So your piercing is healed and you are ready to try out some new piercing jewellery. Piercing jewellery for healed piercings has more variety than the jewellery you would have worn while healing your latest body mod.
Firstly, are you totally sure that your piercing is completely healed? Patience pays off with piercings and waiting a few weeks after you think your piercing is healed to change your jewellery can help the wound to completely close. While on the surface your piercing may look healed, the channel may still be healing internally so giving your body extra time can help you to successfully change your jewellery. Plus it will also save you any pain and irritation from changing the jewellery.
What to do when piercing is healed?
If your piercing is healed you will be able to dial back your cleaning routine. Some people like to slowly reduce their aftercare from twice a day cleaning to once a day and then reduce it further to every other day. Others prefer to completely stop cleaning to see how the body reacts. It is likely that you may still experience crusts or build-up from time to time so checking your piercing and making sure to clean it when you do notice any build-up is a good habit to get into. You will also need to keep your piercing jewellery clean and sterile so make sure to clean your jewellery when you change it and always clean any new jewellery before using it.
Other signs that your piercing is healed include no blood, crusting, discharge, or swelling. Can you freely move your jewellery forward and backwards without irritation and discomfort? Does your piercing hole look smoothed over with new skin, as if the hole has always been part of your body? If you can tick off all these items then you may be ready to change the jewellery in your healed piercings.
While it may be tempting to focus completely on aesthetics when choosing your new piercing jewellery, the material and type are very important factors to consider. The first time you change your piercing jewellery, you may want to try another stud or bar. Switching to a piece of jewellery that is heavy or has dangly adornments may be too much too soon for your new piercing as it puts extra pressure on the hole. Choosing another stud in a different colour or with a cute gem or charm on the end is the perfect stepping stone into other types of piercing jewellery. Slowly try out other types of material to see how your body reacts. Most people can wear titanium but now your piercing is healed you can browse surgical steel, acrylic, gold, silver, wood, and BioFlex jewellery.
If you are looking for piercing jewellery for sensitive skin then the material is the most important factor. Stick to jewellery you already know your body can handle in high grades such as implant grade titanium, and some gold or silver jewellery. Sometimes people with sensitive skin find that their body can’t cope with surgical steel jewellery or other types of metal that contain nickel such as plated jewellery. You can also consider plastic jewellery such as acrylic or BioFlex.
Is BioPlast safe for healed piercings?
BioPlast is safe for healed piercings because it is a medical type of plastic that is designed to be compatible with the body. While most people only use this type of jewellery as piercing retainers, it can be used in healed piercings successfully. If you prefer natural materials, you can change to wood or gemstone piercing jewellery once your piercing has healed. This is usually used in stretched piercings.
You may be thinking about stretching your piercing. Before doing this you need to be 100. confident that your piercing is healed. It is always recommended to consult your piercer before starting to stretch a piercing so they can assess it and offer advice. If you aren’t ready for this step, why not trial fake ear stretchers to see how your lobes would look if you did stretch them?
If your piercings are showing no signs of irritation when you change the jewellery then you can start to consider trying hoops or dangly jewellery pieces in piercings such as lips, ears, belly buttons, etc.
There are some very simple switches you can make if you are unsure about changing your jewellery such as changing the add on ball. Alternatively, make an easy switch to a user-friendly type of jewellery such as a barbell, labret, hinged segment ring, or navel bar.
We know that when you got your piercing, you likely had a dream aesthetic in mind and after all your hard work to heal your piercing you can finally try it out! With hundreds of pieces of body jewellery available at Blue Banana, you can curate your ear constellation or finally switch to a piercing hoop. Make sure to tag us on social media - we love to see your choice of piercing jewellery and different combinations of piercings.
