How to maintain an iBrow piercing?

August 18, 2007 6:53 PM

iBrowPiercingFilter:How do I take care of my dandy new eyebrow piercing?

I read a lot on the web and talked to a couple of people who got their brow's pierced and I got mine done yesterday. I read up and prepared for a few months (I had been planning on this piercing for a long time). But now that I actually have it pierced I'm not sure what things I have to do and what things are just extra precautions that no one really takes (although I'm sure the safer I am, the better). I'd also like to know when I can change the ball part of my piercing (should I wait a few days?) and just any tips you can give me.

posted by alona to grab bag (17 comments total)

Your piercer should have provided you with all of this aftercare information.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 7:32 PM on August 18, 2007

well, i got conflicting information. some sources told me i need to fill a cup with really hot water, put sea salt in it and put my eyebrow in for 5 minutes (in some kind of uncomfortable position). other sources said i could just wash it with a cotton ball soaked in salt water, while still others said i needed Q-Tips with antibiotic soap.
posted by alona at 7:52 PM on August 18, 2007

The point is, your piercer should have told you how to deal with it, which would have eliminated conflicting information.

I tend to trust bmezine on this. Scroll down, it's near the bottom (DOs and DON'Ts).
posted by flibbertigibbet at 8:00 PM on August 18, 2007

um, no. and where did you get that information? your piercer ought to have given you an aftercare protocol in writing.

i'm not a piercer, but this is what i have been instructed to do with every piercing i've ever gotten (several): go out and buy something called hibiclens. it comes in a light blue bottle and you get it on the first aid aisle, with the rubbing alcohol and peroxide. (you can use either one of those in a pinch--they're just rough on your skin and sting like hell.)

wash your hands thoroughly. soak a cotton swab and clean both sides of the piercing. if you have some scabs that don't come off easily, just let them be until they loosen up. once the swelling goes down, swab as much of the barbell as you can reach without forcing it.

you can probably change the ball after a few days if you wash your hands, but just remember the more you touch it, the more opportunities you are giving to introduce nasties to the wound. so unless you need to match a bridesmaid's dress or something, i'd wait a couple of weeks.

if it gets red and/or tender and/or swollen after a couple of days, you might try applying antibiotic ointment. if that doesn't work after a day or two, take out the piercing and let it grow in. if you feel like you're running a fever or you get a sore, get to a doctor.

oh, and don't ever go back to that dude again. irresponsible at best, dangerous at worst. this is not a day and age when we can be casual about sticking needles into ourselves. ugh.
posted by thinkingwoman at 8:00 PM on August 18, 2007

oh, and i took every one of those procedures seriously. the last thing you want is a huge, supperating sore on your face that scars. or, like, gangrene. yeah, the risk is probably low, but you know what? it's still an open wound on your face.

also, wear sunscreen.
posted by thinkingwoman at 8:06 PM on August 18, 2007

I forgot to mention this in my answer, but ditto everything thinkingwoman said about never returning to that shop. Never ever ever. This is one of those things that are set off warning bells, along with a dirty shop, piercing minors without parental consent, giving super cheap piercings, not wearing gloves, or not showing you the autoclave if you ask. This isn't as bad as some of those (he might have had the aftercare sheet next to him the entire time), but it sets off as many warning bells.

The first part of aftercare is actually making sure you can trust the piercer to be sterile and health-focused. He sure don't appear to be.
posted by flibbertigibbet at 8:22 PM on August 18, 2007

thanks!

i actually got a little pamphlet from my piercer but again, it was very vague. it just said about the saltwater thing and to wash my hands before i touch it, and actually not to touch it very much at all. i guess just a lot of questions popped up in my head in the last 24 hours and i didn't know where to direct them.
i was kind of surprised that i didn't get more information, because i did it at a very well-known and popular place in toronto, at New Tribe, with their best piercer. Meh.

also, if i have a little bit of dried blood on the jewelery itself, do i need to go to great lengths to clean it? because i made sure to clean the skin well, but i'm having trouble with the jewelery.
posted by alona at 8:25 PM on August 18, 2007

New Tribe has a pretty detailed description of piercing aftercare on their web site here. It looks as if you have to keep the jewelry itself very clean, too.
posted by maudlin at 8:44 PM on August 18, 2007

I used dial antibacterial soap that comes in the pump without any fragrance (the orange stuff). After washing my hands first I simply lathered up the jewelry and my ears anytime I noticed dried blood or when the jewelry didn't move freely. I found the shower and warm H2O helped relieve any gunk. I worked the jewelry (8GA) in and out, but never removed it. Then using warm water I rinsed and repeated. I did this 2 times a day for the first 2 weeks. Then it seemed that the smegma and blood stopped appearing. I still go through the routine in the shower, but after about 5 weeks I stretched up to a 6GA and had to repeat the process for about 2 more weeks. Now I can remove it anytime and change styles/colors at will. Partyon..
posted by HyperBlue at 8:55 PM on August 18, 2007

I have had that "just soak it in seawater" advice too, from a reputable shop - and nasty, infected piercings resulted. Ick. It seems like a more recent thing...a decade ago when I was actively getting piercings, the advice was almost always to use Hibiclens or other, similar cleansers.

Thinkingwoman has it, though. The salt water soak can be good if it's tender and you want to give it a little care beyond the hibiclens, or if it has crusties you want to get off. I used to use a Nyquil dose cup filled with warm salt water and I would hold it up against my face for 5-10 minutes.

I was also told by several different piercers never to use antibiotic ointment because it can prevent air from getting to the hole. I don't know if it's really true. I did use tea tree oil on occasion when I had trouble with one that wouldn't heal properly.
posted by cabingirl at 9:32 PM on August 18, 2007

I worked at a busy tattoo and piercing shop -- likely the best in my city -- for over a year. I've had many, many piercings in my day, and infection has never been an issue. You say you want to be cautious? Please, PLEASE heed these words, my friend.

Salt water soak: yes. Hot water, light sea salt. Not epsom salt, not table salt, but sea salt. A teaspoon to eight ounces, or a dash in a shot glass of warm water. Mild like saline. If the shot glass is inconvenient, then yes, a warm wet paper towel for about five minutes will be peachy keen. You can also get H2Ocean, a sterile saline spray, online. It's meant for piercings and takes the guesswork out of mixing your own saltwater.

Neosporin: no. The petroleum base traps discharge in the puncture wound.

Rubbing alcohol: no. Entirely too strong. Will irritate your skin and make the piercing red and swollen.

Hydrogen peroxide: no. Kills the cells that are trying to form the fistula.

Touching, moving, twisting, bothering: no, no, for the love of God, no.

What you want to do is just LItHA (Leave It the Hell Alone) for a couple months -- six to twelve weeks, to be more precise. Sure, you can try to change it/move it/etc. earlier, but you'll cause yourself many more problems than you need, just so you can have shiny new jewelry in. Eyebrow piercings are prone to rejection, and while scars are badass, you probably want to keep that thing as long as possible, since you paid good money for it. Leave it be for two months, then get it changed to a shorter barbell or smaller ring. (If you want to change just the bead in the captive bead ring, wait about a month -- it'll be less tender then, and less likely to get upset with the pressure and trauma of the moving jewelry.) Wait six months before you stretch it, so you don't put too much pressure on the new tissue.

Again, don't move or rotate the jewelry. When you do that, you're dragging debris into the hole, and you're essentially ripping open a scab every time you twist it. Those are outdated aftercare instructions from mall monkeys with septic piercing guns. The piercing needs to form a fistula to heal, which means it needs to line the recently opened wound with healthy new cells. Don't touch it; don't move it. Every time you do, you're prolonging your healing time and risking rejection.

Don't worry too much about the dried blood on the outside of the piercing. You wash the outside once a day in the shower -- so just be very gentle after you wash your hair and face. Use Dr. Bronner's Crazy Hippie Soap, another baby soap, or some very mild Dial. (Many piercers don't like antibacterial soap on fresh piercings, because the ingredients can irritate the healing wound. And as long as you don't touch it, you're not introducing bacteria to the area, so you shouldn't need to kill any.)
posted by weatherworn at 9:55 PM on August 18, 2007

seconding the litha method, this is alllll i ever do. ever. and i have 5 very very happy piercings.

warm water on a qtip to remove crusties, and nothing else. don't touch it, its tempting but an infection is really not fun.
posted by thisisnotkatrina at 11:01 PM on August 18, 2007

Salt water soaks to get off the crusties during early healing. Then leave it the hell alone.

I have had about a dozen piercings, including some pretty gnarly cartilage work. Don't fuss with it.

Leave the ball alone. This isn't an accessory yet. It's a wound that needs to heal. I'd wait weeks if not months before changing the ball on the jewelry, especially if it's even a little hard to get off (which it should be). You'll have a whole lifetime to play with different balls, but only so long as it grows into a healthy stable piercing. LITHA!
posted by Netzapper at 12:15 AM on August 19, 2007

listen to weatherworn.

hibiclens and antibacterial ointment is considered much too strong by most piercers these days and unnecessary. they also contain triclosan, which given its massive overuse in everything, is now leading to strains of resistant bacteria.

warm saltwater to get rid of crusties. then leave it alone. that is all.

if you suspect an infection, see your piercer. it's their job to help you heal your hole successfully.
posted by wayward vagabond at 2:45 AM on August 19, 2007

Infection isn't a huge concern with piercings unless you're trying really hard to introduce bacteria into the wound, but just to make sure no one sees this in the future and follows bad advice above: If you see signs of an infection, i.e. GREEN pus (not yellow - yellow is just lymph, which is indicative of a healing piercing and not a bad thing at all) or fever, DO NOT REMOVE THE JEWELRY. Removing the jewelry makes it possible for the infection to be trapped inside the skin with no exit holes from which to drain, creating an abcess. Abcesses are nasty. Go to a doctor for antibiotics, and if the doctor doesn't forcibly remove the jewelry for you, leave the jewelry in and take the entire course of pills to kill the infection.

I'm with the LITHA crowd, and I have eleven very happy piercings.
posted by lizzicide at 6:29 AM on August 19, 2007

I'm mostly just commenting to chime in with the sea-salt, leave-it-alone crowd. Unless your past experience suggests that you need something stronger (Dial antibacterial soap, or Provon medicated soap--forget about alcohol and peroxide entirely), stick with sea salt soaks and be very, very gentle. The goal is to keep the piercing scrupulously clean while touching it as little as possible--preferred aftercare methods have changed a little since the Gauntlet days, but weatherworn's post is very much in keeping with the current advice.

And, frankly, the people who tell you to never go this place again? They said that before you told them that you got a pamphlet of aftercare information. Now that we know that, their concerns seem fairly baseless. I've read dozens of those pamphlets, and edited a couple of 'em. I'll bet you a buck that, at the end of the pamphlet, there's a sentence along the lines of 'if you have any questions, any questions at all, please contact your piercer.' If you have additional questions or concerns, it's not too late to do so.
posted by box at 9:07 AM on August 19, 2007

Hibiclens, Betadine and the like are too strong for this. You're trying to heal a piercing, not take a blood sample!

I had my eyebrow pierced for a couple of years. Dial is your friend. In the beginning when it was very tender and a little bloody/crusty, I used a q-tip to gently clean with Dial. When it healed more I just used my (clean) hands.

I can say for a fact that when I got lazy with my salt-water soaks, my eyebrow got all red. It seems like a pain but it's not. I found that a clean coffee mug is the best vessell.

It's sooo hard not to touch, but don't do it! If you have the urge to touch or scratch it, try touching your other eyebrow.

Also, I don't know how long your hair is, but make sure when you get your hair cut that you point out your new addition to your stylist. You may even want to (carefully) put a bandaid over the piercing when you get your hair cut - it hurts really badly when the comb clipps the jewelry, and can contribute to migration if you're not careful.

Also, flibbertigibbet is right on the money with BMEZine. Some of the stuff on the site is a little out there (and quite fascinating) but they definitely know what they're talking about.
posted by radioamy at 3:03 PM on August 19, 2007