An interesting week

Interesting week. I had an ear lob piercing this week but the most interesting
part was the reaction. I was concerned about the pain and the scary entrance into
a tattoo shop. So daughter and wife went along for moral support. Daughter said I don't
ask much of her, so an invite to this event was flattering. She checked in 2 days ahead,
1 day ahead, and many times on day of to see that I was not talked out of it.

Kind of difficult to back out with that support and it was really encouraging to feel
support as it made it "more fun". So now I have tiny, tiny, tiny 3mm cz studs.

What I didn't know til afterwards a key point as did not see these mentioned on the
forums.

-- can't not wear earrings for 4 hrs during first year. Yikes, going to keep mini
studs for later. I thought for questionable events, I could have holes without earrings.
Only after three yrs can you go a day without earrings.

The issue here is we have a tradition of greater family Thanksgiving gathering and
annual three day weekend of all the four brothers. I really question if any of them would approve and
one or two may be hostile. Will find out later.

Got to get head around this still. Most of the time wife likes/endures/supports but sometimes
it's "I not sure I like you with earrings".
Any one have any advice here on what to say?

Oh, other daughter hasn't seen photos yet, she's further away and we've been too tired with
life for photos. She is asking for same, and not really concerned. So more matter of crossing the T's
and dotting i's.

I think you might be overreacting, earrings on men have been common place for decades. Live your own life and don't let other people dictate it.
Piercings usually heal in about 6 to 8 weeks then you can remove them, just keep the area clean. I have 7 piercings on my body and never had any problems with infections. And nobody deserves an answer as to why you decided to get your ears pierced, because it's nobody's business but yours.

Peace & Love
Gerri

Congrats on getting your ears pierced. Echo on the 6 to 8 weeks, I have 3 in the left ear and 2 in the right. At about 6 to 8 weeks you can remove them for for a good part of the day (I removed mine when I went to work) and put them back in when at home. Keeping the area is key to infection. After it heals completely (which varies with everyone) you can leave them out for longer periods of time. I rarely wear more than one in each ear but the other holes are still open when I want to wear more than one pair. Good luck and enjoy, I love feeling the dangling from my ears.

Unlike Majella, I had a real problem with the healing. There was a certain amount of swelling at first so I waited about eight weeks before trying to change them. After about eight weeks I tried taking the original studs out, and I lost a piece down the sink drain. I went to a local tattoo shop and bought a pair of tiny gold hoops. They made the swelling worse and I was getting seepage and even some bleeding.

I finally figured out that the new hoops were not good quality, and replaced them with 14k. gold. Problem immediately solved. I was apparently having an allergic reaction to the metal.

I have worn them constantly since and in seven months have gotten 2 comments. Both positive.

Congratulations.

Never heard that about Not wearing them for 4 hours the first year. I was simply told not to take the starters out for 6 weeks, rotate and clean them about every 4 hours.
Once mine healed and I was able to wear what I pleased I never again had them out for 4 hours at any time. I didn't have them done to Not wear them.

Now they have been double pierced for nearly 20 years and they almost never come out except for cleaning the earrings.
Unlike some I never had an issue with the type of post or anything. I can wear almost anything, but prefer my white gold diamond studs in my uppers all the time and something else in the lowers. Generally that's a small hoop but varies with my mood, hair and outfit.

Suffer the wait, it will be so worth it in the long run. That first day when the starters come out and you don a pair of hoops, or chandeliers after you do your makeup and hair will be wonderful. You'll wonder why you waited so long.

Cheryl-- they stopped recommending rotating about 20 years ago.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by April Rose

Unlike Majella, I had a real problem with the healing. There was a certain amount of swelling at first so I waited about eight weeks before trying to change them.

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I don't think I will have that issue. Went to a high quality tattoo shop and posts are implant grade titanium and were fully sterilized in autoclave. All is going quite well at this point

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Majella St Gerard

I think you might be overreacting, earrings on men have been common place for decades.

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Don't think so. One brother harrassed me for 3 years about "long finger nails" "womans nails". They were barely 1/4 of an inch long. He loves mechanics length. Almost no length of nail showing. He also had issues when had a pony tail. Alas hair is now too thin and sparse for pony tail.

We live in an adult community of 4,000 homes and I have yet to see a guy in our community with earrings. Not worried about community just 2 brothers may have issues. We'll know next Jan. Like I said, it will be an interest year.

You could use a piece of monofilament fishing line cut slightly longer than the lobe is thick for a low visibility filler when you need to go without earrings.

Congrats!!! Wear your earrings with pride and don't worry about what others think. Your body! Your life!

My parents hated my earrings, which I got (4 total) in my 30's. So what? They also hated my tats, my long hair, my lack of a college degree and my musical preferences. But they never disowned me over any of those things.
Work never cared about my earrings. Friends never cared. My kids didn't care. My wife cared, she encouraged me to get all 4.

As for the after care, I was told to rotate them, keep them clean and not take them out for about 6 weeks. This was the same for the 3 done at the mall kiosk and the 1 done right by an actual piercer. No problems with any of them.

I'll echo what others have said: once they heal, which takes 4 - 6 weeks, you can take them out and put them in whenever you want. The longest I've gone without wearing my earrings since they were pierced 12 years ago was about a couple of months. I was worried they might close up, but they didn't. The only problem I've ever had was when I wore heavy loops that pulled on the earlobes pretty strongly. It was sore for a couple of days, but then the ears were good to go for more earrings.

Salt water soaks greatly reduces healing time.

I forgot to mention the funniest part. I was asking the piercer how long before could change out to dangling earrings. He said "I don't see you wearing those type of earrings." Huh, I know I come across as military, but hey that is the main reason I went ahead. Studs don't do anything, but nice drop danglies, that is a whole different ballgame.

I keep saying I will do it someday, yep, I will tell you when.