Inside: How long can you leave earrings out before the hole closes? I’m answering your questions.
If you’re pretty new to the piercing scene, you might be wondering about some of the technicalities. Including: how long can you leave the earrings out before the hole closes?
This is a real question, and a real thing you need to know. The last thing you want to do is take your earrings out and expect the hole to still be there if it’s too little too late.
You don’t even have to be new to piercings to be searching for this. Maybe you’ve worn earrings forever and are just now asking how long is too long. Understandable.
To be honest, there isn’t really a specific answer. Sorry!
But I’m going to help you break it down because it depends on which kind of ear piercing you’re referring to and how long you’ve had it pierced (with earrings in) to narrow it down to how long you can go without earrings before it closes up.
Other Solutions
Before we get too into it, I want to highlight another solution if you’re really worried about your piercing closing up.
We all know there are situations in which you can’t have an earring in, whether a sport or visiting family that isn’t too progressive.
But putting in a clear plastic retainer like these can help you get away with it! Referees may or may not catch it but either way, you can still play the sport without metal posts in your ears.
How Long Can You Leave Earrings Out Before The Hole Closes: Lobe Piercings
Lobes are the either easiest or the trickiest piercings to close up!
Ultimately the short answer is that in the first six months of getting your lobes pierced, you should be wearing your earrings in it around the clock. You’ll be okay under twenty four hours if something happens like you lose the earring. I just wouldn’t make it a style choice!
Okay, you’ve had your lobes pierced since you were a child. What does that mean for the resilience of these piercings?
Again, there is unfortunately no definite answer. You can at least go a couple of weeks, but your body may be pretty quick at healing different wounds, including the piercing hole.
You’re not guaranteed to have permanent piercings, they can definitely close up. But if you’ve tried to put piercings in a newly closed hole, you know it’s pretty easy to break it through again. Not comfortable, but totally possible.
Your lobes will likely be the quickest area to heal up because of the blood flow. Minimal blood in an area will make it close slower, if at all.
How Long Can You Leave Earrings Out Of Your Helix Piercing Before The Holes Close?
The helix is a slow healer! This isn’t as much of a perk when you’re trying to heal the fresh piercing, you’ll probably feel that it’s a little sensitive for up to a year! That’s a long time, but for the same reasons, you can go a while without earrings in it once it’s fully healed.
After the initial piercing is healed, you can go multiple days without the jewelry in it to keep it open, but I don’t recommend this until after another six months if possible. After the first year, you can take it out for an activity that you need to take it out for, but don’t leave it out for extended periods of time.
It needs time to feel that the jewelry is staying, so give it another six months before you really start leaving the ring out of the piercing safely.
When Does Your Tragus Close Up?
As with the other piercing types, it depends on how long you’ve had it pierced. However, the tragus is the least likely to close. After you’ve had it pierced long enough, this one can truly become permanent.
Five or more years after having the tragus, many people report being able to go days, weeks, or even months without having jewelry in it. This is one of the few piercings that is that resilient!
The skin may close over the piercing, but the hole all the way through will remain.
Again, not everyone will have this kind of response from their body. Some of our body’s are more apt to heal any open hole and wound to protect us from infection. How cool is the human body?
If you keep jewelry in your tragus piercing for years, you’re likely to be fine when you finally take it out.
However, give it at least a year before you try taking it out longer than simply switching the jewelry. A day or so should be okay, since it takes so long to heal to begin with. I wouldn’t go more than 24 hours with this one either!
Better safe than sorry, and better safe than having to re-pierce something you could have saved by keeping the stud in.
How Long Can You Leave Earrings Out Before The Hole Closes For Your Conch?
The conch can be a little tricky. Make sure you do plenty of research! Consult a piercer before removing the piercing for an extended amount of time.
The first thing you need to note about the conch is that it takes about a year to truly heal. But it can totally take up to TWO for some people! So if your piercer told you to wait a year and you take it out for a day… bad news. It may close up!
While a truly healed piercing won’t close that quick, and many don’t take over a year to truly heal, the conch is a toss up.
Since you can’t really know for sure if it’s fully healed, my recommendation is to not take your conch out for too long for the first couple years. If you’re just now getting it pierced, a couple years sounds like a really long time. I get it. But you need to realize that you’re in this for the long haul! Two years in the grand scheme of the ten or more years that you may have this piercing is pretty short!
After that first year it should be healed enough for changing the jewelry. You’re not necessarily stuck for years with the original jewelry. Just don’t leave it out for more time than it takes to change out the earring. You’ve got this.
Feel like you know the answer to how long can you leave your earrings out before the hole closes?
The life span of your piercing isn’t as long as you may think. Considering how long it takes scars and scrapes to heal, I would think a piercing would last a few days! But you’re struggling to make it last even a few hours!
Now that you’ve done a little research on how long it takes for these to close up, plan accordingly. Don’t let them close up you, it can be a pain to get it redone. Or even actually painful.
If you’re just looking to switch out your earrings (after your given piercing healing time of course!) you’ll be fine. It’s not going to close up on you in minutes.
If you’re like me and have had your lobes pierced for years, about 15 years to be exact, you can probably go weeks without issue. I generally put pairs in both my piercings every once in a while for dinner and they’re fine. No stress.
On the topic of changing piercings, if you’re about to change out your nose hoop and need some tips, check it out here!