Much like the actual piercing itself a stretched septum isn’t exactly a visible spectacle, it certainly lacks the pomp and flair associated with say stretched earlobes. Think of them as barely visible spectacles while they don’t pack the glamorous punch, a stretched septum gives your nose that distinctive look of sophistication.

Like any other stretching procedure, however, stretching your septum is a not a short trip to the piercing shop and back. It’s not necessarily hard, and you can do it yourself, but in addition to this guide, you’ll be needing a great deal of patience and commitment. Interested? Here’s how to go about it.

What you need

  • A completely healed septum piercing

This is the obvious first requirement for a good reason. Stretching takes a toll on your piercing. If the tissue around the piercing is not entirely healed, this pressure can tear the fragile healing piercing and precipitate a complication.

  • Piercing jewelry that’s one size up from what you’re currently wearing

As the piercing gets stretched, you’ll need to replace the existing jewelry with a better fit. Make sure however that the jewelry fits just snuggly rather than tightly, so there’s little allowance for movement. You don’t want to irritate the linings of your piercing as you stretch

  • Lubrication

Whether its olive oil or Jojoba oil, you’ll need to get your septum piercing lubed up to ease off the stress load of accommodating a slightly larger taper

  • Tapers

Tapers are what you’d use for the actual stretching process, although they come in various designs, our recommendation is to stick with stainless steel tapers. One thing to note, however; never force tapers that are disproportionately large compared the size of your piercing in an attempt to hasten the enlargement process. That’s a recipe for disaster coming in the form of complication, infection, and pain.

 

Septum Stretching tips

 

How to do it

The actual stretching process is pretty straightforward. Start by removing your current piercing jewelry. Once you’ve successfully done that proceed to retrieve your taper and generously douse with the lube of your choice.

With the lubed taper in hand, stabilize your nose and slide it into place in your septum piercing — emphasis on ‘slide’ and not force. If your taper refuses to go in after significant effort, that’s a surefire sign that it is too big. Take it down a notch.

From here progressively increase taper sizes after each preceding one successfully stretches your septum piercing to a snug fit. Again, don’t make the mistake of jumping gauge sizes with the intent of reaching your desired results at a much faster rate.

Taking care of your new stretch

Caring for your stretch is fairly easy as well. All that’s needed is a routine dab of sea salt solution to sterilize the area and foster better stretching acclimatization. To prepare a sea salt solution, grab a pack of sea salt from your local grocery and mix four spoons in a gallon of water (preferably distilled).

Apply this solution topically on your using a clean towel. Or better still you could insert your entire nose in a cup of sea salt solution for about 1o minutes. Do this twice daily, and you’re safe from any infections.