Not all piercings are created equally. They’re all beautiful, they’re all somewhat uncomfortable to get, and they all take a while to heal. But some piercings are WAY more annoying to completely heal, and that is simply a fact of life. So today, let’s take a moment to break down which piercings are the biggest pain the…. neck to heal up!
Helix & Industrial
Helix piercings are notorious brutes to heal. That part of your ear is so unprotected and just begging to get hit with a hat, snagged with hair, caught on a shirt, or slept upon. Industrials are doubly so because it’s two piercings connected with one long bar, so you have ball ends sitting on the outer edge of your ear, on two different sides. There are a few things you can do to help your helix piercings be less annoying. Invest in a travel pillow or similar style pillow, where there is a space in the center for your ear. This prevents you from putting weight on it while you sleep. Also, avoid things like ear muffs, large headphones that cover your ears, and hats that do the same.
Daith & Tragus
If you’re someone who wears ear buds around the clock, these piercings are probably going to annoy you. The best thing you can do is to make sure to downsize these piercings as soon as the piercer will allow you to. You don’t want the back of your tragus piercing to catch on your earbuds, nor do you want the earbud to squish your daith piercing. You definitely don’t want a non-sanitized item sitting on either piercing for any amount of time. So don’t put off downsizing that jewelry! Also, consider investigating other styles of ear bud, like the ones with the squishy orbs that fit into your ear or the kinds that hook over the back of your ear. You don’t have to spend a lot of money, if you downsize on time, you won’t be wearing them for long and it’s a small price to pay to not have irritated or infected piercings.
Tongue
What the swell?? The tongue piercing can be one of the single most irritating piercings to heal for roughly the first week. Your tongue is going to swell and you’re going to have to re-learn how to eat and talk with an object in your mouth. Even though the swelling is temporary, it can interfere with your ability to eat solid food and eating ice cream for the ninth meal in a row when all you want is a sandwich …. that is definitely going to annoy you. Don’t forget to downsize this as soon as appropriate. It will make talking and eating much easier. Also, no matter how tempting, don’t play with the jewelry. It will make the swelling last longer and it’s bad for both your piercing and your teeth.
Lip
Lip piercings are annoying like tongue piercings, just without the speech issues. You have this new object in or on your mouth and you’re going to be very aware of that. You may want to play with it. And your lip is going to swell. In some cases, the swelling can be pretty extreme. That’s annoying! The best thing you can do, once again, is to downsize your jewelry on schedule. Smaller jewelry means less to play with, which is less tempting. The hyper-awareness of the jewelry does pass quickly, especially once the swelling has gone down. Eat with caution and don’t play with your jewelry.
Piercings can be described in all kinds of ways – beautiful, trendy, punk, bohemian. But let’s face it, sometimes they can also be described as irritating, annoying, and bothersome. Thankfully, these terms generally only apply to the early healing phase. Once that passes, you’ll find yourself falling in love with the piercing that had you pulling your hair out a week before. But the best way to make sure your new piercing annoys you as little as possible is downsizing your jewelry on schedule. (We have a blog piece on Downsizing if you’d care to read further --> click here) So, if your new piercing is giving you fits, give it some time and get your jewelry downsized as soon as you’re allowed. Happy piercing!
