How do I get the gunk out of my earring hole?

“Just a little bit of rubbing alcohol on a cotton pad to clean the post and the backing.” Simple, sure, but effective: Rubbing alcohol is a cleaner, a solvent (meaning it can dissolve buildup), and a disinfectant, making it a quick and easy way to remove all that gunk and sanitize the metal.

What do you clean ear piercing holes with?

New Ear Piercing Care:

Use a cotton swab (Q-tip) with salt water to clean the area around the hole twice a day. Some recommend using hydrogen peroxide, rubbing alcohol, or antibiotic ointment but salt water disinfects and is less damaging to the skin tissue.

Why do my earring holes smell?

Your skin secretes a natural oil called sebum which can mix with the deceased cells in your piercings and cause a buildup. This buildup serves as a great environment for bacteria to thrive and hence you end up with a foul smell.

Should you clean your earring holes?

As a reminder, if your ears are freshly pierced, you should clean the holes and the earrings twice a day. A fresh wound is more susceptible to bacterial infection, so you have to keep it super clean. Thoroughly clean your ears with liquid soap and running water during a shower.

What is the black stuff on my earrings?

The black stuff is normal. It’s actually just deceased skin cells. When a piercing hole is made and the earring is put it, the ear will be trying to heal itself for a long time. Even if you’ve had piercings for a long time, they will always closed up eventually because the cells are always trying to regenerate themselves.

Can I use rubbing alcohol to clean my piercing?

General Care for Body Piercings

Do not use rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide. (Both slow the healing of pierced area by drying and killing new healthy cells.) … Twice a day saturate a cotton swab or Q-Tip with the cleaning solution, apply to the pierced area, let soak for a few minutes. Remove any dried matter.

Can you clean earring holes with hydrogen peroxide?

Clean the piercing with warm water and soap twice a day. Do not use rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide. These solutions will dry the skin, which can prevent the piercing from healing quickly and properly. With proper care and hygiene, a pierced ear infection will disappear in one to two weeks.

What can I use to clean my piercing if I don’t have sea salt?

It doesn’t need to be sea salt, but you should not use iodized salt, pink Himalayan salt, or anything with impurities like that. Kosher salt and pickling salt are usually just fine as well, again, just as long as it’s pure salt.

Is saline good for piercings?

Salt water and/or saline solutions should be used to irrigate your piercing, but it is the action of flushing out the wound that helps healing, not the saline itself. Likewise, soap should just be treated like soap; lather around your piercing and then rinse thoroughly.

Is Tea Tree Oil Good for piercings?

Tea tree oil has anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antiseptic properties that make it a triple threat in piercing aftercare. Not only can it be used to care for certain piercings during their initial healing process, but it can also be used long-term to minimize irritation and prevent infection.

Can you use salt water to clean piercings?

One way to help your new piercing stay healthy is to soak it in a sea salt or saline mixture. Doing this can keep your wound clean and promote healing. Some piercing experts tell their customers to consider a sea salt soak to help your piercing heal.

Can I just spray my piercing with saline?

Saline sprays are designed for quick, on-the-go aftercare. The process is simple: spray the saline directly onto your piercing, and let it soak in. … After a few weeks, you can simply opt to spray the piercing 2 – 3 times daily to keep it clean.

How long salt soak piercing?

Saline/Salt Water Soaks:

The best thing you can do for your piercing is a saline soak 2-4 times a day, completely submerging your piercing in the solution for 7-10 minutes. There are many packaged sterile saline solutions available, including Wound Wash and Blairex.

Should I clean the crust off my piercing?

Due to the type of puncture wound a piercing is, it’s important to remove the crust that develops around your earring or on the outside of your piercing. … An infection will only happen if you pick at the scab with unclean hands as this is how bacteria and germs get introduced to the open wound.

What soap is best for piercings?

Body Piercing

The only product you should be using to care for your new piercing is a mild soap like “Dr Bronner’s Soap” or “Cetaphil”. Use no more than two times daily. Apply a small amount of soap to the palm of your hand and combine with warm water to create a lather.

Does salt water clean earrings?

Next, Baxter recommends using a little shampoo, diluted with some warm water, to wash away any further dirt your earrings might have picked up. … “Take some cotton wool, dip it in salt water and rub it over the post,” she says, “This will disinfect it from anything that you don’t want to be putting back in your ear.”

Does boiling water sterilize earrings?

If you are only cleaning one pair of earrings you can boil water in a mug. Once the water is boiling drop the earrings in the water and let them stay there for up to 20 minutes. This gives the hot water time to eliminate germs and loosen any dirt.

Is it better to clean earrings with alcohol or peroxide?

Rubbing alcohol is typically used for removing bacteria from the skin or medical tools while hydrogen peroxide can work as a bleaching agent and stain remover. So, while you may not use rubbing alcohol to get rid of stains, you can use either as a disinfectant on your earrings.

What should I soak my earrings in?

Submerge the earring in hydrogen peroxide for a deeper clean. Cotton can get caught on some earrings, leaving behind annoying strands of fiber. To avoid this, or to simply get a more thorough clean, let your earrings soak in a small cup of hydrogen peroxide for 5-10 minutes.

Can I clean earrings with hand sanitizer?

If anything, people should be cleaning their jewelry more. Think of all that horrid buildup of crud under rings and behind the setting of claw-set earrings. Hand sanitizer kills the baddies then evaporates fast—this shouldn’t have any detrimental effects on your gemstones, even materials such as gemstones and pearls.

What happens if you use table salt on a piercing?

However, table salt contains iodine, which is a harsh chemical that will irritate sensitive areas like skin wounds. This is harmful to healing wounds because the extra chemicals and irritation can cause further inflammation and infection.

How often should you clean your earrings?

This is why board-certified dermatologist Shari Sperling, DO recommends cleaning your earrings at least once week, which is enough to help you “avoid dirt and bacteria buildup and prevent infection, bad odor, and debris that [accumulates] on earrings,” she says.