i wish i could stop posting here about my delimmas. im getting extremely frustrated. heres the rundown.

stretched from 10 g to 8 smoothly 5.5 months ago
i take good care of my lobes.
started trying to taper to a 6 after 4 months, they werent ready, so i waited.
lost a plug, no money to buy a new one, so i decided stretched my left lobe to a 6 about 2-3 weeks ago. it was very sore afterwards and actually bled (which i know is bad) so i figured i tore my ear. i didnt really understand because the taper really had no trouble going on. downsized back to 8, looked and felt fine a few days later. i'm leaving that ear alone for awhile (any suggested time frame?)

 SO ANYWAY i get out of the shower today and slide the 6g taper into my right ear. slid through with little resistance. let sit for 5 minutes. go to line up my plug with the taper, get it halfway through....and the plug wont go through the back. i tried to get it in with no luck. the taper is going through fine, and the plug just wont go through. i stopped trying because i dont want to irritate my ear.. so i guess its back to an 8? i just dont understand why it wont go completely through. i obviously dont wanna force it.. this is also not the first time this has happened, it happened during my stretch to 8 and during the previously mentioned left lobe 6g stretch (which i had a friend look at and said the hole didnt look circular, more like a cut in the back. i went in to a my piercer who took a quick, not very examinate look and said it looked fine..)

 i'm just realllllly frustrated and curious as to what i'm doing wrong.

This happened to me but i didn't know jack so i shoved both in my ear! Don't do that! To start of i can see why your frustrated but its only human. Let your ears heal for at bit, i would say sometime near a month, Allow them to relax and use some sea salt soaks, according to heathdawg its 1,4 a teaspoon of sea salt per 8oz. container, if i remember correctly. Soak your ears for 5 to 10 minutes. Now during this process use emu oil, it will help heal your lobes and make them stretchy, preparing them for the next size.

If taken the previous steps, your lobes should be near the ready point to stretch. After all has been said and done take a hot shower, relaxing your ears. Lube up the tapers with emu oil and push them in. Don't sit there fiddle with the tapers and irritate your ear, just simply ease them in. After that let the tapers sit for a day or 2 then once again warm shower lube them up with emu oil and try putting them in. You should be fine and at your next size.

Quick side note,  massages with emu oil can help you get rid of scar tissue if you have any. Emu oil can be found almost anywhere including here on BAF!

This is all based of my experiences and things i've learned in the past, if there is anything else i could help you with just let me know.

i do sea salt soaks a couple times a week and try to massage twice a day with either vitamin e or jojoba (i dont know exactly how much better emu oil is, maybe i should pick up some of that) and obviously my left bitch ear needs more time but my right seemed ready, and since the taper slid right in after my shower (and it was lubed with jojoba) i was confident it was. Do you think the problem is the back side of my ear just isnt as stretchy as the front, and thats why the plug wont go through? I just dont get why its so hard to always get the plugs in through the back. I re-inserted the taper about 3 times to try and re-align with the plug, and i was thinking maybe i need the taper in for a longer period..but i know you're not supposed to leave it in for a long period of time so my lobe is just naked right now. havent even popped the 8 back in.

and as of now, the ear is lumpy. scar tissue im guessing. there were no lumps before i tried this stretch so obviously i just really irratated my ear so should i put the 8 back in or leave it naked for awhile? also, should i do a SSS/massage since its a fresh stretch? i usually a few days.

side thought: can any of this be attributed to the fact that my ears were originally gunned at claires? actually once when i was little, which closed. and again a few years ago in a different spot. they are a little uneven and maybe angeled weird? i dunno..just curious. 

Mr.GuzbeKnot:

 After that let the tapers sit for a day or 2 then once again warm shower lube them up with emu oil and try putting them in.

Tapers should not be worn for extended periods of time. They are used as stretching aids and are to be removed from your ears after the stretch and replaced by plugs immediately.

You could possibly have alot of scar tissue from having your lobes peirced with a gun. Daily oil massages will aide in the removal. Also, when you stretched in the past, have you used IS concave tapers followed by rounded ended plugs? IS tapers are nice and long and the concave taper and convex plug act as one and slide into the lobe easier.

 Word. I just started this post for you ( http://forums.bodyartforms.com/forums/t/25612.aspx ) He's right tapers should'nt be left in for too long, it causes uneven stretching among your ears. Maybe your in that 10% that need to have that taper in for a day or two. Keeping it in for one day shouldnt do much damage at all, and your plug should even things out once its in. This is all in a nut shell of course and only if it works for you, so try testing it out. Also scar tissue can prevent you from stretching, so you might want to look into that emu oil.

Mr.GuzbeKnot - thanks for that post! i actually didnt know jojoba was bad for a fresh stretch. ill def. be looking for some emu oil tomorrow. yeah i always heard its bad news to leave the taper in, but if it could actually help ill give it a whirl. i guess ill pop my 8 back in and wait a couple more months. waaah.

and i actually ordered a bunch of poor persons stretching kits (with the acrylic tapers) when i first started stretching, so for all my previous stretches an acrylic taper has been used paired with the rounded end plug. when i first attempted my stretch to a 6 though i realized acrylic was not gradual enough and ordered a SS taper so thats what i used on this stretch. i tried using both the rounded and flat end of the plug into the stretch but no dice.

pretty much the exact same thing happened to me, so i waited a month and tried again and it went so smoothly the second time. i really didnt have to wait very long, i dont know how your ears will be. i think since you already had your ears at 6g then they'll almost be kind of "broken in" when you try again. thats what i found. try to use one of the long steel tapers like someone else said. i like the industrial strength ones on here and i find they make a world of difference and are worth it. i normally dont have much problem following it up with the plug since the concave on those tapers fits a rounded end plug into it great. i find colorfronts are the easiest plug to follow up with. when you are, remember to keep the angle of the plug totally even with the end of the taper. use one hand to hold the plug in the concave of the taper so theres no space between, and the other hand to pull the taper through from the back of your ear. should slip right in. dont do it too fast or too slow, just one motion. also before youre about to stretch its good to pull on your plugs a little bit kind of in a circular motion to loosen up your lobes some. not real hard or anything. and of course a nice warm sss. i like to immediately put the taper in after i take out my old plugs too. dont know if that helps any. good luck.

ETA, I have also used the poor person stretching kits for multiple stretches, and found the 6g taper too abrupt. That stretch took a lot of time and multiple attempts. Wish I'd tried taping back then.

 No problem, i see a few people have posted as well, i'm at an eat about to stretch up to a six in 2 weeks, or 3 weeks, if you would like i could post up some picture for yah, not too sure if any of the damage is left.