Beauty  

How To Keep Your New Piercings Squeaky Clean

By Tariemi Oreoritse

15 November 2020   |   7:30 am

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Piercings have in recent times evolved from being a thing for goths or E-girls to becoming a means of expression. Today, piercings are considered more trendy, and they have even gradually begun making their way into the corporate world. Whether you choose to get an ear piercing, nose piercing or any other piercing, the tip…

Cynthia Erivo | Image: Popsugar

Piercings have in recent times evolved from being a thing for goths or E-girls to becoming a means of expression. Today, piercings are considered more trendy, and they have even gradually begun making their way into the corporate world.

Whether you choose to get an ear piercing, nose piercing or any other piercing, the tip to getting your piercing to heal quickly and keeping them away from infections is to ensure they remain squeaky clean throughout the healing process. In this piece, we would not only be walking you through the process of keeping your piercing clean, we would also be debunking piercing myths.

Here is the guide to keeping your new piercings clean you never knew you needed:

Don’t Touch Your Piercing
Putting a hole anywhere in your body comes with the instinct to want to touch it every time. Touching your piercing is actually very easy, and it would take a conscious effort to avoid doing so. However, it is the fastest way to get your piercing to heal. Touching your new piercing not only slows down the healing process, but it also makes it a breeding ground for germs and bacteria that could cause infections.
If you do feel the need to touch your piercing, be sure that your hands are washed and clean.

Create A Healing Regimen
Once you can keep your fingers off your piercing, the next step to keeping your piercing squeaky clean is to create a healing regimen.

Piercings often have general healing regimens, except for sensitive parts. A good healing regimen is to slightly wet a gauze pad with saline solution and apply it on the piercing site for 10-15 minutes.

Doing this will moisten and loosen dry crusts. Finish up the regimen by applying a thin layer of ointment, petroleum jelly preferably. Applying an ointment would allow for a better healing environment to prevent crusts and allow the free movement of liquid growth factors.

Rihanna with piercings | Image: Getty

These growth factors are released by the wound and are responsible for stimulating growth and cell migration into the healing piercing hole.

Stay Away From Cleansers
Contrary to popular assumptions, you should try to steer clear of cleansers while your piercing heals. Cleansers are antibacterial but they also kill the new epithelial cells in the wound slowing down its healing.

Alcohol and hydrogen peroxide are easily accessible disinfectants, however, they are also very harsh on healing wounds. They are also not intended for long-term application and seeing as piercings often take some time to heal, piercings and these disinfectants do not work.

Avoid Turning The Ring Around
While you keep your dirty hands away from your piercing, also keep your clean hands away from your piercing rings.

There is a very popular myth that encourages turning your piercing ring to let your piercing heal faster. This is just a myth as turning your piercing does not help get after-care products into the pierced hole as the skin does not stick to the ring.

A warm hot shower would help to loosen discharge from the healing process, and cleaning with a sterile saline cloth or mild antibacterial soap would also clean the piercing.

Popular Piercing Myths
As we mentioned earlier, we would also debunk piercing myths in this piece. Here are some popular piercing myths that need to go:

● Twisting and moving your jewellery is helpful for healing: this doesn’t let your jewellery heal or keep it from getting stuck, rather, it aggravates the piercing further.
● Piercing guns are an acceptable method of piercing: piercing guns are hard to sanitize, opt for needle piercings instead as they are healthier and more sanitary.
● Clean your piercing with alcohol and peroxide: NO! Opt for a saline solution instead.
● All piercings get infected: NO! With a lot of care and sanitary measures, your piercing would stay infection-free.

Piercings might get infected. This doesn’t mean they always would. If your piercing gets infected, it’s not the end of the world. Just go to your doctor. Signs of infected piercings include redness or swelling, increasing pain, red streaking in the skin around the piercing, or fever.