEVER use silicon to stretch let alone a piece that another person has already used.