What do you wear? When do you wear them? How often do you change them out?
I’ve had my ears pierced for almost 30 years now. I was always afraid of needles then I got a spinal tap as a teen and became no longer afraid. My aunt took me to get pierced at the mall a few weeks after I got out of the hospital.
I don’t remember when I got the second holes, or the single cartilage pierce. I let the cartilage close up decades ago. It was never comfortable.
For years and years I’ve been wearing small endless hoops in the lower holes and Comfy Earrings ball studs in the upper holes. Usually just silver/silver or gold/gold but every so often I get wild and put in a diamond Comfy stud or a colored jewel.
I used to wear small hoops in the lower holes and smaller hoops in the upper ones but they weren’t as comfy as studs.
I never take them out, until they fall out, or I need to take them out for some reason, or they get grody (this happens a lot in the summer). I just wash my ears with soap in the shower, and twist the earrings when I’m thinking about it.
I love wearing earrings but I also don’t put much thought or care into my earrings. I’ve never put much thought into how other people wear theirs. But now I’m curious!
I wear captive bead rings in all my piercings. They stay in 24/7/365 unless I have to have an MRI.
I have 12 in my left lobe and cartilage, one in my right tragus, and one in my left nipple. When someone asks why I have so many piercings, my standard reply is that any more would be excessive.
Are your holes regular gauge (like one would get at the mall kiosk) or do you have to have a larger gauge to wear captive bead rings? I was looking into switching from my endless hoops to those but for some reason I could not find a straight answer as to how they would fit in my “mall gauge” holes.
The endless loops I wear actually have a smaller wire that sits in the hole and typically the larger part that you see does not fit through the hole.
The one in the picture actually looks quite thin, which I like.
I’m female, and got my ears pierced 35 years ago in a mall: I got the standard one hole in each lobe, and thus has it remained (I got tattoos during the intervening years, but for whatever reason I’ve never been interested in additional holes). I wore gold at the time, but 15-20 years ago I switched to silver. I favor hoops – of various sizes and styles – but I love jewelry and have all kinds of earrings.
I admit I was a little hesitant to google it, but I’m glad I did-- I learned a new word today, thanks! (It’s the little flappy part in front of the ear canal).
I know the names of lots of random body parts, such as the groove between the nose and upper lip (philtrum), but had never heard that one. Ignorance fought.
I LOVE endless hoops. I have trouble finding the truly “endless” ones. like your picture- I like those better than the hoops with a post or clasp, though if a clasp is the right style, I could rock those too.
My Earring Game right now is getting back into the ear lobe gauge size I was wearing pre -pandemic.(5/8" seems too snug nowadays, as if my lobes put on some weight). Maybe they’ve just shrunk. My stretched lobes are not new, but since I had no reason to wear jewelry in public for so long I had gotten lazy. (Besides, there’s more going on with my ears when I’ve got a mask loop on them- why complicate things?)
I generally favor some eyelets, like silicone earskins and if I can wear the hoops through those, that’s great. I’ve got a few choice or sentimental pairs of dangly earrings that I wear on occasion,in smaller piercings right above the larger gauge holes.
I take them off every day. I might wear the same earrings several days in a row – depends on my mood and outfit – but I don’t wear any jewelry when I sleep, and I don’t wear any if I’m just hanging around the house (I live alone). Generally, no bra = no jewelry. I keep a pair of old hoops on my desk at home for Zoom meetings, and I rarely leave the house without earrings, a watch, and the two rings I always wear. I often wear a necklace, too, but they’re optional if I’m in a sweatshirt or t-shirt.
In case it wasn’t already in your repertoire, allow me to add “glabella.”
As for earrings, I did the whole mall piercing thing as a teen about 50 years ago, and maybe 6 or 8 years ago I added a second piercing in the lobe. I have an enormous collection of stud, drop, and dangling earrings; a few have semi-precious or precious stones, gold, pearls, etc., or represent the fine artwork of various cultures (for example, cloisonné), but many are just inexpensive baubles.
One pair that here in Hawai’i always elicits smiles and envy ("where did you get those? I want a pair!!!) is my miniature cans of Spam (Spam being insanely popular throughout the Pacific islands).
I change my earrings all the time, since I have so many choices and it seems a shame to have so many earrings and not enjoy wearing them. Usually I just put tiny black, gold, or pearl studs in the second holes and wear something dangling in the “main” holes.
No earring game to speak of anymore. When I was a teen in the eighties, I changed earrings every day to match my outfit. My favorites were a pair of lightning bolts. I used to paint them with nail polish when I got bored. I was enamored by a girl in my drama class who wore giant hoops, and used one of them for a key ring as well.
As I got older, I got less interested in dealing with the hassle of jewelry. Then about fifteen years ago, I wanted some cheap-ass hoops at Target (I wasn’t going to hang keys on them). However, my husband only wanted to spring for real gold, which I considered stupid. He doesn’t “get” costume jewelry, and I don’t “get” spending real money on sparkle, so I pretty much gave up wearing earrings. I do still have some diamond studs, and some diamond clusters, which I only wear on special occasions. And on those special occasions, I usually have to take five minutes or so re-drilling the holes!
All but one of mine were done in tattoo shops by piercers using needles. They’re all regular sized(?) 18 gauge I guess. You can buy CBRs in any gauge.
Go to a good tattoo shop and tell them you’re interested in getting captive bead rings for your existing piercings. You might need to make an appointment. If they don’t charge for inserting them be sure to tip $5.
I was the first guy to get an er piercing in my high school back in the mid 80s. I eventually got up to 3 holes, but I think the universe did not want me to have 3. On the way home from getting that done my car was hit and I was taken to the hospital where the earrings were removed for some reason.
I never got the 3rd hole again, and these days I don’t wear earrings anymore.
I used to see those quite often (or hear them, since they would usually be rattling/jingling as the person was walking). One person mentioned it’s in case the large gauge eyelet fell out, it wouldn’t get lost. While that seems plausible, I assume it was more personal choice than anything.
I got my ears pierced in college, one hole in each ear. I’ve loved collecting and wearing earrings ever since, and now have over 400 pairs. About a quarter of those are costume or novelty earrings, but the vast majority are traditional gold (white, rose or yellow) or sterling, many with gemstones. I change my earrings every day to match my outfit, although for about 18 months during lockdown when I wasn’t going to the office, I pretty much stopped wearing earrings except once in a while to keep my holes open. Now that I’m back in the office, I’m starting to appreciate my earrings again, and remembering all of the different styles and colors I have. Today I’m wearing a pair of round aqua crystal studs that my Mom back for me from a cruise.
A friend pierced my ears with a needle and an ice cube when I was 19. The hole on the left was too close to the bottom edge and after wearing heavy earrings for a few years, that hole had stretched out. I started wearing a stud in that hole and a regular earring in the right ear. I’ve done that now for 45 years or so. I can’t tell you how many times people have told me I’ve lost an earring. Nope. One earring is just my thing.
I have hundreds of them. I only wear silver. The studs are always sterling silver but I’m lucky that I have no problem with costume jewelry. Before covid and retirement (which happened at the same time) I never left the house without a necklace and earring that went with my outfit. Now I just wear them when I’m seeing friends. But, in fact, I went out to lunch today and realized when I saw this thread that I had forgotten to wear them. Even though last night I had picked out a crystal necklace and earring and they were on the bathroom counter. In the before times it was so routine that I never would have thought to leave the house without them. I’ve got to up my game now that life is sort of getting back to normalish.
I pierced my left ear back in the eighties. Did it myself in the bathroom mirror. At the time I had long hair and was going for the pirate, Viking, biker, rock star vibe. I wore a very small diamond stud and sometimes a very small, thin hoop. When I discovered the joys of really short hair in the mid nineties I quit wearing the earring for no particular reason. Now when you look at my earlobe, you can tell it was pierced at one time but I couldn’t get an earring through it. I’ve tried.
A friend of the family pierced my ears when I was 15 (parents wouldn’t let me do it when I was younger). A few years later, I went to a mall shop and got a second set of holes. Although I gave up wearing the second set of earrings because they were always studs, the holes never closed. The first set, I haven’t bothered with very much recently having been at home due to Covid. As I am wearing my hair short now, I tend to wear dangles when I go out, but otherwise just a pair of neutral posts work for the office. I’m 61.
I keep a pair of old hoops on my desk at home for Zoom meetings, and I rarely leave the house without earrings, a watch, and the two rings I always wear. I often wear a necklace, too, but they’re optional if I’m in a sweatshirt or t-shirt.