The trick to enlarging the ear holes is to do it patiently and calmly. Here are some helpful instructions.
Steps
Method 1 of 2: Enlarge the Lobes Holes
Step 1. Get the right jewelry
You will need a cone and a set of caps. They must be of the same size. The best size is 1, 6 or 1, 3mm, as most piercing studios use these sizes to get started. Surgical stainless steel is the best material, especially for caps, as it is easy to disinfect and allows you to enlarge the holes almost painlessly.
- Acrylic cones are acceptable.
- Choose simple cones and caps.
Step 2. If you have never done this before, do not use wooden or bone jewelry because they require special attention
Prepare your lobes. For a couple of days, massage them with a vitamin E oil, jojoba oil, or emu oil or a specific oil. Just before starting, take a hot shower or apply warm compresses to your ears to soften them and prepare them for handling
Step 3. Prepare the cone
Wash your hands, disinfect the cone and grease it with a water-based lubricant.
Disinfect the surgical steel one by putting it in boiling water or passing it over the flame (then let it cool)
Step 4. Disinfect the acrylic one by wiping it with alcohol and washing it with a fragrance-free antibacterial soap
Step 5. Do not use petroleum jelly as a lubricant as it can accumulate in the earlobe and become a breeding ground for bacteria
If you have nothing else, be precise in cleaning all around the cone with soap and water after the enlargement operations.
- Insert the cone. Calmly insert the cone into the hole in your earlobe up to the maximum width.
- Take your time. Pushing the cone too fast can cause internal tearing. Stop if you feel too much pain.
- Insert the cap. Once the cone is inserted you can decide to leave it inside, adding rings to block it or replace it with caps. Keep the cap on the wider end of the cone and continue to push to make it pass entirely through the hole in the lobe. When the cone has come out from the other side, the cap will take its place inside the hole. Add a ring to lock the cap.
Step 6. Repeat for the other ear
Method 2 of 2: Care of the Lobes and Subsequent Enlargements
Step 1. Use a mixture of water and sea salt
After making the holes wider, wet the lobes with this homemade mixture (1/2 tablespoon of salt and hot water). You can do this with or without the caps inserted. Wet each ear for about 5 minutes, use a new mixture for each ear.
Daily cleaning. When the holes have adjusted to the new size, remove and clean the caps every day. Also clean the inside of the holes to remove dead cells that have accumulated
Step 2. Massage them every day
Use an oil with vitamin E, jojoba or emu oil to massage your lobes in order to promote the growth of epithelial cells and maintain tissue integrity.
Step 3. Let your ears rest
Remove the caps every day for a few hours to loosen the tension of the skin a little. If you don't, your lobes may become irritated and thin due to a lack of oxygen, blood, and nutrients.
Step 4. Wait until they have healed before widening them again
Wait at least a month, preferably two or three, before increasing the diameter. This is the estimated time for the lobes to heal. In fact, when you enlarge them, you cause a lot of small tears, and the ears need time to repair the damage and be ready for a new stretch. Since everyone has their own times, respect yours. If you try to widen the holes even more but it is very painful and difficult, it means that you are not completely healed yet.
Step 5. Instead of using a cone again, you can wait 2 or 3 months, when the tissue around the cap is a bit soft
At this point you can insert larger caps.
Advice
- Always wait at least three weeks or a month between one enlargement and the next, depending on the diameter of the hole. Haste can only guarantee you tears and scars that will make future enlargements very painful, if not impossible.
- Jewelry sizes are usually indicated by numbers ranging from 20 to 00. The smaller the number, the larger the diameter. Diameters greater than 00 are indicated in fractions of millimeters.
- Whether you are a beginner or an expert, start with small diameters and make sure that safety always comes first.
- To treat a tear, reduce the diameter by one or two measures and continue to massage the lobes with oils rich in vitamin E. If this does not work, there is always surgery.
- Make sure the size of the cone and caps is what you need and what you wanted. Once the package has been opened, and in some cases even if you do not open it, you will no longer be able to return the product to the store for hygiene reasons.
- Eyelets, caps, rings, flared caps are all suitable for enlarging the lobes, as long as they are made of quality material (glass, titanium, surgical steel).
- If you don't have pierced earlobes, consider having them pierced with a needle in a piercing or tattoo studio rather than with a gun in a non-specialist shop. guns don't always make a straight hole and it could be painful to widen it in the future.
- Cones can be worn as jewelry, but not for long periods due to their size and weight. Especially large cones have an uneven weight which can change your lobes in an undesirable way. Use caps or spirals.
- Always check the dress code of your office or school. You certainly don't want your decision to be a waste of money or damage your job.
- Usually, enlarging the holes to size 0 is an irreversible process.
- Standard piercings (for which you can find jewelry in shopping malls) are 18-20 in size.
- Ask your parents or caregivers for permission before doing so.
Warnings
- Don't touch or move the piercing unnecessarily while your ears are healing. Avoid bathing in streams, pools, whirlpools and in the bathtub to limit the risk of infection.
- Absolutely avoid moving from one measure to another in a non-gradual way. Your ears are sensitive, you could damage them.
- Just because you can get straws and weird objects through your ear holes doesn't mean you have to. The bacteria and germs on these objects can cause infections.
- Holes that have been enlarged to size 00 or more do not shrink. Consider this decision carefully, in case in the future you want to remove the caps or reduce the diameter.
