I posted this on another website too but I'm a bit worried about it so the wider the cross section of opinions, the better.

It's been three days shy of ten weeks since I got my left lobe pierced at 6ga (4mm). Yesterday I thought it was time to clean my little glass plug coz it looked kinda foggy, and maybe try out a few other jewellery choices for a different look.

As soon as I undid the O-ring, the plug just kinda plopped out of my ear, didn't think much of it. I cleaned up the plug, gave my ear a bit of a wipe, grabbed my 4mm taper and set about trying a couple of other bits of jewellery...the 4mm taper went straight through without even barely touching the sides and I couldn't keep the jewellery in without holding it to screw on the back of the tunnel. It seemed kinda loose in the hole, even when the back was tight up to my lobe.

So I grabbed a 5mm tunnel I had from the same set, added a little lube and tried putting that in very gently and it went straight in super easy, no taper necessary. I feel like I could even have gone to 6mm but I was too scared and didn't have a piece of jewellery I liked to go in there in that size so I didn't bother.

So....I know 'normal' is a difficult term but is this normal? Or 'not abnormal'? I have left the 5mm tunnel in there now, no pain, no swelling, not even a slight throb or uncomfortableness that I've been told I should feel with a 'comfortable' stretch but I'm worried that maybe I'm doing my ear damage anyway considering the piercing is so new? But then again, it didn't really even feel like a stretch in the true sense, just kinda did it on its own...so thoughts?

In the brief time I had a look, the hole looks really healthy, nice and round so far...the fistula inside is still pretty pink from what I could see, but I guess that's quite normal...I didn't grab any photos, sorry.

Also...

* Does that indicate a nice stretchy ear for the future? Or on the flipside, and more importantly to me, does that mean my ear is unlikely to stay super tight and therefore not shrink back much after retiring stretches in the future? I know it's unpredictable...but experiences or thoughts?

*Should I still be waiting the requisite months before stretching any further or does this maybe indicate my ear COULD be ready now, say after staying at 5mm for the next month?

 Keep 6g jewelry in for at least six months to let your lobes continue healing. It's great (I'm assuming here) that your ears are so stretchy, but you still need to let them heal for the full amount of time. I've heard that people who are pierced at larger sizes sometimes find that their ears are stretchier, but I don't have any personal experience with this. If you're worried about losing plugs I'd try CBRs.

4mm CBRs could be pretty heavy too... It might be good to use titanium if you can. It does sound like it was a pretty good dead stretch tho... How do your lobes feel when you do an oil massage? If they even slightly sting, or you can feel any lumps, you should probably wait longer. And do you get much 'ear cheese' on your plugs?

 Hey guys, thanks as always for your thoughts/opinions

Jellybean,  I'm not too inclined to go back down a size now as the 5mm has behaving itself very, very nicely indeed...it's less about losing jewellery and more about potentially losing a 1mm gain that's basically been for free?  If I was getting any pain or negative effect or anything I'd have no doubts or second thoughts about going back, in fact I would have done it yesterday but 24 hours later, it seems to be better than ever...

Rodger, I haven't really been doing massages yet.  I have the emu oil ready in preperation, but maybe as my original post was way long, I should emphasise that I have not stretched my ear AT ALL, just pierced at large gauge...so a lot of that stuff like massaging and feeling lumps isn't info I've got yet.  As for the ear cheese, I was noticing at about the 8 week mark with the glass plug that I was getting some sort of whitish type substance coming out around the front flare of the glass plug, not the yellowish colour of crust but more like a layer of skin that has peeled off... like skin peeling from sunburn but kinda gooey/moist.  At least that's what it looked like and kinda felt like when I had a play with the texture...this usually came out after SSS.   Is this ear cheese?

 To answer your thread topic. A stretch is a stretch no matter how easy it goes in. Period.

youll need to get info from someone who has the experience, but fwiw - i think the semi-non-stretch to 5mm can just be considered part of the original piercing-at-4mm and keep the timeline going...  basically, i -think- that the effect you noticed is the 'super-stretchy' stuff that folks who get large gauge piercings experience...  otoh, you prolly DO want to restart the 2-month clock again at this 5mm stretch, so that you dont accidentally stretch-again before your body is ready...  idk...

anyways, the reason im posting is to say - yes, the white-crud that you find on your jewelry is just simple/moist ear-cheese...  i think it turns yellowish once it dries out...  anyways, ear-cheese (to me) means that the fistula is not-healed-yet and is trying to generate skin and some of that stuff is just not 'sticking'...  for instance, i had not been having any ear-cheese for several weeks, but then i started wearing some heavy-danglies to help make my ears stretchy for some DF-plugs i wanted to wear...  sure enough, once the lobe started stretching to accomodate stuff, i started getting ear-cheese again...  right now im still trying to sort out what i want (if anything) to do about it...  my size (basically) is stable at 0g, but i need/want the stretchiness for the df jewelry...  i figure, for my body, that if/when i go thru any 'adjustments' like this - im just gonna keep getting it (ear cheese).  no biggie, but it lets me know that im 'abusing' my lobe a bit - when i get it...

otoh, maybe with regular massages (which id gotten lazy and had not been doing), folks can have stretchy -and- non-cheesy lobes...

 Someone with a LOT of experience in this matter suggests that you ignore the post above this. 

LOL - thank you...  consider me mute...  lol. 

edit - changing mute to moot (and im sure it is primmarily about the stretching-junk i wrote)...  i believe the ear-cheese stuff is still (possibly) useful...  namely, yes - the white-junk is/was ear-cheese...  what it (cheese) means is still open-to-discussion, i guess...  lol

rick - you are so darn polite - i dont even know what to do...  i thought we were on the internet here - where flying-middle-fingers and accusations-of-naziism were the norm...  how can we just be so polite ?  j/k...

 Not saying you should be mute. I was just politely disagreeing with you this time. :)

harold:

ear-cheese (to me) means that the fistula is not-healed-yet and is trying to generate skin and some of that stuff is just not 'sticking'...

I honestly don't notice a difference in my healed vs. unhealed ears, but I clean my ears every day so none of the dead skin cells really have a chance to build up...

harold:

LOL - thank you...  consider me mute...  lol. 

edit - changing mute to moot (and im sure it is primmarily about the stretching-junk i wrote)...  i believe the ear-cheese stuff is still (possibly) useful...  namely, yes - the white-junk is/was ear-cheese...  what it (cheese) means is still open-to-discussion, i guess...  lol

rick - you are so darn polite - i dont even know what to do...  i thought we were on the internet here - where flying-middle-fingers and accusations-of-naziism were the norm...  how can we just be so polite ?  j/k...

Ear cheese is simply an accumulation of skin cells. You naturally shed countless skin cells daily, the only difference is, in a fistula they have no place to go, the bigger the fistula, the more skin cells.