Getting your belly button pierced is an exciting time and can really be a lot of fun. This is certainly true if you’ve been waiting a long time to get permission or if you have had to wait until a legal age.

However, after you get home from the piercing salon, then what? It looks great, right? But it’s also a little sore. And you bought tons of cute belly button rings online, but the piercer said you had to wait to change it. So what do you do? You wait.

The single worst thing you can do after piercing your belly button ring is to ruin it forever by improper care or changing the belly button ring too early. It will be especially detrimental because you’ll have to both take away your current belly ring AND run the risk of serious illness due to infection. Not to mention the pain or discomfort you will feel.

If you go to a licensed and respectable piercing salon, your belly button piercing will come with instructions on how to care for and change your ring. Generally they suggest you clean your piercing only once a day and use warm water and soap to do so. Others recommend a mixture of water and sea salt as a method of cleaning, and others will even sell the supplies you need right there in the shop. All piercers will recommend that you clean your piercing only once per day to prevent drying, and they will all tell you to NEVER use Neosporin or rubbing alcohol to clean the piercing.

Neosporin is known to trap any germs against the piercing, which will only cause infection and pain in the future. Rubbing alcohol will do nothing but dry out the belly button piercing and cause itching.

And be patient!  It’s important to wait the full six months before you change the ring. In fact, many people wait up to a year before attempting to remove or replace the navel ring. This is vitally important because if you change it too soon, you run the serious risk of causing dangerous infections, as well as ruining the piercing and allowing it to close. So many people have removed the ring, and then been unable to put another one back it. It’s not worth the risk, just be patient.

Some piercers will recommend that you twist the belly button ring once per day, and others will tell you not to. It really depends on who you ask and the industry has not yet come to a consensus of which is best. It’s necessary to avoid touching the piercing as much as possible.  Even if you wash your hands, you’ll still have natural oils on your fingers that could transfer gems and cause painful infections. It’s also important that you try not to wear tight shirts because they may bother the new piercing by rubbing or pulling on the ring.  It’s really only necessary to wear loose clothing for a few weeks or until the healing process is underway.

Belly button rings are a safe and desirable piercing, and if you care for them properly, they’ll be a great fashion accessory for many years to come.

Tags

Fashion Trends