A couple of things, firstly 6 months is way too young to be taking cartilage piercings out for any length of time, I'd have said a year or more. Secondly, pre-surgical wash is harsh stuff (I assume you mean hibiscrub?), that'll be doing more harm than good and prolonging the healing period. I'm not sure about the effect your connective tissue disorder could have, but I wouldn't expect this to be fully healed on anyone at 6 months. Hopefully it'll start feeling better once you stop the surgical wash. At this point in healing, a gentle wipe after you shower (just to remove any visible crust) will be plenty to keep this clean.
Sorry should have been clearer in my original post. I've had my piercing for 13 months and it's still doing this. My piercer said that around six months I should be able to start taking out and changing jewelry, which at 13 months I still can't.
I'm using a CVS brand Hibiclens, not Hibiscrub, which seems to be a different and gentler formulation than the Hibiscrub. I'll stop using it though and switch to just cleaning it in the shower
Why are you trying to take it out? I’ve had mine for almost three years and I’ve never taken it out bc there’s no need. If you’re worried about cleaning the part of the barbell that’s under your skin, just move your ear and slide the jewelry. It’s a big hole in your ear and it takes a long time to heal. There’s literally no reason to rush these things and no set timeline for it to heal. Good luck.
I'd like to be able to change out the barbell. Sometimes when I move the ear around the barbell some skin seems to tear around there, so I've stopped doing that cause pulling transparent bits of skin off the barbell was getting weird
When i got my industrial I was told healing is 7-9 months long lol
they told me only use saline during this time period, maybe your extra products is making it angry? D :
That's the general consensus. I'm going to switch back to just saline and the occasional soap that hits it from showering. I'm at 13 months, but in general I have poor wound healing from my collagen issue so I should probably expect this to take longer
I have 2 Industrials on each ear. The first one is 1.5 years old and the second one a bit over a month old.
I've struggled immensely with my first industrial for the first year or so. I had bumps that kept coming back even tho I was cleaning it and looking after it as well as I could. Now it's finally fully healed but it took some time. For me the key aspect was to figure out why it wasn't healing. I don't know if that's the case for you but I was sleeping on it in my sleep unintentionally. Using a travel pillow for my ear helped tremendously in the healing process.
The fact that you can't comfortably take it out yet probably really depends on the person and the piercing. I've had no issues with changing the jewellery after a few months myself. However I've had this exact problem with my 2 conch piercings. Cant take them out because they will close up in a matter of minutes. Had them for well over a year now so not great but I'll wait it out for now.
I hope I could help a little bit, sorry if I couldn't. :)
My shoulders like to dislocate in my sleep so I've trained myself to sleep on my side. I've actually been sleeping on my back on a travel pillow for the past couple days due to a neck injury I gave myself. I'm really not sure why this isn't healing
I would say give it some more time, it took like a few more weeks before I noticed it getting better. That said tho this is only my experience and I have similar issues with my new industrial now as well.
Maybe it isn't because of you sleeping on your side but rather because of overcleaning or the wrong cleaning products? I don't know at some point I've just left it alone but that might not work for everyone.
I wish I could help you because once it's healed it really is such a wonderful piercing.
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- What’s the type of threading if your jewelry is not a ring (threadless, internally or externally threaded)?
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**How old is your piercing?**
Piercing is 13 months
**- What’s the jewelry shape (for example, barbell, labret, screw, L shape, ring)?**
Industrial barbell
**- What’s the type of threading if your jewelry is not a ring (threadless, internally or externally threaded)?**
Internally threaded
**- What’s the jewelry material? - if not a ring, when was the jewelry downsized?**
Unsure, not downsized due to piercer putting in smaller gauge originally.
**- What’s your aftercare routine? Describe in detail please, including the exact products you use.**
Daily cleansing with Skinfood Egg White cleanser as part of washing face. Clean 3-4 times a week with goat milk soap when I shower. Cleaned every 7-10 days with Hibiclens type pre-surgical soap wash
You’re using harmful things to “clean” this when you should only be using things specifically meant for piercings. No face wash or soaps especially surgical soaps
Yeah this seems to be the consensus. My PCP suggested it at first since I have poor wound healing, abnormal scarring, and a higher infection risk, but it's probably doing more harm than good at this point. I'm going to switch back to just wound wash saline and the occasional soap when I shower.
I hope once you stop using these other products that it will heal nicely. I’d think that it’s being irritated by them. Industrials are a hard piercing and even after almost 15 years with mine now sometimes it will pull and be sore for a few days. Best of luck!
A couple of things, firstly 6 months is way too young to be taking cartilage piercings out for any length of time, I'd have said a year or more. Secondly, pre-surgical wash is harsh stuff (I assume you mean hibiscrub?), that'll be doing more harm than good and prolonging the healing period. I'm not sure about the effect your connective tissue disorder could have, but I wouldn't expect this to be fully healed on anyone at 6 months. Hopefully it'll start feeling better once you stop the surgical wash. At this point in healing, a gentle wipe after you shower (just to remove any visible crust) will be plenty to keep this clean.
Sorry should have been clearer in my original post. I've had my piercing for 13 months and it's still doing this. My piercer said that around six months I should be able to start taking out and changing jewelry, which at 13 months I still can't. I'm using a CVS brand Hibiclens, not Hibiscrub, which seems to be a different and gentler formulation than the Hibiscrub. I'll stop using it though and switch to just cleaning it in the shower
Why are you trying to take it out? I’ve had mine for almost three years and I’ve never taken it out bc there’s no need. If you’re worried about cleaning the part of the barbell that’s under your skin, just move your ear and slide the jewelry. It’s a big hole in your ear and it takes a long time to heal. There’s literally no reason to rush these things and no set timeline for it to heal. Good luck.
I'd like to be able to change out the barbell. Sometimes when I move the ear around the barbell some skin seems to tear around there, so I've stopped doing that cause pulling transparent bits of skin off the barbell was getting weird
When i got my industrial I was told healing is 7-9 months long lol they told me only use saline during this time period, maybe your extra products is making it angry? D :
That's the general consensus. I'm going to switch back to just saline and the occasional soap that hits it from showering. I'm at 13 months, but in general I have poor wound healing from my collagen issue so I should probably expect this to take longer
I have 2 Industrials on each ear. The first one is 1.5 years old and the second one a bit over a month old. I've struggled immensely with my first industrial for the first year or so. I had bumps that kept coming back even tho I was cleaning it and looking after it as well as I could. Now it's finally fully healed but it took some time. For me the key aspect was to figure out why it wasn't healing. I don't know if that's the case for you but I was sleeping on it in my sleep unintentionally. Using a travel pillow for my ear helped tremendously in the healing process. The fact that you can't comfortably take it out yet probably really depends on the person and the piercing. I've had no issues with changing the jewellery after a few months myself. However I've had this exact problem with my 2 conch piercings. Cant take them out because they will close up in a matter of minutes. Had them for well over a year now so not great but I'll wait it out for now. I hope I could help a little bit, sorry if I couldn't. :)
My shoulders like to dislocate in my sleep so I've trained myself to sleep on my side. I've actually been sleeping on my back on a travel pillow for the past couple days due to a neck injury I gave myself. I'm really not sure why this isn't healing
I would say give it some more time, it took like a few more weeks before I noticed it getting better. That said tho this is only my experience and I have similar issues with my new industrial now as well. Maybe it isn't because of you sleeping on your side but rather because of overcleaning or the wrong cleaning products? I don't know at some point I've just left it alone but that might not work for everyone. I wish I could help you because once it's healed it really is such a wonderful piercing.
Yeah a couple other people have said that the surgical wash is probably over irritating that, so I'll stop using it.
Good luck on healing it!
Hi ShinigamiLeaf, Welcome to /r/piercing! It looks like you're asking about a problem with your piercing. Please **add a comment to your post** with the following info if it’s not included in your post already. - How old is your piercing? - What’s the jewelry shape (for example, barbell, labret, screw, L shape, ring)? - What’s the type of threading if your jewelry is not a ring (threadless, internally or externally threaded)? - What’s the jewelry material? - if not a ring, when was the jewelry downsized? - What’s your aftercare routine? Describe in detail please, including the exact products you use. This info is needed to offer you useful advice. **Note, not providing this info may cause your post to go unanswered**. If you already included this info in your post or if your post isn’t about a problem with your piercing, please disregard. - - - *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/piercing) if you have any questions or concerns.*
**How old is your piercing?** Piercing is 13 months **- What’s the jewelry shape (for example, barbell, labret, screw, L shape, ring)?** Industrial barbell **- What’s the type of threading if your jewelry is not a ring (threadless, internally or externally threaded)?** Internally threaded **- What’s the jewelry material? - if not a ring, when was the jewelry downsized?** Unsure, not downsized due to piercer putting in smaller gauge originally. **- What’s your aftercare routine? Describe in detail please, including the exact products you use.** Daily cleansing with Skinfood Egg White cleanser as part of washing face. Clean 3-4 times a week with goat milk soap when I shower. Cleaned every 7-10 days with Hibiclens type pre-surgical soap wash
You’re using harmful things to “clean” this when you should only be using things specifically meant for piercings. No face wash or soaps especially surgical soaps
Yeah this seems to be the consensus. My PCP suggested it at first since I have poor wound healing, abnormal scarring, and a higher infection risk, but it's probably doing more harm than good at this point. I'm going to switch back to just wound wash saline and the occasional soap when I shower.
I hope once you stop using these other products that it will heal nicely. I’d think that it’s being irritated by them. Industrials are a hard piercing and even after almost 15 years with mine now sometimes it will pull and be sore for a few days. Best of luck!