- Hey guys, Kayley here.
Today we're gonna talk about ear piercings
because a lot of you guys have been asking me
about my piercings and about healing them and all the stuff,
so I'm gonna talk about the piercings and pain
and also some tips and tricks on healing your ears
because that has been surprisingly difficult
and I wanna share my journey with you.
So, let's get into it.
(upbeat indie music)
I've been wanting to get more piercings
in my ears for a long time.
I only had my lobes up until this year,
and I got those done when I was in high school
so it's been a little while.
It was just always in the back of my head
and then I stumbled across J. Colby Smith via Twitter
and then I ended up on his Instagram
and it was like walking into a salad shop
and realizing that they serve pizza.
It was like I didn't realize this was an option.
They had all these really delicate gold pieces
and really intricately placed earrings
and I was like, "That's an option?"
Because I'd always seen the really heavy silver jewelry
which is awesome, it just doesn't fit me.
I saw his work, I loved it,
and I pretty much immediately made an appointment.
He has studios in New York and LA so I grabbed a spot in LA
and then I started pinning all of the pictures of ears
that I wanted so that whenever I saw him
he could help me figure out what to do.
Then we had the consultation.
I get there and we have our consultation.
I had heard beforehand that you should give him an idea
of what you want, but because he's the expert,
he's gonna pick for you, and I was like,
"This is sounding really bougie really fast, but okay."
And I'm actually really glad I did.
I showed him a bunch of pictures and then he dotted
onto my ear some ideas he thought would work for me
and they were the exact earrings I was already thinking of
which was the high lobe and then the faux rook.
I was also thinking of a second lobe,
but when he drew it on my ear, I didn't like it.
He had the idea to move it over here, which I really like
because I feel like it balances having all the piercings
over here and just a little bit over here, so I'm a fan.
We started with the big bad one up here.
This one's the most intense 'cause it's cartilage.
This is called a faux rook piercing.
This little, like, flap fold of skin right here is your rook
and normally a rook piercing goes through both sides of it,
so you either have a stud on each side or a ring,
but I like the faux look.
A lot of the pictures that I pinned had it in there
and I just thought it was this cool little stud moment.
I was thinking that it'll probably be a little bit less
painful than the real rook as well.
I (laughs) sit down, we've talked through everything.
He gets in the needle position.
I'm expecting a countdown.
There was no countdown (laughs).
All of a sudden, I realize there is a needle
going through my ear and my first thought was,
"I do not like this!" (laughs)
That was the only thing that ran through my mind.
And then I was like, "No, no, I have to process this.
"I need to think about how this hurts so I can tell people."
I would say that on a scale of one to 10,
with one being, like, your basic shot,
and 10 being, like, I don't know, childbirth,
which I haven't experienced (laughs) but I can imagine,
I'd say this would be like a four.
You definitely feel it, but it's not by any means crazy.
I would say it's actually like a dull pain,
because you don't have a lot of nerve endings in here
so you mostly feel it in this general vicinity
but it's not a really sharp situation.
But the funny thing that I noticed was that
while the needle was going in, it hurt,
but once the needle was in, it was fine.
And then, he had to put the jewelry in.
I heard that putting the jewelry in is the worst part,
like, the most painful part, so I was like, prepared.
But it did not hurt that much.
I actually think it was less painful
than getting the earring in.
He had to switch the needle out for a plastic tube,
then put the back in, then put the front in,
and none of that was really bad.
I would say it was a two or a three.
And then the earring was done.
And like I said, it didn't really hurt after that
unless, like, I hit it or slept on it
or something, it was fine.
Even though you get that four while the needle
is going through, it's not really a big deal
after you're all done with it.
Now, let's move on to the high lobe piercing.
This is called a high lobe because it's super high
on your earlobe and it's right below your cartilage.
If you kind of want a cartilage piercing
but you don't wanna commit to it,
a high lobe is kind of a good way to go.
I was expecting this to be a really, really easy piercing.
I'm gonna tell you some stories about it later in the video,
but for the actual piercing experience, I would say that
the pain on this one was also a four.
I did get this pierced right after I did my faux rook
so it was probably a little bit more sensitive.
Even though it was a four, it was a different kind of pain.
It was more sharp, whereas this was more dull.
And actually, if you pinch your cartilage
and then pinch your earlobe, you'll kind of be able
to feel the difference I'm talking about.
It's just all those nerve endings in there,
you can really tell where the needle is,
but again, once that needle is in, it's okay.
Getting the jewelry in was a little bit more painful
on this one because it's a ring, so I had to swivel around
and then he had to close the ends together
and that was the only time where I was like,
unpleasantly surprised by pain.
I was like, "Whoa!"
Because I thought it was over.
I felt the ring go in, I was like, "We're done,"
and then he starts closing it and I was like (shrieks)
"What happened?"
You know, you get through it.
Again, I don't think that was worse than a four,
I was just surprised, didn't expect it.
Again, I really don't think piercings are bad.
I think if you go in expecting it to be painless,
yes, you're gonna feel pain, you're gonna be surprised,
but if you go in there knowing, like,
it's gonna hurt for a few seconds, you're gonna be fine.
Just accept it, breathe through it.
You can see in the footage I have my eyes closed,
like I'm in my fortress of zenitude, like, it's fine.
And I think when you do that, it's fine.
You just get over the fact, like, there's gonna be pain,
it's totally good.
Finally we moved over and we did my second earlobe,
so I got three piercings done in one day.
This one, I mean, it was a lobe.
I think a lot of people have a second lobe piercing
so it wasn't that new.
It was interesting to see the difference between
a gun piercing versus a needle,
because I had this first lobe done with a gun
at Claire's, actually, and I would say this one,
when it was done with a gun was like a two
and it was a very fast experience,
whereas this one was more like a three
and it was a little bit slower putting the needle in.
Even though it's a little bit more,
you know, slow and painful,
I would pick a needle over a gun any day
because my little sister had this terrible experience
getting her ears pierced with a gun
and she eventually had to lose the piercings because of it
and that just scarred me.
I was like, "Nope, never again, not doing it,"
so I'd recommend a needle.
I don't think it was that different
and it's healed so well.
By the second week, I even forgot this thing was here
because I never feel it.
So, that is my ear story.
I really loved the piercings that I ended up with.
I love the jewelry that I ended up with.
If you guys wanna see J. Colby Smith,
seriously recommend him.
But now, let's talk about some after care.
You probably know if you get a cartilage piercing
or I would even say a high lobe piercing like this,
you're not allowed to sleep on your piercing.
And I sleep on my right side, which is something that
I did not take into consideration
when I got my ears pierced on my right side (laughs).
One thing I learned is that you can actually
take an airplane pillow and use it so that
you can sleep on whichever side you want to
'cause there's a hole in the middle.
I just take it and take the neck and put it against my neck
and I sleep like this.
It has saved my sleep.
For the first week I didn't have this, I could barely sleep
and now I still use it whenever this ear
starts to get a little bothered.
It's the best thing.
I do like that this one has toggles that hold it closed
'cause otherwise it can kind of splay out
and you can kind of awkwardly be sleeping, but yeah.
Find something like this.
It was like $10 at T.J. Maxx and it will let you sleep
with your new pierced ears.
And then for cleaning, I had a time of it.
This is where some of the tea comes out.
This little monster has come for me
every single day since I got it pierced.
But basically, sorry, let's rewind.
Colby recommended that I wash my ears with just
really gentle, gentle soap and water twice a day.
And I did that for the first week.
My ears do not like soap.
I tried so many different kinds, I tried to be gentle.
They were not having it.
Basically, fast forward a week to 10 days after my piercing,
this ear hurt so bad that I had to take pain meds,
it was red, I was not having it.
I started researching what else I could do
and I saw that sea salt soaks were a thing
where you take noniodized salt, put a quarter teaspoon
in a cup of hot water, warm water, not hot, warm water
and then you just soak your piercing in it.
I was like, "That sounds like a good idea,"
but I was also feeling extra, so I went on Amazon
and I found this which is from Urban ReLeaf.
It's piercing care which has vitamin E
and aloe in it as well.
You can imagine me sitting there
with a swollen, red, painful ear.
I hear vitamin E and aloe and next day shipping
and I clicked order (laughs).
I got this and it really made a difference, guys.
If you have irritated piercings, I highly recommend.
Within one soak, everything felt so much better.
I was using it twice a day for the first several weeks
and then now I still use it once every few days
just to keep everything nice and calm and happy
because this guy is gonna take almost a year to heal.
We're babying it with these.
I bought the kind of larger pack because I knew that
I was gonna be taking care of this one for a long time,
but they do have a smaller one.
This stuff will last you forever,
so you can buy the smaller one and be totally fine.
When I'm not being as hardcore, I use the H2Ocean Spray.
This you can just spray on your piercings
three to six times a day.
You wanna do front and back, and that just cleanses them.
The only thing it doesn't do is it doesn't get rid of
any kind of build up, so if you have any little crusties
this isn't gonna get rid of them.
You either want to do that in the shower and just gently run
your finger over it or I will occasionally grab a Q-tip,
which some people do not recommend 'cause the lint
can get stuck in your piercing, so do it at your own risk.
But I'll take the Q-tip and I'll run it around,
especially in the front here 'cause there's all
the nooks and crannies around here and then I like to go
through this little fold because sometimes
little crusties can get stuck in there.
I know that sounds kind of gross, but if you get
this piercing you need to know, keep this clean.
But yeah, that's what I'm doing now.
Pretty much every morning and night I do this,
and then sometime in the middle of the day
I'll do it again just to keep everything clean.
I'm gonna finish off with complications,
because this guy has been giving me a time of it.
I'm gonna spill a little tea here mostly for your benefit
in case you ever get pierced in a similar way.
You need to know.
I got pierced and immediately had this ring put in
and I knew going into it, when you get a ring put into
a new piercing, it's gonna take longer to heal
and it's gonna be a little bit more aggravated,
but I was like, "It's fine, it's a lobe piercing.
"They heal in like, three to four weeks.
"It might take like six weeks, I'll be fine."
Yeah, no.
No, no, no, no (laughs).
This thing was just so painful.
I couldn't stop hitting it because of the placement
and then the ring would move all around.
But also, and I have to admit this,
I didn't like when the ring would sit up
next to my ear or down here.
I wanted it to be perfectly out,
so I would also move it all the time.
Between the fact that there was a ring
and the fact that I didn't stop touching it,
it was constantly annoyed.
It was red, it was painful.
Finally, at the six week mark, I went in
and got it switched out for a stud
because I couldn't deal with it anymore,
and then I kept doing my little Urban ReLeaf ear soak
for a while and now I've kind of tapered off of it.
I finally put the ring back in last week.
It was about two months between when I took it out
and when I put it back in.
And now it feels fine.
I can do whatever I want.
It's, you know, not a problem, it's not painful anymore.
But I think if I hadn't taken it out and done that stud,
it still would've stayed painful.
My advice based on the annoying experience
that this has been is don't get a ring
when you get your ears pierced.
Go for the stud, go through the healing time,
and then get your ring.
I think, at least based on my experience,
I think that's the best way to go
and I really wish I had done that.
But, I'm very happy now that I get to sport the little ring
'cause I really like this guy.
Okay, and that's it for my video.
Wait, actually, before I go, this is called a sleeper ring.
It's a little gold one
and my piercer sells them on his website.
A lot of you guys have asked me about that ring.
Okay, there we go, now the video is done.
I hope you guys have enjoyed it.
I hope it gave you whatever information
you wanted on my piercings.
I hope you enjoyed my little stories,
and that is it for today.
I hope you enjoyed it, and I will see you guys on Saturday
with a hair tutorial, so come back then
and don't forget to subscribe.
I'll see you then.
Muah, bye!
(upbeat indie music)