Looking to swap out your starter stud earrings with hoops or drop earrings? Well, if your piercings have healed completely, it’s time you can remove them and put on your favourite pair. While removing earrings with threaded posts is no rocket science on old piercings. However, with fresh piercings that have recently healed, you have to be extra careful as the earrings can get stuck due to accumulated dead cells, blood plasma, lymph and sebum around the earring posts and piercings. So, here we help you with safe and correct procedures on how to remove threaded earrings.
1. Ensure That the Piercing Is Healed Completely:
Whatever technique you may choose to get your ears pierced; under no circumstances you should take off the earrings before the piercings are healed completely. If you take off an earring prematurely, your body will react and attempt to close your piercing. And after that, if you try to wear an earring in the piercing again, you will have to get your ears pierced again. Apart from this, there is also a chance that it can cause scarring or trigger an infection or cause swelling around the pierced area. To ensure that your piercing is healed, you should touch it gently and cheque if you feel any pain or if there is any visible swelling around the piercing. If you don’t find any swelling or feel any pain or discomfort, you are ready to take them off. Wriggle your earrings without removing them, and wait a day or two to cheque the redness. If no swelling or redness appears, your ears have healed completely.
2. Remove the Earrings:
The cartilage earrings are of multiple types. And each entails a different procedure for removal. Usually, push-back and screw back earrings are used for a fresh piercing. Both push-back and screw back earrings have small bars behind the earring tops that are inserted through the piercing. In the case of screw backs, the bars are threaded to provide friction to the screws and to keep them secure in one place. Threads on the earrings are of two types: internally threaded and externally threaded.
3. Internally Threaded Labrets:
The internally threaded labrets have threads inside the bars to make the process easier. These bars are hollow, making way for threaded posts internally while keeping the outer surface smooth. Because of this, internally threaded earrings are a preferred choice. They do not further cause damage or any strain around the piercing. Depending upon the back of the earring, you can remove it in the following ways.
1. Push back:
If the labret has a push back, you can remove the earring by pulling the backing away from your ears.
2. Pin back:
If the backs of the earrings have push pins, remove them first. You need to gently twist and pull the pins away from your ears while keeping the other end of the earring firm in its position. Once the pin is removed, you can remove the earring.
3. Internal screw back:
If the earring back is screwed internally, you will have to remove the earring by rotating the screw to your right side until the back comes off.
Also Read: Why Are Screw Back Earrings So Popular?
4. Externally Threaded Labrets:
If the labrets are threaded externally, the bars have friction on the outer side of the earrings. Then you have to be extra careful. You must cheque if your piercing has healed completely. These earrings come with screw backs and are similar to the internally threaded labrets. You need to remove the screw by twisting it counter-clockwise. Do not turn the earrings and hold them firmly while unscrewing, as the threaded area can cause further damage to your ears.
5. Clean the Piercing:
After removing the earring, carefully clean the piercing cavity before wearing another pair. Your ears may look clean, but there is a chance that some bacteria or dirt are still there. If you do not clean the area, it can cause infection after wearing another pair. After removing the earring, clean the piercing with saline solution. Put some solution on your new earrings as well as a precautionary measure.
What to Do if Earrings Don’t Come Off?
Sometimes, it does happen that even if your piercing is healed completely, you cannot take out your earrings. You do not need to panic if that happens to you. For some people, their bodies reject the piercing or try to build muscle around the piercing to protect the ears, which can create hurdles while removing the earrings. If that happens, you need to be extra careful so that you don’t damage or strain your ears.
1. The first thing you need to do is not panic. Remember, this is entirely normal. Do not do anything that will hurt you any further. Keep calm, and take deep breaths.
2. The second step you need to do is again cheque if the piercing is healed or not. Sometimes piercing can appear to be recovered from the outside, but if you move the earring, the pain starts again. It is the indicator that your piercing has not healed completely. Don’t try to remove it again for a few days. Let your piercing heal, then try again.
3. Clean the piercing regularly with a saline solution to speed up the healing process. cheque for pain or puss near the piercing. If you are sure it is healed, start the earring removal process again.
4. Be careful while removing the earring. Patience is the key here. Remember to take it slowly and gently. Do not force the procedure. You can do it in multiple steps. Remove it after the intervals if necessary. Even if you feel slight pain, stop and try again after a while. It may feel like a lengthy process, but it is essential to avoid any trouble in the future.
5. Most importantly, choose the type of earrings that are simple to use. You can go for solitaire stud earrings as they are simple and lightweight.
Also Read: Everything You Want to Know About Starter Earrings
Tips for Cleaning Ear Piercing
You not only need to take off ear piercing in the beginning but also every once in a while, after that. It will keep the piercing healthy, and you can experiment with different earrings without worrying about threads or any injury.
1. The first thing you must remember is that moisture is your enemy when the piercing is new. Pat-dry your piercing after a bath or let the moisture dry on its own by gently moving your earrings. Dry skin will not aggravate the strain.
2. You can also dab a few drops of coconut oil to smoothen the skin; the oil will not let water stay on the skin.
3. Before touching your ears, wash your hands. When you remove your starter earrings, ensure that you wear only clean earrings afterward.
4. Saline solution will speed up the healing process of the piercing. It will also clean the piercing. Pour a few drops of saline solution on the cotton and dab it gently around the crevices of the piercing.
5. Do not apply any disinfectant, lotion, or heavy cream on the piercing, especially makeup or powder. Make sure that while using them, they do not touch the piercing and allow it to breathe.
6. If you are using soap to clean up the piercing, use fragrance-free soap. They do not leave unnecessary oil residue, and their foam is also easy to remove.
Also Read: Everything You Need to Know About Threader Earrings
What to Do After Removing the Earrings?
Let your ears have a breathing space after removing the piercing earring for a while. After cleaning the piercings, wait an hour or two before putting on the earrings again. Try with simple and small earrings first. They will not further stress your ears. You can also start with easy-to-wear and easy-to-remove hoop earrings. Shop hoop earrings that are beautiful and easy to wear and remove from Angara.com.
