LITFA Method

Wash your hands thoroughly with hot, soapy water before interacting with your piercing – remember, it’s a fresh wound.No touching, picking or twisting, don't over clean, this can make the healing take longer as you are over working the healing wound.Clean in the shower, so rinse off with warm water.Wipe away any white-yellow lymph fluid or dry matter, using none woven gauze, or clean kitchen roll. Pat dry gently with kitchen roll. Do this gently, don't be rough/hard on the area, as that will cause damage to the healing stage.

Sterile Saline Solution

Wash your hands thoroughly with hot, soapy water before interacting with your piercing – remember, it’s a fresh wound.No touching, picking or twisting, don't over clean, this can make the healing take longer as you are over working the healing wound.Spray the area with saline spray - can do this directly or on kitchen roll/woven.Wipe away any white-yellow lymph fluid or dry matter, using none woven gauze, or clean kitchen roll. Pat dry gently with kitchen roll. Do this gently, don't be rough/hard on the area, as that will cause damage to the healing stage.

Stages of Healing

Stage 1 - Inflammation

The inflammatory phase begins almost immediately after your piercing and can last between 3-6 days, it can sometimes last a little longer than that at times.

Once you are pierced, your body works straight away at clotting the scene, it's all to do with your blood cells (which are crazy) they create a barrier as such around the open wound to protect you from the inside and outside. Whenever we hear the word inflammation it is kind of scary, but don't worry it's a good thing, means your body is working and protecting itself.

Stage 2 - Begin to heal

The proliferative phase is the second thing that happens to a new healing piercing. It starts around 2 days after the piercing is done and continues for 4-6 weeks.

Once those weeks have passed, I usually get you to come in for a downsize and this is the perfect time to do so, as the inflammation has settled, no sign of significant swelling or pure redness.

A downsize means that I will install a shorter piece of jewellery so it's a little more "snugger" like to the piercing area, so it doesn't go irritated or heal at an angle. I will inform you when you'll need a downsize, as said though everyone's stages are going to be different so you might need longer before the downsize, or you may need multiple downsizes due to the type/or area of the piercing.

Stage 3 - Remodel

This is the final stage and important one to, this is when your fragile piercing starts to take structure in building itself or as some say remodel, where it starts to form "normal" tissue surrounding the piercing channel.

This starts around 6 weeks post piercing and can last up to 2 years. At this stage the piercing shouldn't be so sensitive or sore, it'll start to become comfortable and sometimes a piercing can "nest" into the area (this is completely different to imbedding).

I usually inform you a piercing can take anywhere from 6 - 12 months to fully heal, sometimes it can be longer. I say it like that due to above statement, a piercing can be uncomfortable and sore for longer than "8 weeks", it can take up to 6 months for that to go. Also, redness and irritation can defiantly happen at the 4-6 months' timeframe, and sometimes can happen when the piercing is a year or so old, this can be due to it being caught, or due to your workplace, or due to your health.

Put it simpler...

I'm hoping this clears up some questions you may have, and you can understand the full depth of the piercing healing stages.

To simplify it.

The piercing site will be sore for the first few days, you will see signs of site swelling, bleeding and bruising - this is normal.

Swelling stage can be from 2 days to 6 weeks, sometimes longer. Best way to get rid of swelling is keeping hydrated, no touching it, no sleeping on it, and just leaving it alone. You can do some cold compression, that can help with swelling and bruising. You will also see more discharge at this stage, the discharge will be clear to yellow colour, it's totally normal.

After your downsize which is at 4-6 weeks, you'll notice that your jewellery is snugger to your piercing site, but at this stage your piercing is still in the healing stage, it's still fragile, sore, uncomfortable and a little swelling can be there. You will see some discolouration of your skin tissue, don't worry that's normal too, just means that the blood flow is building meaning it's healing correctly.

8-12 weeks is the period where you can remove jewellery, but not for a long period of time, as with piercings they are unpredictable so the piercing to shrink or close up is unknown. It will be fragile and sore when removing and installing jewellery, so please keep that in mind. You'll feel itchiness and tightness, this is normal, your skin is a living and working organ so it's trying to understand what the hell is going on.

4-6 months is the fun part, PAITENCE. Keeping the piercing area clean, and following the aftercare instructions, it'll be a breeze.

6-12 months, healed piercing, as stated it can take longer than this, but usually at this point your piercing should feel more comfortable, not fragile, easy to change to different jewellery, your skin is back to normal colour, still a healthy discharge and your jewellery shouldn't move about much.

Green Flags

A piercing of course doesn't have feelings, but when it's angry you know about it. Here's some tips and tricks on doing better for your piercing.

Staying hydrated, it helps a lot with your body throughout the day and also helps with healing your piercings.

Plenty of sleep, tiredness really effects how your mind works, but also drains your body. When we sleep our body swells a little so the skin can detox itself from collecting all the dirt, dust and germs throughout the day, this helps with piercings too.

Don't stress out, if your job or life is causing you to stress out a lot, have more "breathers" or mini get aways, cleansing yourself from stress helps your body.

When washing your body, or hair, make sure you rinse off all soaps, shampoos and conditioners.

Don't wear makeup near/around your piercings, it's hard to removing off the skin without using products so just be careful and don't wear it near your piercings while they're healing.

Don't sleep on your piercings, most certainly when they are freshly done, not only does it hurt meaning you'll lose sleep, but when creating pressure on a piercing it can move direction so could heal at an angle. Get yourself a travel or doughnut pillow, or even a pregnancy pillow.

Avoid heavy drinking (alcohol) while your piercing is healing, it's known to thin your blood, meaning clotting and cells have to work harder meaning prolong healing.

Please don't change your jewellery so soon, if you need to please visit me, changing your jewellery early can cause issues.

Red Flags

What to avoid when it comes to looking after your piercings. If a studio/piercer tells you to use anything below or doesn't go into depth about things, FIND A NEW PIERCER.

Don't touch your piercing, mostly during the healing part. You are touching/grabbing so many things throughout the day, so would you touch your piercing after going to the toilet? No.

Don't use chemicals on your piercings. Anything like TCP, Savlon, Surgical Spirits, Dettol, Chlorine and so on. These things are just too harsh to put on a piercing, it can cause more harm.

OILS DON'T BELONG ON PIERCINGS. Don't use BPA, tea tree or lavender oils, it's stupid.

SALT IS FOR PASTA, NOT PIERCINGS. Salt is a drying agent; it can cause your skin to dry out and become irritated, meaning your biggest organ isn't doing its correct job.

Contact lens solution is a no from me. There are 2 main ingredients that are in contact lens solution that are scary and don't belong on an open wound, let alone a piercing. Hydrogen Peroxide and Benzyl Alcohol, both are very harsh and can cause serious issues to the skin/piercings.