If you are asking this question, we reckon you’re among many others that don’t remember the last time they cleaned their healed piercings, and you’ve probably had the piercings for years.
But once you clean it out and see all the gunk that has accumulated, you will understand just how important it is for you to clean your healed piercing more often.
So, how often should you be cleaning your healed piercings? The simple answer to this question would be – as often as possible.
We’ll give a more definite answer below as we learn more about healed piercings and needed standards of hygiene throughout this article. Keep reading to learn more!
oh, do not forget to read more piercing tips here or here!
Do you need to clean healed piercings?
While you may have had your piercings for years and haven’t had any issues with them, you should know that despite all the time that has passed from the time you got the piercing, you still need to clean the healed piercings.
And though you may have had the same earrings for a while now and may not even think about the need to clean the healed ear piercings, you really should take time to clean them.
How often should you clean healed piercings?
You should clean the healed piercings often. But the good news is that this is not something that you should stress yourself too much about, well, unless your skin and ears are super-sensitive, to which end you’ll have to clean the ears much more frequently.
To be on the safe side, we recommend cleaning your healed piercings at least once a week, especially if you have sensitive skin.
You should also take to cleaning your ear piercings once weekly if you wear the same pair of earrings all week long, day and night. This is important because, in as much as your ear piercings are healed, accumulated dirt may cause an infection, especially if you scratch your ears too roughly, inadvertently.
Note, however, that you may want to clean the ear-piercing twice a week if it just healed. It may look healed by the piercing might not be that well-healed, which is why you need to clean it about 2 to two times each week to ensure that it heals well, and there is no risk of infection.
All that information means that you must know how long it takes for most piercings to heal because there is the possibility of the piercings looking and feeling healed, even when they are not.
Generally, the earlobe piercing heals the fastest in 1-2 months, but cartilage piercings like the tragus and helix piercings would take between 6months and 1 year to heal fully. Before it heals, you shouldn’t remove the jewelry.
How to clean inside ear piercing hole?
You will come across many endless discussions on how to keep your healing clean and to encourage faster and safe healing. Not much is talked about when it comes to cleaning the healed piercings, yet they still need to be cleaned.
To clean it, this section of the article shares some helpful insights that will guide you.
1. Jewelry on or off?
Since the piercing is healed, you wouldn’t have to remove the jewelry when cleaning the piercing.
This is the ideal standard, especially if you suspect that your piercing is not 100% healed. As you already know, you should never remove the ear piercing while it heals.
But even after it heals, you really don’t have to remove your earrings to clean the area.
Oftentimes, a simple cleaning session around and also under the earring and the earring post will do the trick.
2. Less is more – Products
In terms of the products to use when cleaning, the cliché phrase, less is more wins – the same way as it is with the healing piercings.
Don’t fall for the craze. Although there are too many crazy products recommended out there for ear piercings care, you really don’t need all those balms, ointments, or piercing floss.
Good ol’ saline or clean water and a cotton swab or cloth will do the trick. Bear in mind that despite all the new products recommended, some of these products are too gimmicky and just off the wall, and they might not work.
Avoid products made with harsh ingredients or chemicals. Instead, use mild products.
Whether you prefer to double cleanse or double wash, ensure that the product is milk and gentle on your skin.
3. Soap and warm water
When it comes to cleaning your healed ear piercing, nothing works better than the good old mix of clean, warm water and mild liquid soap.
You only need to lather the soap up in your hands (after cleaning your hands) the go over the ears while you shower.
Once satisfied, let the warm water from the shower run over the years as you work through the ear to remove all traces of soap.
When done, you could also use a Q-tip to clean around and under the jewelry. Once done, dry the ears; you could also use a blowdryer, but on a low setting to get all the water out.
4. Hydrogen Peroxide or Alcohol Swab
If you think it’s time to clean the ears, but you don’t want to go the water and soap path, you could swab the ear piercings using hydrogen peroxide and rubbing alcohol.
Note, however, that we only recommend this solution if your piercings are completely healed. Otherwise, they will cause irritation and leave you with a bigger problem.
This also means that you should use these products months after the piercing is healed and/ or after you no longer feel the sting of the salty/ saline water.
5. Disinfection
You may not remember to clean the ear-piercing every week, but you sure can make sure that any piece of jewelry that you wear is well-disinfected.
Beyond the earrings, you also need to disinfect your phone and your headphones regularly. Use either rubbing alcohol or antibacterial soap.
And for your regular jewelry, disinfect them using warm soapy water, perhaps a cleanser, and a toothbrush to reach all the nooks and crannies.
You should use warm water and mild soap to clean your pearl jewelry too.
6. Clean the piercing site every time you change earrings
Most of us have earrings that we live in, and we tend to forget about their existence because they are comfortable and not causing any issues.
Whenever you change the earrings, you should clean the piercing well using either clean water or saline in a cotton swab.
Rub a small cloth or cotton swab around the piercing gently while making sure that you remove all dirt and debris.
When done, you should not see any dirt on the piece of cotton. Again, you’d want to disinfect the new pair before wearing it.
Repeated cleaning around the piercing site with a cotton swab soaked in warm salty water will help get rid of all and any bacteria.
Just make sure that you are dabbing the piercing and not roughly wiping.
7. Take precaution
If you have that one pair of earrings that you practically live in, you should know that there is a risk of the earrings causing a reaction after some time.
It could also tarnish your skin. If this happens, stop wearing the earrings and disinfect your ear piercings.
Conclusion
You should clean your healed piercings at least once a week, every time you change jewelry, and if you cannot recall when you last cleaned the piercing, this is your cue to get on with it.
Stephanie is a jewelry lover when she was a teenager. Her major was fashion design when she was in college. She is a jewelry designer at SOQ Jewelry and other design companies. Now she is also a writer for our website. She writes a lot of designs&brands posts with very actionable tips.