Stretching existing holes is what I would term to be the easiest and most painless piercing related experience I’ve had. I’ve had holes stretched almost everyone on my ear – lobe and cartilage. The most extreme stretching I had was in my earlobe, although I only got up to a 4 gauge at the largest (for those that don’t know, the smaller the number the bigger the hole). 4 guage is roughly the size of the end of a pencil (I know this because I could fit a pencil in there) so it’s not super huge but not dinky either.

Mine looked like this:

I had some wicked glass plugs that I loved, but not the best people who are lazy and don’t like to take their earring out at night…I’ll address that later in my earring post. 

 I should probably also mention that I didn’t do that all at once, and I did pay to have a professional do it.  I had an awesome piercer that I trusted and it is usually safer to have a professional do it, even if it’s just stretching an existing hole.  Also if you do it right, it probably costs about the same to have it professionally done as it does to do it yourself.  My piercer charged me $10 or $15 per stretching plus whatever jewelry I chose.  Not too bad. 

 There are 3 ways to stetch holes, some are smarter than others.  One is to use a highly lubricated taper (a rod that is small at one end, and bigger at the other) which can be done by a professional or by yourself.  The downside is that tapers cost about what a professional will charge you, so – for me – I’d just assume have someone do it.  Either way, you can get them at most places that sell body jewelry.  Also you shouldn’t go more than a few sizes at once…I went from 20 (standard earring size), to 14, to 8 to 4.  So no more than 6 at a time.  Otherwise you could blow out your ear – ouch!  Healing, like I said, is almost painless and I experienced little to no soreness. 

 The second way is to force a bigger earring into a smaller hole.  We did this with my husband’s ears – and he’d probably tell you that it hurt a lot at the time, and was sore for a few days.  Nothing terrible, but probably not the smartest way to do things.  That way you risk tearing the skin, which can cause scarring or infection.  More than likely at least pain.  I think a lot of people use this way, but I don’t recommend it for going up more than 2 numbers at a time (ie 14 -12).   Also once you start stretching, your skin will start stetching easier…so keep that in mind if it’s your first time. 

The third way I’ve heard of to stetch, I’ve never personally tired, but I have heard it’s effective.  However, it’s also slow and impracticle.  This would be to get some kind of heavy earring and wear it constantly until your hole is bigger.  While this works, I think you run a greater risk of uneven stetching and weird hole shapping.  Case and point – you ever seen an old woman wearing dangly earrings with long holes that look like they might break?  I rest my case.  I’ve also heard of people hanging padlocks from their ears – same principle, but I think also carrys the same risks, and then…who wants to walk around with a padlock on their ear?  Maybe it’s an undiscovered trend, but for this one I’d pay someone else to do it slowly. 

 And for those of you that wonder – they do go back.  My 4′s are now a 14, and many of my stetched holes are completely closed up now.  My husband took out some 12 and 14 gauge holes for work for a few months and suddenly they were 14 and 20 (what they were previous to his painful stetching effort).  I’ve heard that larger holes don’t necessarily go back, but I think that’s a myth.  Skin is very elastic, and as long as you do it slowly (stetching and closing) you shouldn’t be any worse for the wear. Plus it really opens up earring options ^_^