So I've never used peroxide myself after a fresh stretch or on my ears at all, usually just stick with the water and soap and sea salt soak, but I've been hearing of people using peroxide. I was curious on what other people after heard or experienced when using it. 

It's a horrible idea to use on stretched ears. It will damage tissue.

 Agreed...horrible, horrible idea. 

using peroxide to heal can cause scar tissue which will make it harder to stretch in the future.  just stick with the sea salt soaks.  thats what i use too and my lobes love them.  i also use emu oil and holey butter, all which i got from BAF =)

as everyone else has said, peroxide = bad...  personal experience here - i did use h2o2 (3% from drugstore) on my initial 20/18g gunned ear-piercings...  this was a very bad idea (even tho it was the 'recommended' treatment from the lady who gunned me)..

the h2o2 solution actually did do some foaming in my piercing - and what that meant (besides being kinda fun/cool) was that it was 'eating away' all the blood and damaged-skin from the piercing see this link.  what ended up happening in my ear (that was foaming) was that i developed a little 'fold' of 'eaten-away' skin from the 'cleansing' action of the h2o2.  thus, my ears were actually damaged from the h2o2 - do not do this !!!

also, while h2o2 is indeed a 'green' substance to use - you might want to look at comment-9 under this link for a quote regarding wound-care with it... basically, do NOT put anything on (or irrigate/clean) a wound (yes, a stretch/piercing is a skin-wound) that you would not feel comfortable/safe to put in/on your eye !!! this is a handy rule-of-thumb if you ask me... and also helps explain why saline solution (sss) is the recommended treatment around these here parts...  

edit - corrected first link a bit, and

to answer amanda - i assume the answer is yes (stuff in bottle given at gun piercings), but i was gunned at a portable earring-stall inside the mall-main-area and the gal just 'told' me to go get the peroxide from the drugstore...  (thus, i actively did this to myself...  sigh)  to be fair, the fact that only my left-ear has this odd skin-collapse/fold is prolly due to the little internal-white-bump (which i think was a zit or somesuch) that only existed on my left-earlobe...  basically - there was some sort of 'internal-to-that-ear' yet 'close-enough-to-the-piercing' skin-condition/item that the broken-skin from the gun-piercing allowed the peroxide to 'reach inside' and 'eat away' creating the fold/collapse near the actual piercing-hole...  my RIGHT ear, never seemed to 'foam' when cleaning the piercing and it never developed this minor skin-fold...  i really should try and take a pic of it to explain a bit better...

That's really interesting, Harold, and thanks for the links. That H2o2, is that the aftercare stuff they give you from like Claire's and WalMart when they're done gunning you? I'm glad I didn't use it that often!

wrinkledamanda:

That H2o2, is that the aftercare stuff they give you from like Claire's and WalMart when they're done gunning you? I'm glad I didn't use it that often!

No, I don't believe that their solution has any hydrogen peroxide in it (unless they reformulated since I was pierced at Claire's many years ago). Benzalkonium chloride is the active ingredient which acts as a disinfectant (and preservative). Wikipedia tells me that it's also an allergen, so it's definitely a good thing to avoid (especially when good old sea salt soaks are so much more effective).

Ah, thank you. Yes, sss are the way to go :D They're cheaper than solutions, too.

 ive managed to take/post a pic of my earlobes (left has fold - top pic) in the whats-in-your-piercing-today-thread...  http://forums.bodyartforms.com/forums/p/25561/312452.aspx#312452

(guess i was wrong about the walmart-type 'free/given' solutions - i didnt know, obviously)