After leaving a piece of jewelry in your lobes for a certain period of time, your lobe will have loosened enough to accept jewelry that's one millimeter larger than your previous jewelry with no pain, resistance, or tearing. The minimum recommended time to wait before trying the next size is three months, though many industry professionals recommend waiting closer to six months. However, every stretch and every ear is different. You may find that some stretches take longer. No matter how long it takes, never force jewelry into your lobes.
The reason for the waiting is that the skin in your earlobes needs time to rebuild its collagen. Collagen is what supports a lot of the skin cell walls as well as the walls of blood vessels. If you rush the stretching process and don't allow your body to regenerate collagen, your lobes will suffer from poor circulation and thinning skin. …show more content…
Solid plugs will help your lobes naturally stretch better than eyelets. Weights should never be used to stretch, as they do not evenly distribute their weight and cause thin spots when used in this manner. Tapers are jewelry insertion tools used by professional piercers, not quick lobe stretching devices and definitely not jewelry; tapers force your lobes to stretch before they're ready, they frequently cause tearing and blowouts, and are never made of quality materials. Taping is also risky because no tapes have been proven safe for long term wear inside the body. Time, patience, and jewelry are the only tools you need to safely stretch your