This post may contain affiliate links. This means we may earn a small commission if you purchase something from a link. This does not cost you any extra and helps us keep the lights on. Thank you!
If you have a new piercing, especially a helix or other ear cartilage piercing, you’ve probably experienced the pain of your hair pulling on it. Aside from sleeping on your piercing, hair wrapping around a piercing is the number one reason people get repetitive irritation bumps. As we all know, irritation bumps actually increase the healing time for your piercing! So if your hair is a continuing hindrance, there’s a few steps you should take to keep your piercing healthy.
Why Do You Need To Keep Hair Out of a Healing Piercing?
If you’ve never had hair wrapped around a healing piercing, you likely aren’t familiar with the tugging pain. Not only does it hurt, but the tugging of the jewelry in a fresh wound will cause an irritation bump. Irritation bumps stay until they are no longer irritated. (So if you don’t fix your tangling issue, the irritation bump won’t go away.) Irritation bumps are painful on their own and they also delay the healing process, so you need to keep your hair away from your piercing!
How To Keep Hair Out of a Healing Piercing
If you’re having a hard time styling you hair and keeping it from wrapping around your jewelry, it may be time to put it up. Any combination of styles from pony tails to braids to just pulling up the front of your hair will keep your piercing safe. Many people with particularly thick or unruly hair will simply keep their hair up or in a braid for the duration of the healing period. Let your hair down to shower and brush out using one of the methods listed below, then immediately pull it up and safely away.
How to Wash Your Hair With a Healing Piercing
Wet hair is especially tangly and can more easily wrap itself around your jewelry. Not only that, but in the shower you’re using shampoos and other chemicals you don’t want to come in contact with your healing piercing. Because of these reasons, it’s actually safest to keep your hair as far away from your piercing as possible. There are two methods for keeping your hair away from your piercing: washing your hair flipped over upside down or gathered on the other side.
We prefer gathered on the other side, however this is only an option if you don’t have a healing piercing on the other side. If you go with the flipped over method, depending on how thick your hair is, it may still touch your piercing. You also need to be able to keep it away from your piercing while it’s drying, so the to the side method works much better for this.
Rinse your piercing well while you’re in the shower just in case any shampoo or other chemicals made it near the piercing. When you get out, be careful not to wrap your piercing up with the towel. Towels are covered in little fibers that can be just as harmful as hair, so you don’t want your piercing touching them either.
How to Brush Your Hair With a Healing Piercing
If you brush your hair while it’s wet, you’ll need to be a little more careful with protecting your piercing because wet hair is more easily wrapped around things. You should brush your hair by the same method used to shower, by either gathering it to the side or upside down. This prevents both your hair from wrapping around the piercing and the brush from touching it.
If you need to go to the hair dresser with a healing piercing, let them know before they even touch you. Most hairdressers will appreciate the heads up and can style your hair without getting near the piercing.
How To Prevent Hair From Wrapping Around a Piercing While Sleeping
If you find your hair is getting loose and wrapping while you’re sleeping, it may be time to change your sleeping updo. You may find that a ponytail comes undone while you sleep. Some people find French braids uncomfortable to sleep on. If you want to protect your piercing, you’ll need to experiment and find a style that can stay through the night and is comfortable enough to let you sleep.
How To Remove Hair Stuck in a Piercing
If you have a strand of hair stuck in your piercing, you’ll need to remove it or it will continue to cause problems. Depending on how tangled it is, you may find it easier to actually pluck the hair from your head to more easily remove. Using tweezers to carefully pull away the hair can also be helpful. If you simply can’t remove the hair yourself, visit your piercer. They will either be able to remove it for you or they’ll take out and replace your jewelry in a safe way that won’t impact your healing too much. Don’t leave the hair in your piercing or it could potentially become infected.
Conclusion
If you have a cartilage piercing, you might find that your hair becomes a literal pain. You may need to go so far as to continuously keep your hair up and away from your piercing. This should even include while sleeping if you tend to roll around while you sleep. To safely shower and brush your hair, you should use the flip over method or the gather method to keep your hair as far away from your piercing as possible. Make sure to rinse your piercing extra well after the shower and don’t use your towel to dry your piercing. If you do get a strand of hair stuck in your piercing, you can use tweezers to more easily remove it. Your piercer can also help you remove the hair so you don’t get an infection.
