Aftercare

As a person with several piercings myself, I would like to share my personal experiences involving aftercare and healing and things that can help in the long-run with the process. I have several piercings in both of my ears. In terms of cleaning regularly, you can use a saline spray (which is usually recommended and sold through your piercer), a Q-tip with sea salt water or tea tree oil also helps depending on the person. Just make sure you clean your piercings about 2 or 3 times a day, I recommend in the morning after you wake up and before you go to bed. The average time for ear piercings to heal depending on the person and placement is usually about 3 to 6 months, but could also take over a year.

Piercings in your ears can be a long healing process depending on the person, especially if you have longer hair (it can easily get caught to them, tug at them and keep reopening the hole which could develop into keloid scarring), if there are bumps or your piercing is swelling you could create a paste using crushed up Aspirin (which is an anti-inflammatory which will help reduce swelling) and let it sit on your piercing for about 5 minutes to 10 minutes, and also try to avoid lakes and public bodies of water (e.g. pools) to decrease the chance of an infection. Also, side-sleepers beware (if you have ear piercings): make sure there aren’t any loose threads on your pillowcases to avoid catching your jewelry and try to sleep on the opposite side that your piercing(s) are on, you don’t want to put too much pressure on a healing wound.

-Al