PIERCING AFTERCARE
The best advice we can give you for healing piercings is to leave it alone! No touching, twisting, fiddling, messing!
We encourage the use of sterile saline spray twice a day to clean your piercings. Wash your hands before cleaning your piercings, spray the saline front and back and blot away excess with kitchen roll, do not use cotton buds or towels as these can leave little fibres.
Do not use your saline spray more than twice a day as this can actually dry out your skin and could then make it sore.
You can also use the shower to give your piercing a good blast, this will remove any bits of loose crust without you picking, and once you are out, give your piercing a blast with a cool hairdryer to dry it. Moisture can lead to bacteria which can lead to infection.
Localised pain, swelling, bleeding, bruising, clear liquid & crust on fresh piercings is completely normal. It is your body's natural response to an injury, which is what a piercing essentially is.
Avoid sleeping on fresh piercings as not only can this spread bacteria from your bedding, it can also cause your piercing to heal on an angle. If you can not avoid sleeping on the side of your fresh piercing then I highly recommend getting a travel pillow or a piercing pillow and sleeping with your ear in the hole.
It is important to know the difference between an irritated piercing and an infected piercing. An irritated piercing could have a small bump (which is completely different to keloid scarring and will go away once the piercing is no longer irritated) and could be red. Irritated piercings are usually caused by over cleaning your piercing or not downsizing your jewellery.
An infected piercing will be swollen and red, hot to touch, very painful and may be leaking a thick green/yellow pus, if this is the case- visit your GP immediately. You may still be able to save the piercing with some antibiotics but you want to ensure your piercing doesn't embed due to the swelling. This is why we pierce with a longer bar than necessary.
The piercing wound heals outside to inside so while the outside seems healed, chances are the inside is not. Some piercings can take up to 12 months to be fully healed.
Avoid submerging your fresh piercings in water; such as baths, swimming pools, hot tubs etc. and avoid applying makeup, perfume, lotions etc. from around the area.
Your piercer should always be there to offer advice and guidance on your piercings. We want them to heal beautifully, like you do too. But there is only so much we can do, the healing of your piercing falls to you!