Ear gauges are different sized jewelry inserted into stretched ear lobes. Gauging is the process of stretching the lobes. Typically a long tapered earring that is small on one end and progressively gets larger in diameter, like a cone, is inserted into the ear to stretch the lobe. Body piercing, as well as stretching a piercing, can involve health risks and should be done by a certified professional piercer.
Slow Gauging
Piercers can use a gradual process to gauge earls. They slowly push a tapered earring into a healed ear piercing as far as possible without breaking the skin. After five days to two weeks, the piercer pushes the earring further toward the thick end. The process is repeated until the desired gauge, or hole size, is reached.
Fast Gauging
Piercers can also use a method to stretch the ear lobe quickly. The certified piercer takes a similar tapered earring and pushes it quickly through the ear piercing all the way to the thick end. This causes the skin to break and can take six to eight weeks to heal.An initial 18- or 20- gauge ear piercing takes six to eight weeks to heal.
Size of Jewelry
The smaller the gauge number, the larger the jewelry. The size of a newly pierced ear is usually around an 18- or 20-gauge, which is about 1/32 of an inch. A 14-gauge is 1/16 of an inch, while an 8-gauge is 1/8 of an inch and a 2-gauge is 1/2 of an inch. After a 2-gauge it goes to a 0-gauge and then a 00-gauge, which is 3/8 of an inch. Gauges are always even numbers, or multiple zeros, up to four.
Material of Jewelry
When you first gauge your ears, stick to materials that are not porous and have been sterilized. These materials include surgical stainless steel, glass, titanium and teflon. Once your ears heal you can explore other materials, such as carved wood, stone, bone and shell. No matter what material your jewelry is made of it is important to remove your earrings regularly and clean the stretched lobe as well as the jewelry to avoid infections.
Care
How you gauge your ears will affect the healing period but it is critical to wait for the stretched hole to heal completely between size upgrades. Never use hydrogen peroxide, antibiotic ointment or alcohol on healing ears, as it will do more harm than good.
