Okay,I'm pretty new to this whole stretching thing. I got the tornado tapers off of here, but I think someone said it's not safe/may cause an infection if you keep these in? So that's where I get confused. Should I have bought single-flare plugs to stretch with, (as in, once I put in the tapers, I pushed the plug in as well?) Or is it okay for me to use the tapers for a month/month and a half, and then insert in plugs? 

Also, one last question. What is the difference between single flared, and double? I also got 10g double flared plugs, so when I get to that size, would it be okay to use them? Or should I just get single flared ones? If this has been answered clearly, please direct me to it. Thanks :)

personal opinion - tapers are for temporary stretching-procedures...  just use them to be SURE that you can fit the next/tapered-to gauge...  they are not to be worn for any length of time...  im sure someone will point you to the stretching-guides - im still fairly new around here myself...

when i am trying to 'stretch' - i just wear slightly-heavy jewelry and make sure that a gap has developed (naturally) above them...  at that point - i figure it is 'fairly safe' to try the taper the next day/week...  if the taper goes thru, then a Single-flare is the correct item to use...  DF means that there is no-way to get the item into the hole without stretching it (the hole) even FARTHER than the gauge intended...

http://forums.bodyartforms.com/forums/t/7296.aspx

I've looked at those. So, in other words, tapers should just be more of a temporary thing, just to make sure you can put in plugs? 

Thanks :)

itsaplane:

So, in other words, tapers should just be more of a temporary thing, just to make sure you can put in plugs? 

 

Yes, they are an implement for temporary use only.

harold:

personal opinion - tapers are for temporary stretching-procedures...  just use them to be SURE that you can fit the next/tapered-to gauge...  they are not to be worn for any length of time...  im sure someone will point you to the stretching-guides - im still fairly new around here myself...

when i am trying to 'stretch' - i just wear slightly-heavy jewelry and make sure that a gap has developed (naturally) above them...  at that point - i figure it is 'fairly safe' to try the taper the next day/week...  if the taper goes thru, then a Single-flare is the correct item to use...  DF means that there is no-way to get the item into the hole without stretching it (the hole) even FARTHER than the gauge intended...

Just don't sleep in the weighted jewelry as it can get caught on sheets, hair, etc.  And, I personally recommend using SF's that are rounded on the back end.  I've tried it with blunt backs (like, flat), and it just didn't work. 

 Personally, I don't think weighted jewelry is all that great of an idea. It seems they would stretch your hole unevenly, like closer to the bottom of your lobe.

Thank you all for the advice! Don't wear tapers as jewelry, or to sleep in :) I will buy my 12g plugs, and continue on with the knowledge.

And thank you for coming on here to get help before you started stretching.  I wish I had! :-D

 I'm pretty sure what harold meant was he wears stainless steel or stone or whatever plugs, something with more weight to them, not neccesarily weighted plugs. I can deffinitely feel the difference in weight, going from earskins to solid stainless steel. 

Mugyver:

 I'm pretty sure what harold meant ...

unfortunately, no - the other gal earlier got it correct...  im just as impatient as the next person when it comes to stretching - and so (in my attempt to speed up the weeks of waiting) i will wear jewelry that is actually heavier than a simple plug in my earlobes...  ie - i actually like the dangly-spirals the best - or at lower gauges id like the squids or helix-type stuff...  so yes, im afraid i was 'recommending' an incorrect procedure of wearing a bit more weight in the holes that might tend to drag the earlobe holes down...

to be fair - for -my- ears - i have not noticed anything untowards with this process...  and the gauges up to 0g (where i am currently) have provided plenty of simple jewelry that semi-naturally had some weight to them...  in particular, in the linked-to stretching-guide around 6g or so - the times start to increase for healing...  however ive found (for my body) a fairly consistent 3-4wk period at each stretch (where, for me, a stretch is typically <= 1 mm) works fairly well - without doing something silly/extreme like wearing lead-weights hanging from the hoops...  lol.

as the gauges (around 6/4/2) got larger - id wear glass/pyrex spirals for daily wear (rather than metal) because indeed metal was too heavy at those gauges...  in particular, i had a fair bit of trouble with the 2g to 0g stretch (because it is more than a simple 1mm) and had to back-off and stay at 2g... then i found some 1g gorilla-glass seconds spirals [here at baf !!!] that were perfect for me for daily wear...  unfortunately, i dropped one of them after a couple of weeks and it shattered - so i went back to my piercer and asked him to do the stretch 'correctly' for me to 0g...  i had bought some spring-loaded ss cbrs at his studio to heal with - but they were just too heavy - so i ended up healing with single-flare pyrex eyelets [again on sale here at baf] at 0g...

bottom line, i learned the hard way about tapers (i slept in them once and it was not good) and so was trying to give the OP some of my experience/info about them (tapers) and ideas about how to stretch a 'little' quicker - that, technically, is not truly recommended (ie wearing spirals with a bit more weight to them than simple plugs)...    ymmv, h.

I knew that weights were bad for fresh piercings, but I thought maybe they were okay for healed ones.  I never even thought about it unevenly distributing the weight. (DUH)  Thanks heathdawg and rat for clarifying that!.  I had actually thought about getting some because my ears aren't liking DFs like they were a few weeks ago!  Thought that wearing weights for a few hours a day might help, but I'm not going to do it now!!  Learn something new everyday!

And, harold, as for your 3-4wk healing period...your ears may FEEL like they're healed and ready to be stretched again, but that doesn't mean that they are.  They may look healed on the outside, but the inside of your lobes may not be fully healed yet.  You really should wait a bit longer than that, in my opinion.

Everyone's stretching time varies.

I know someone who stretched from the smaller stretches (14 to 12, for example) in two weeks. I had wanted to attempt this, but I am so glad I did. When I put my tapers in the other day (12 g), there was a little pain, but no pop or blood or anything, so I was feeling good. I don't have my 12 g plugs yet, so I kept them in for a few hours. Before I went to bed though, I took out the gauges, and my holes started to bleed a little.

So I'm going to take care of them, and hope I didn't do anything real damage or anything.