Summary

• Healing Time 3 - 12 months, depending on if cartilage has been pierced
• Do not touch your piercing unless you are cleaning it.
• Do not touch your piercing with unwashed hands Unwashed hands carry bacteria and your piercing is a point where these bacteria can penetrate below your skin and cause an infection.
• Do not let others touch it while it is healing
• While healing, your piercing will need to be cleaned once or twice daily.
• Cleaning more often than this will harm your piercing.
• Clean your healing piercing once a day only, using antibacterial soap and a salt water solution
• Wash and dry your hair before any ear piercing, and frequently thereafter
• Never use alcohol swabs, Betadine, hydrogen peroxide or tea tree oil to clean your piercing
• Pain, redness and unusual discharge may be due to infection. Consult your piercer or a physician if you develop any of these symptoms
• Take vitamin C and zinc to maximise your healing
• Wait till your piercing is healed before changing jewellery yourself.

General Daily After Care Routine

Cleaning Your Piercing:

1. First, wash your hands thoroughly. Never touch your piercing or jewellery with dirty hands.
2. Place a pinch of sea salt in the bottom of a small disposable cup.

3. Add warm boiled water - as hot as you can stand - to the salt. Saturate a cotton ball with warm water, soak the piercing and gently wipe away any "crusties" that have gathered around the piercing site. Throw the cotton ball away.
4. Apply a generous amount of the antibacterial soap to your fingertip, and apply to the piercing site and jewellery. Make sure you get the soap everywhere, working the soap into the piercing. If it's easier this can be done in the shower.
5. Rinse the piercing and jewelry several times with warm water, ensuring that all soap has been removed.
6. Dry your piercing with a clean paper towel and then dispose of it.

Soaking Tips

• Only pure sea salt is to be used. Table salt, kosher salt, epsom salts, and iodized sea salts are not acceptable. Sea salt can be found in many grocery stores and almost all health food stores.
• If you are not sure about the solution strength, put a dab on your finger and taste it with the tip of your tongue. It should be no saltier than a potato chip.
• To aid in healing a new piercing, sea salt soaks once a day should be sufficient. If your piercing is irritated, increase sea salt soaks to 2-3 times per day until the irritation subsides.
• If your piercing becomes irritated as a result of sea salt soaks, you are probably using either the wrong kind of salt or have made your solution too strong.

Do NOT Use:

• Hydrogen Peroxide - Hydrogen peroxide kills bacteria, but it also kills the white blood cells attempting to heal your piercing. It can cause irritation and lengthen overall healing time.
• Rubbing Alcohol - Alcohol will dry the skin and irritate the raw piercing, which could actually lead to infection.
• Glyoxide - This is a product that contains hydrogen peroxide and hinders healing rather than aiding it.
• Ear Care Solution - Solutions that are provided by jewellery boutiques and department store piercers usually contain alcohol, hydrogen peroxide and other harmful chemicals that only aggravate a new piercing. These are generally only ideal for ear lobe piercings.
• Ointments - Antibacterial ointments or similar products only clog pores and/or kill good cells trying to heal the piercing.