Aftercare | My Site

Aftercare 101

Sterile Saline Solution

Wash your hands thoroughly with hot, soapy water before interacting with your piercing – remember, it’s a fresh wound.
No touching, picking or twisting, don't over clean, this can make the healing take longer as you are over working the healing wound.
Spray the area with saline spray - can do this directly or on kitchen roll/woven.
Wipe away any white-yellow lymph fluid or dry matter, using none woven gauze, or clean kitchen roll.
Pat dry gently with kitchen roll. Do this gently, don't be rough/hard on the area, as that will cause damage to the healing stage.

LITFA Method

Wash your hands thoroughly with hot, soapy water before interacting with your piercing – remember, it’s a fresh wound.
No touching, picking or twisting, don't over clean, this can make the healing take longer as you are over working the healing wound.
Clean in the shower, so rinse off with warm water.
Wipe away any white-yellow lymph fluid or dry matter, using none woven gauze, or clean kitchen roll.
Pat dry gently with kitchen roll. Do this gently, don't be rough/hard on the area, as that will cause damage to the healing stage.

Stages of healing

STAGE 1

Inflammation

The inflammatory phase begins almost immediately after your piercing and can last between 3-6 days, it can sometimes last a little longer than that at times.

Once you are pierced, your body works straight away at clotting the scene, it's all to do with your blood cells (which are crazy) they create a barrier as such around the open wound to protect you from the inside and outside. Whenever we hear the word inflammation it is kind of scary, but don't worry it's a good thing, means your body is working and protecting itself.

STAGE 2

Begin to heal

The proliferative phase is the second thing that happens to a new healing piercing. It starts around 2 days after the piercing is done and continues for 4-6 weeks.

Once those weeks have passed, I usually get you to come in for a downsize and this is the perfect time to do so, as the inflammation has settled, no sign of significant swelling or pure redness.

A downsize means that I will install a shorter piece of jewellery so it's a little more "snugger" like to the piercing area, so it doesn't go irritated or heal at an angle. I will inform you when you'll need a downsize, as said though everyone's stages are going to be different so you might need longer before the downsize, or you may need multiple downsizes due to the type/or area of the piercing.

STAGE 3

Remodel

This is the final stage and important one to, this is when your fragile piercing starts to take structure in building itself or as some say remodel, where it starts to form "normal" tissue surrounding the piercing channel.

This starts around 6 weeks post piercing and can last up to 2 years. At this stage the piercing shouldn't be so sensitive or sore, it'll start to become comfortable and sometimes a piercing can "nest" into the area (this is completely different to imbedding).

I usually inform you a piercing can take anywhere from 6 - 12 months to fully heal, sometimes it can be longer. I say it like that due to above statement, a piercing can be uncomfortable and sore for longer than "8 weeks", it can take up to 6 months for that to go. Also, redness and irritation can defiantly happen at the 4-6 months' timeframe, and sometimes can happen when the piercing is a year or so old, this can be due to it being caught, or due to your workplace, or due to your health.

I'm hoping this clears up some questions you may have, and you can understand the full depth of the piercing healing stages.

To simplify it.

The piercing site will be sore for the first few days, you will see signs of site swelling, bleeding and bruising - this is normal.

Swelling stage can be from 2 days to 6 weeks, sometimes longer. Best way to get rid of swelling is keeping hydrated, no touching it, no sleeping on it, and just leaving it alone. You can do some cold compression, that can help with swelling and bruising. You will also see more discharge at this stage, the discharge will be clear to yellow colour, it's totally normal.

After your downsize which is at 4-6 weeks, that can sometimes be longer, I'm now seeing downsizes being done in a 6-8 weeks period due to climate.
You'll notice that your jewellery is snugger to your piercing site, but at this stage your piercing is still in the healing stage, it's still fragile, sore, uncomfortable and a little swelling can be there. You will see some discolouration of your skin tissue, don't worry that's normal too, just means that the blood flow is building meaning it's healing correctly.

8-12 weeks is the period where you can remove jewellery, but not for a long period of time, as with piercings they are unpredictable so the piercing to shrink or close up is unknown. It will be fragile and sore when removing and installing jewellery, so please keep that in mind. You'll feel itchiness and tightness, this is normal, your skin is a living and working organ so it's trying to understand what the hell is going on.

4-6 months is the fun part, PAITENCE. Keeping the piercing area clean, and following the aftercare instructions, it'll be a breeze.

6-12 months, healed piercing, as stated it can take longer than this, but usually at this point your piercing should feel more comfortable, not fragile, easy to change to different jewellery, your skin is back to normal colour, still a healthy discharge and your jewellery shouldn't move about much.

Piercing troubleshoot

Piercings can swell like crazy, not sure why it does that, but hey it's something completely different & foreign to the body. Whenever swelling happens best thing to do is keep the area cool, you can do this by doing cold compression with anything like an ice pack from the freezer or a good one I learned is a hot water bottle but been kept in the fridge. Holding it over the area will help cool it down from being a diva. Try not to sleep or bump the areas, try to wash your hair when needed as shampoo & conditioner can do some crazy things to a fresh piercing (swelling wise).

Irritation is a hard one to breakdown as everything can irritate a piercing. The main culprit is moisture, when you wash your hair and go to bed with damp hair, your pillow can harbour that moisture and stay damp for a long time, so I'm now suggesting people wash their hair in the morning, or dry the hair completely before bed.
Our body sweats, detoxicates itself throughout the day / night, so check the area, if it feels gross, clean and dry it - however don't over clean it, let it get a little crusty means your body is reacting the correct way of healing an open wound, but don't get it get built up, as that's how you can loose your jewellery.

The usual is downsizing, this helps a more smoother healing period for the piercing, but leaving in the jewellery that's of larger sizing can irritate the piercing & can heal at a weird angle.

Can't suggest what to do with irritation as it can be anything that can cause it, most cases keeping the area as dry as possible and doing a dry heat compression (hot water bottle) helps a lot. Wouldn't suggest it without seeing me in person for a little check up.