Q: How do I know when a piercing is actually healed and not just looks healed? - Tanner S.

A: Here's what's happening. A piercing heals from the outside in. So the surface closes up and looks totally done way before the inside actually is. The skin you can see is basically the finished storefront, but behind it, construction is still very much in progress. That gap is exactly where people get into trouble, because everything looks fine, so they switch the jewelry or get lazy with aftercare, and the piercing throws a fit. So how do you actually know? A few green lights to watch for:

• No more anything. No redness, no swelling, no crusties, no clear discharge, no tenderness when you bump it. Not "barely any." None, and it's stayed that way for a good while.

• It's been calm for weeks, not days. A piercing can look perfect on Monday and flare up Thursday. You want a long, boring stretch where nothing happens. Boring is the goal here.

• The jewelry moves freely and there's no tugging, pinching, or "stuck" feeling.

• You've actually hit the timeline. And this is the big one, because the timeline is way longer than people think.

About that timeline, because guessing is how this goes wrong:

• Earlobes: roughly 6 to 8 weeks

• Cartilage (helix, conch, etc.): think months, often 6 to 12

• Navel: 6 months and up, sometimes a year

• Nipple and other body piercings: also in the many-months camp

The move that saves you the most heartbreak: before you swap jewelry or call it healed, check with your piercer. They can tell from the inside how things are really going, which your bathroom mirror absolutely cannot. One quick visit beats months of starting over because you rushed it.

Q: Everyone keeps telling me to use sea salt soaks but my piercer said saline spray only. Who's right? - Maddie K.

A:  Your piercer. Every time. Sterile saline spray is what professionals actually recommend now, and once you see why, the soak debate kind of ends itself. It's premixed at the exact concentration your skin wants. No measuring or guessing, no hoping you got the salt-to-water ratio right. Get that ratio wrong and you're not helping your piercing, you're irritating it. The spray removes the part where you can mess it up.

It's actually sterile. It comes that way straight from the can. Anything you mix at home in a cup, with tap water and table or kitchen salt, is not. A fresh piercing is an open wound, and "close enough" isn't the standard you want for something healing on your body.

It takes five seconds. Spray, let it sit, dab dry. Two or three times a day, done. Compare that to setting up a soak and holding it against your ear or nose for ten minutes, and be honest about which one you'll actually keep doing. The aftercare that works is the one you'll stick with.

It's what the standard-setters landed on. Pro piercers didn't switch to saline on a whim. The people who set aftercare guidelines moved to sterile saline wound wash, and good piercers followed. Your piercer is giving you the best, most current advice.

Bottom line: grab the saline spray - Tap to shop aftercare spray >

Disclaimer: Body Candy is only here to give you fun and helpful advice and information when it comes to getting pierced. Always consult a professional piercer to make sure a new piercing is right for you!