Stupid Questions

[slimmeroo]

Alright, well, 9 weeks ago, I got my ears pierced for the second time. (Just a regular, simple earlobe piercing-- maybe if I get a bigger pain threshold and more money, and this goes well, I'll get more later.) The first time around, about two years ago, the girl at the piercing place told me that I only needed to wait four weeks before I changed my earrings; lots of pain and misery ensued four weeks later when my mother hurt me trying to change my earrings for me. So, I let the holes grow over and temporarily gave up.

Of course, stupid as I am, when I decided to get my ears pierced again over the summer; of course, piercing through scar tissue, it hurt a whole hell of a lot more than last time, and I was stupid enough to do it on a spur-of-the-moment decision while at the mall one day instead of doing research on it beforehand. So, of course, I got my ears pierced at Claire's at the mall, which every body-mod person I've seen has told me is a really horrible idea.

Today I started to change my earrings, but I ended up just taking one out and putting it back in. Because of how painful my last attempt at getting my ears pierced was, I had a lot of anxiety about changing my earrings, but after just doing that much, I'm a lot more comfortable with it.

All the same, it's been 9 weeks (to the day) since I got it done, and I just got some new earrings in the mail. So, I was wondering...

1. The earrings I got pierced with are titanium, and these are stainless steel. My dad is allergic to nearly everything, so he suggested titanium because it's apparently difficult to be allergic to titanium? Is this true? The earrings I bought are stainless steel, what about that? I can't really afford pure gold or silver earrings, but are there any metals that I should definitely avoid (nickel)?

2. How long does it take one's ears to fully heal? A year? I was told to wait six weeks before changing my earrings, but as of today-- as I said, 9 weeks-- they're really obviously not fully healed (not that "you can change your earrings" and "your ears will be healed fully" are the same, no no no). I was planning on waiting at least 12 weeks-- what they suggested for cartilage piercing-- before I tried to change my earrings, but I'm eager to try on my new ones. Is there anything wrong with not changing my earrings-- these titanium studs I got pierced with?

3. The earrings I bought ( http://www.pugster.com/Stainless-Steel-Medieval-Cross-Earrings/p_ST_EAR_044 ) have a curved bar on them, and I've heard that makes them more difficult to get in/out? Because of that, should I wait to wear them until my ears are fully healed?

I think that's it, for now. Thanks for reading, I appreciate any info immensely. biggrin  

[dagon is a gloomy bear]

The most common metal allergy is nickel. If you don't know if you have an allergy you might find out the hard way. Unless you want to test it with other jewellery that's also SS. Just so you know, stainless steel usually has a small percentage of nickel in it.

Titanium jewellery doesn't have nickel or cobalt in it so most people don't have reactions to it. Same with high grade gold jewellery. These metals are elements, not alloys.

Fully heal is different for most people I find. You'll have to see when they feel "fully healed" to you. I don't think the curved bar will make much of a difference. I suggest waiting until you are comfortable with changing your earrings (no pain, you can tug on them and they don't react badly, taking out the jewellery is painless and effortless) and then try putting in your new ones.

Then you'll have to watch them carefully to see if you have any allergic reaction to them. Usually they will itch and go red before anything serious happens. Just switch back to your Ti ones if that happens and you'll have to buy different jewellery.  

[slimmeroo]

At this point, I am fortunately able to do pretty much anything to my ears without pain. I've been going out of my way to tug on my ears, the earrings, move them around, just tfiddle with the earrings a little when I clean them so I can get used to the feeling of it. The only pain was very, very faint while I was putting my earring back in; I couldn't quite find the back hole (the same problem I had on my first piercing attempt) and so I had to move the bar around a little to find it.

Thanks for the info. biggrin  

[dagon is a gloomy bear]

Ah, yeah, getting them in and out at such a small gauge can be tricky. Weirdest jewellery I've had to change and search around for the other side was my triangle. @__@