Another Ear Stretching Question?!?

No! Even if you think your ears heal quickly doesn't mean they are, you need to wait at least 1 1/2-3 months for the sizes you're at. Do not stretch quickly, it can cause the cat butt effect, tears, blow outs, and many more issues. Take your time with your ears. Do not over stretch, if you do chances are you will regret it in the future.

The people that do piercings at places like Claire's usually don't know the first thing about piercings, otherwise they would realise that they shouldn't be using piercing GUNS in the first place. I wouldn't trust their information. If you've recently stretched, DON'T remove, fiddle, or play with the jewelry at all (unless for some reason it becomes really dirty and hard to clean without removing it) for at LEAST 2 weeks, the longer the better. Only touch with clean hands. However, you've mentioned there was swelling involved, which a correct stretch should not have. I'm not sure what size you were at previously, and how long you were at that size, and what size you went up to. If you've damaged your lobe (there was bleeding, swelling, etc) you might need longer time to heal before removing/messing with the jewelry and possibly downsizing?

You are already stretching them too fast. You need to give your ears time to stabilize before you stretch them again. Even if they look all right to you doesn't mean they are actually ready.

Give yourself at least a month before you stretch any further. But considering how fast you've already been stretching you should wait longer. (I would advise you to take the jewelry out completely, go back to 10G, give your ears a few months to heal and then start over but I know you won't do that.) Start doing oil massages to minimize the scar tissue that is already developing.

Please look at this thread and look at the first couple of links to see what can happen if you stretch your ears too fast:

http://forums.bodyartforms.com/forums/t/5641.aspx

Keep this timeline in mind:

Fresh piercing to first stretch: Approx 5 to 6 months

16g to 14g - 1 month

14g to 12g - 1 month

12g to 10g - 1.5 months

10g to 8g - 2 months

8g to 6g - 3 months

6g to 4g - 3 month

4g to 2g - 3 months

2g to 0g - 4 months

0g to 00g - 4 months

You only have one set of earlobes. What you are doing to them now could result in disfiguring injuries if you do it incorrectly. Stuff that can only be fixed with surgery. Take it slowly. You will never regret taking stretching slowly but odds are that you will regret taking it too fast.

Well, you may heal quickly, but you still need to leave enough time to allow new earlobe tissue to form, which will take more than a week. I recommend about 3 weeks between stretches, especially now that you're getting into the larger sizes. Some say 3 months, which I think is excessive.

I don't see why not. (:

I find stretching your ear in the shower helps a lot more than doing it whilst in the bath or just with Vaseline or anything.

Yes you can (: