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August 31, 2008 7:55 AM

Will an earlobe keloid gauge up? Or am I doomed to fishhook earrings forever?

I have keloid scars behind each earlobe from piercing. (It's very odd--I had had surgical steel hoops in them for TEN MONTHS after piercing, then I switched to some heavier dangly earrings and developed keloids right away. They've been there ever since--four years--and now I only wear lightweight fishhooks. Have not gotten them from other piercings or from tattoos.) I'd like to gauge up to, say, a 14g earring. What would happen to the keloid? One opinion is that the keloid would gauge up, too--that it would "disappear" around the stretched hole. Is that true? Or would it just get worse?

posted by liketitanic to grab bag (4 comments total)

What would be more likely here is that the stretching would aggravate your keloid and encourage it to suddenly grow in size disproportionate to the increase in gauge. My friend has true keloids the size of peas from 14g earrings. Your best bet if you do go to 14g is 316L surgical steel hoops or labret flatbacks, since your ears were at their happiest when that's what you were wearing.

Are you sure they're keloids and not hypertrophic scars? My understanding is that keloids can grow pretty out of control, while hypertrophic scarring is tamer and generally disappears after healing (which makes your description sound keloid-esque, but it doesn't hurt to be sure). Any way you could link to a picture? I know, taking a picture of the back of your ear is impossible...

Honestly, if I were you, I'd go for it! But then again, my ears are sitting at 5/8ths of an inch right now, so I'm biased.
posted by lizzicide at 8:15 AM on August 31, 2008

It looks most like this, though smaller--but my ears are also smaller. A knob of flesh big enough that I can grab it with two fingers and wiggle it around--extends past the scar. And it is pretty old. So I am 99% sure it is a keloid.
posted by liketitanic at 8:22 AM on August 31, 2008

Yeah, I agree with you, then. Keloid it is. I take back my advice... I wouldn't risk aggravating it. You can always try steroid treatment through your doctor to reduce the size of what you're workign with.
posted by lizzicide at 8:31 AM on August 31, 2008

For reference:

Keloid

Hypertrophic Scarring

It is much more likely that you have the latter than the former, but both BMEwiki pages have some ideas as to how to treat them. I have heard of great success doing deep tissue massage with vitamin E (local drug store should have some oil form of it).

I wouldn't do any stretching until you at least try to get your ears back to normal(ish). If they are aggravated now, imagine how sexy it would look if they had giant balloons of scar tissue sticking out. Also, try some new materials in your ears. You might be allergic to stainless steel. Perhaps trying titanium would help them calm down. Also, high karat gold (18k or higher) tends to have less nickel and other allergens in it. Fishhook earrings are not necessarily nice to your ears. Some larger diameter hoops (perhaps an inch plus?) or studs with lots of room might feel better.

If your ears are at 20g or 18g and have been pierced for a while, you might try slipping in some 16g (or 18g if you're at 20g) if they can go in smoothly. This would ease up on the "cheese cutter effect".

Also, a bit of semantics: It is preferable to use the term "stretching" versus "gauging up"
posted by nursegracer at 11:07 PM on August 31, 2008