I got my "forward" helix pierced a month and a half ago, everything was going well for a while until I decided to go on a couple camping trips.  Since then, my ear has been acting up bigtime.  It was pussing for a while, but I baby-ed it to death and now thats not the issue.  I've managed to develop myself a hypertrophic scar .  Though I try not to sleep on the ear, I alwayssss find myself waking up on the right side (pierced side), plus I have a cbr in which I've heard will sometimes cause hypertrophic scarring. I've been getting mixed reviews on what to do about it all, I've heard that diluted tea tree oil is good, but I've also heard its bad.  The sea salt soaks I've been doing don't really seem to be making the scarring go away, or reduce.  Would it be a good idea to change the cbr into a straight barbell and is there any other method I should try to making the scarring go away?

http://forums.bodyartforms.com/forums/t/18445.aspx?PageIndex=1 

(for reference, the picture on that thread is what it looked like when it was first pierced, sorry for the horrible quality... its the only picture i have!) 

Go to your piercer, she sounds reputable based on your last thread, and ask her opinion.  If she feels you should get it changed out, have her switch it to an autoclaved labret stud or straight barbell.  You can also pick up some Chamomile tea from the grocery store, soak the tea bag in hot water for a little bit, and then place the bag onto the scarring until the bag cools - some people have said that this helped them greatly.  I've also heard diluted tea tree oil works, but you'd have to dilute it VERY well.  Overall, try to leave it be as much as possible.  I also wouldn't do both the tea tree and the chamomile, I'd just choose one and stick with it; you don't want to overwhelm your new piercing, I'd just do SSS once or twice daily and chamomile soaks once daily.

 Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong anyone, but I'm pretty sure it's good advice.

Alright, thanks.  I think I might just try the chamomile tea for a while, tea tree oil seems a bit intimidating.  Hopefully this weekend I'll make it out to my piercer and get her to change the jewelry. We'll see how it goes, and thanks again for the advice!

I feel you! My rook was acting the same way. I actually tried the camomile tea method and it still didn't work for me. I went with this tea tree antiseptic ointment with "eucalyptus austaliana and lavender oil". My rook looks a lot better now. I'm still in the middle of application but I noticed a great improvement. http://www.goddess-within.com/637792700506.html

I dabbed tea tree oil once a day on it and it shrank my hypertrophic scarring quite a bit. Then I ran out of tea tree oil :-P

But you still have to dilute it (it can strip paint, you know), and if you ask me I wouldn't put it on an unhealed peircing.

 I use my own mixture of tea tree oil, lavender, eucalyptus, and peppermint essential oils diluted in jojoba, nothing has ever worked better on cartilage bumps for me. As long as you use it sparingly and pay attention to how your body reacts to it, tea tree oil can be very helpful with reducing scarring. In an unhealed piercing though, you might want to dilute it in emu oil since it is safe for fresh piercings while jojoba can clog pores if you aren't healed.