If you are having a hard time removing your earrings after they have been in the ears for some weeks or months, you may be freaking out, wondering if maybe you did something wrong, left it on for far too long, or maybe didn’t follow the aftercare instructions as you should have.
But really, you shouldn’t. Also, don’t be too hard on yourself because it happens often, and you’re not the first one to suffer this misfortune.
And in this article, we’ll share important insights into everything you should know about earrings getting stuck and what you do about it. But first, why are your earrings hard to take out?
Why is it so hard to take out my earrings?
Here are the main reasons why it may be so hard for you to take out your earrings.
1. First, it’s quite normal for your earrings to feel a little tough and hard to take out, and the reason for this is that as your ears heal, there is a natural buildup of gunk from body oils, sweat, blood, and other bodily fluids as the piercing heals.
While you can remove this buildup and prevent more buildup by cleaning the ears regularly, sometimes you don’t do a good job, which means more buildup. Unfortunately, buildup around the earrings will make it much hard for you to take out the jewelry.
2. The other reason it may be hard for you to remove the earrings is that they may have stuck on for too long, and the new piercings may be unhealed.
So the earrings may be stuck in the skin surrounding the piercing, and with this enmeshment, it would be too hard for you to remove the earrings.
Often, and with regular cleaning, the piercing heals right, meaning that the earring is much easier to remove after healing.
If, on the other hand, the piercing is unhealed, the earring would be stuck on the healing skin, and this would mean that the earring is much harder to remove.
3. Also, the earrings may be hard to remove if the piercing isn’t fully healed. The reason for this is that the wound is still new, and you will feel the pain trying to remove the earrings, and as long as there is pain, then there will be discomfort in removing the earrings.
In case of pain, you shouldn’t remove the earrings yet, and you’d have to see a professional for help and to ensure that the piercing heals the property.
To avoid the risk of a healing piercing and to ensure that the piercing heals right, you would want to give it the recommended healing time. Don’t rush the healing process, and follow the cleaning instructions recommended.
4. There is also the fact that piercing jewelry is not always easy to remove, and this is often the case because the starter piercing jewelry can feel very small and hard to remove.
The starter jewelry is also often hard to remove because they lack a visible latch or back for easy removal or unhooking, and this means that the process and be frustrating. You may also panic at the thought of removing the piercing, which would result in even more pain.
How to take out your earring without pain
First, you’d want to ensure that the ear piercing is healed fully, especially because you wouldn’t want to use too much force when removing the jewelry.
At the same time, you may want to avoid anything that may cause more harm, for example, pliers – as tempting as it may be, you may want to avoid using things like pliers when removing the earrings.
It is also important to be aware that the real pain of a healing piercing doesn’t come from the pain from healing or the cleaning but from waiting for the piercing to heal fully and be able to take out the jewelry.
In the waiting, which may take between 4-6 weeks or even longer, you will be tempted to remove earrings even before you are 100% sure the piercing heals, and when you do that, you may experience some pain or resistance.
But then, how do you handle things in such circumstances, especially because the healing may take longer than recommended?
Understandably, the basic studs and rings can be a little too boring and not the kind of jewelry you may want to keep on for months.
So, with all these in mind, how do you make sure that you remove your earrings safely without feeling much pain?
I. Determine if the piercing is healed
You already know that you shouldn’t ever swap out your new earrings before the piercing is fully healed.
Though tempting, especially when you convince yourself that the piercing is healed and you wouldn’t cause any harm, you actually often end up causing much more damage, and this may manifest as scarring, a bad infection, permanent swelling, or in other cases earring rejection which happens when your body pushes out the jewelry.
So, to avoid these from happening, you may want to wait until the piercing heals fully for you to take out the jewelry. You can tell that the jewelry is healed when you notice that there is no pain, swelling, signs of redness, and no discharge from the piercing.
Also, it shouldn’t hurt when you touch the piercing. Keep in mind that the clear or yellow crusties are completely normal, even after the piercings have healed.
Make sure you clean the piercings, even after you think the piercing is fully healed; You also use the recommended cleaning solution.
II. Loosen up the gunk
In most instances, you will be able to remove the jewelry, regardless of the initial resistance, easily.
The only thing you’d have to do would be to loosen and then remove the gunk built-up around the earring post, then twist it gently before you slide out the earring.
You could loosen the gunk using warm water or even the cleaning solution. Just allow it to sit for some time before you clean it out, again, very gently.
III. How to remove the push-in stud earrings
For this type of earrings, you’ll need to have a good grip to remove them from the underside, then
pull the earrings at the front and back before pulling them straight apart. If the earrings feel too tight, you’d want to add a slight twisting motion on the jewelry while pulling the removable end.
The twist-and=pull motion may be a little challenging, and you should apply just a little more force on the stud earrings.
IV. Removing the screw-in stud earrings
With these earrings, you wouldn’t have to use too much force to take them off, although you would need a lot of twisting.
To remove these earrings, grip the back of the jewelry tightly, then start twisting its removable end until the jewelry is out of the back completely.
Note, however, that you’ll need to twist the removable end towards the right for the earrings to come off.
V. Removing the fixed-bead rings/ earrings gently
For these earrings, you’d have to gently torque the earrings to the beaded side, away from the ends, before pushing up one side and pushing the other side down.
And without a beaded end, you would have to follow the same steps to break in and remove the jewelry. Also, it’s ideal to remove the jewelry’s flush end first.
Conclusion
The steps and ideas above will make it possible for you to remove the jewelry, even if it feels too hard at first. Just be patient with the process and give it time.
At first, you may fail, but you shouldn’t force it, just follow the simple steps above, and if you’re still in pain, you may have to seek professional help.
Read more piercing tips here or here!
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.