How To Help A New Piercing To Heal Properly

Fashionable piercings have always been an important part of your jewellery wardrobe, but more unusual piercings are becoming more a part of the norm. Whether you’ve opted for a cool nose ring or an on trend set of helix piercings, you need to care for a new piercing properly to ensure it heals well and doesn’t become infected. 

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Use A Piercer Who Uses A Needle, Not A Gun

For healthy piercings, it’s important to have the piercing done properly by a professional in the first place. If you have friends with a few piercings, ask them for a recommendation for a good piercer that they have used. Look for somewhere that uses needles to pierce, rather than the guns. A piercing gun, thanks to the plastic parts, are much harder to sterilise and keep clean. This means they’re more likely to cause infection, as they may not be as clean as you would hope. A needle is much easier to sterilise, making for a cleaner pierce. Needles are also more accurate, giving you a better piercing too. 

Protect The Piercing From Knocks

Most issues for new piercings are caused by knocking or catching the earring. Be gentle with the piercing while it is healing to avoid bumping it. While exercising, sleeping or other activities where you are more likely to snag your ears (or wherever the piercing is), cover the piercing with a plaster. 

Keep The Piercing Clean

Get into a proper cleaning routine to ward off infection. New piercings should be cleaned twice a day to keep them healthy. Make sure you always wash your hands before touching the piercing, so you don’t accidentally introduce germs. Moisten the peircing with clean fingers, and then clean the area carefully. Some piercers suggest using rubbing alcohol, but others think this dries out the area, making it slower to heal. Saline solution is a better option, as it cleans without drying. You could also use an oil based soap and water, to clean and soften the healing tissue. 

When cleaning, remember that you can turn the piercing when it is wet, but you shouldn’t do this when dry to avoid painful snagging. Try not to touch your piercing between cleans. 

Keep An Eye Out For Signs Of Irritation

Different piercings will take longer to heal. Standard earlobe peircings will take between two and three months to heal, whereas a cartilage peircing could take up to ten months to heal fuller. Cartilege piercings need a little more care and attention to help them heal too. 

Look out for signs of irritation, like redness, swelling, fluid leaking from the area, or soreness. When all these sympoms have died down, the peircing is healed. Healong will take some patience, as your body sees your new peircing as a foreign object that should be rejected. If you stay on top of your cleaning routine and care for the peircing properly, you can help it to heal faster and without any problems.