Stretching Your Piercings

Why We Don't Offer Stretching as a Service

One question we occasionally receive at Cherrycore is whether we offer ear stretching services.

The answer is both yes and no.

As professional piercers, we routinely assist with minor jewellery upsizing and jewellery changes when appropriate. However, stretching a piercing to accommodate larger jewellery such as tunnels, plugs or ear weights is not typically considered a professional piercing service in the same way that performing a new piercing is or minor sizing changes.

Stretching Is a Personal Journey

The reality is that there is no single stretching method that suits everyone.

Your anatomy, skin elasticity, healing history, lifestyle, comfort levels and end goals all play an important role in determining what approach is best for you.

For some people, stretching is a relatively straightforward process. For others, it requires significant patience, careful planning and ongoing adjustments.

Because of these variables, stretching is ultimately a personal decision and a process that benefits from thorough research before getting started.

Education Comes First

Unlike a standard piercing appointment, stretching is often a long-term project that can take years depending on your goals.

Understanding the risks, timelines, jewellery options and proper techniques is essential before beginning.

For reliable information, we strongly recommend starting with the educational resources available through the Association of Professional Piercers (APP). Their resources provide evidence-based information and are an excellent starting point for anyone considering stretching.

How Cherrycore Can Help

While we don't provide full stretching education or guide clients through the stretching process itself, we are happy to assist once you've completed your research and have a clear understanding of your goals or have some general questions you would like us to clarify.

Our team can help you:

• Select appropriate jewellery options.
• Discuss suitable materials.
• Assess existing piercings.
• Assist with jewellery fittings where appropriate.
• Help refine your jewellery choices as your stretching journey progresses.

Think of it this way: stretching is something you choose and undertake for yourself, while our role is to help ensure you have access to quality jewellery and professional guidance when needed.

Take Your Time

If you're considering stretching, our biggest piece of advice is simple:

Take your time.

The most successful stretching journeys are usually the ones that move slowly, prioritise tissue health and allow the body to adapt naturally.

Research first, understand your options, decide what approach aligns with your goals, and then reach out if you would like us to facilitate and explore jewellery choices with you.

Stretching 101: 

• Piercing placement matters, if your piercings are not pierced with the intent for stretching they maybe lower than ideal. This means if you are about to start you need to see a piercer that understands lobe placement for stretching and if you have had them piercer for years you may need a review to assess if the old passage should be removed in the process of creating a new location. An expansion of the pre existing location.
• The process is: One size at a time, don’t go skipping sizes because you feel as though you can handle it, its not about tough points, its about tissue health. Fast stretching may feel comfortable and be misleading and then you will be shocked how fast your skin thins and this can lead to blood loss and tissue death.
• Starting from 18ga to 10mm may look like this: 18g, 16g, 14g, 12g, 10g, 8g, 6g, 4g, 2g, 0g, 00g or it may look like 1mm, 2mm, 3mm, 4mm, 5mm, 6mm, 7mm, 8mm, 9mm, 10mm or it may e a combination of the two.
• Once you start getting a little bigger in sizes, your body should / will naturally stretch with the weight of the jewellery, this is both good and bad. 
• Tapers are not jewellery, yes back in the day it was common to see but that never made it right. People didn’t know better back then but we know better now.
• Not only should you not wear tapers as jewellery you should avoid any non medical grades of plastics. This is a big one! Cheap acrylics are non to be toxic for your skin. Dermatitis from low quality plastics can be the start of the end of your stretching.
• Increasing to fast creates scars and scars create elasticity issues, just because you’re stretching with a round item doesn’t mean you are stretching evenly when scars are involved.
• Blow outs are not always self treatable or fixable. If you go to fast you may create a blow out, this is generally unsightly and problematic but in some cases it can actually assist in going larger because its created a larger volume of tissue and increased blood vessel structure. So while definitely not great, 1 in a blue moon will be able to utilise this to their benefit and thats most likely not you but the internet will touch on this in your searches and create confusion if you are not pre warned.
• Ensure you mix lighter jewellery into your collection once you hit your gaol size to maintain your size.
• Ensure you mix your materials, utilise different materials like glass, metal, stone and wood to your advantage. In the peek of summer stone can be rather refreshing and in the dead of winter wood can be relieving. The larger you go the more weather and client control can impact your wear choices and how you will care for your skin.
• Skin health: look to the cosmetic industry for extra advantages on skin health. Of course some fan favourites are always worth looking into like Jojoba oil, emu oil, coconut oil, extra virgin caster oil, hemp seed oil. But when we look to skin care hyaluronic acid is great for hydration and retinol can assist with cell regeneration.
• Regardless of it you have access to a sauna or creating your own warmth treatments at home they are a fantastic way to boost oxogen to you ears. never use when your skin in inflamed or swollen. 
• Sleeping nude, sounds cheeky but its what we call removing your jewellery to sleep at night. This is a must but not suitable for everyone until the ears are stable and of sound help. Mixing your ear wear will help make this easier. You can also start with shorter time frames and extend to experiment and allow your body to adjust.
• Weight shock is a thing; its when you have been wearing heavy jewellery and you remove it then your ears fill with blood and swell up, in this situation you are actually best to but a smaller size of something heavy back in to allow your ears not to become overwhelmed. If they puff to quickly your skin can crack and create issues for you.
• Air shock is a thing; when you have been wearing metal for an extended time frame your skin may become raw or sweaty ect and when you remove your jewellery the skin drys out rapidly and tightens right up. This is why cleaning your ears is so important and making sure you can get to a point where wearing nothing effects nothing.

Summary:

Safely get to your dream size, keep all of your prior sizes safely stored you may need them again, expand your jewellery range to include different materials, never force anything in your skin, hydrate matters both internally and externally, aim to sleep nude, research and listen to your body always.