The responsibility of looking after a new piercing may seem daunting, but adding these few extra steps into your daily routine will become second nature before you know it!

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• With freshly washed hands, clean your piercing twice daily (morning and night) by spraying a small amount of sterile saline wound wash onto the piercing site and patting dry with gauze/kitchen roll.

• After a bath or shower, make sure to properly dry your piercing with kitchen roll, gauze or a hairdryer on a cold setting. Avoid swimming, saunas and steam rooms for AT LEAST 6 weeks after getting a piercing.

• Don’t twist, pick or fiddle with your piercing, and NEVER touch your piercing with unclean hands.

• Remember to get your piercing downsized on time and attend any check-up appointments (if necessary) to ensure your piercing is on the right track to healing perfectly.

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You will probably notice clear/white discharge around the piercing that when dry will look like “crust”. This is a normal part of healing , and it’s important to remember not to pick it off with your fingers. After showering or cleaning the piercing, it should soften and come off easily with a cotton bud.

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• EAR PIERCINGS: Make sure to never go to bed with wet hair while your piercing is healing. Damp, warm environments are breeding grounds for bacteria, so sleeping with wet hair touching a piercing can cause irritation and delay healing. You should also do your best to avoid sleeping on a healing piercing as this can cause soreness, irritation and migration, meaning your piercing could heal wonky. Try sleeping on a travel pillow (with your ear in the hole), or putting a claw clip in your hair on the side of the piercing so you don’t roll onto it in the night.

• FACIAL PIERCINGS: When putting on makeup, washing your face or using skincare products, make sure to avoid getting any products in or around the piercing. If you accidentally get product in the piercing, clean it thoroughly with sterile saline and a cotton bud.

• ORAL PIERCINGS: For any piercing that sits inside the mouth, use alcohol-free mouthwash when brushing your teeth, and rinse your mouth with filtered/bottled water after meals and throughout the day.

• NAVEL/NIPPLE PIERCINGS: Avoid using loofahs in the shower while your piercing is healing, as well as clothes that may get caught (i.e fishnet tights, lace bra, etc). For navel piercings specifically, avoid any clothing that will put pressure on the piercing (i.e high-waisted trousers)

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If any of these steps are missed, your piercing may get irritated. Most of the time this is easily fixable by identifying the cause of the irritation and stopping it. If this occurs, give this information a read through to see if any steps have been forgotten and contact me for any further advice.