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During the initial stages of healing—the first 6 weeks for a lobe piercing and 12 weeks for a cartilage piercing—experts say you should follow the steps listed below to keep the area clean and infection-free.
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First things first: You need to wash your hands with soap and water every time before touching your ear or ear piercing to avoid adding potentially harmful bacteria to the area, says Dr. Farber. She recommends washing your ear piercing and the area around it once a day throughout the entire 6- or 12-week healing process with a gentle antibacterial soap (we like Dial Antibacterial Liquid Hand Soap, $2, Amazon) and warm water (doing this in the shower is fine). After washing, pat the area dry with a clean tissue or paper towel.
Aside from your daily soap and water cleanse, you’ll also want to further clean the area 2 to 3 times daily for the first 6 or 12 weeks (again, depending on whether it’s an earlobe or cartilage piercing) using an antibacterial solution to reduce your chances of infection. You can use a cotton swab dipped in a little rubbing alcohol to clean around the area, Mona Gohara, MD, board-certified dermatologist and professor of dermatology at Yale School of Medicine, tells SELF. But it’s important to note that alcohol can be quite harsh, especially if you have sensitive skin. “Alcohol, although great at temporarily killing surface-level germs, is very drying to the skin when used repeatedly, which can cause irritation and delay healing,” says Lacy, who gives the same warning about hydrogen peroxide.
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Instead, you can use a simple saline solution like Arm & Hammer Simply Saline Wound Wash ($12, Amazon) or a post-piercing product containing benzalkonium chloride, which arms you with antimicrobial protection, Lacy says. (Just be sure to do a patch test with any new product first by applying it to your inner arm and waiting 24 hours to make sure your skin doesn’t hate it.) Two benzalkonium chloride products to consider: Rowan’s Ear Cleansing Solution ($8, Rowan) and Inverness After Piercing Solution ($8, Amazon).
If you have an earlobe piercing, you should also twist the jewelry one full rotation each time you clean the area in order to keep the hole from closing up, according to Lacy. Cartilage piercings are different, though—you should just clean the piercing front and back two to three times a day without twisting the earring and generally avoid touching the area when you’re not cleaning it to avoid additional irritation. “The more you twist and play with a cartilage piercing, the more irritation the cartilage receives, which can cause bumps, keloid scars, and infection,” Lacy adds.
If the skin around your piercing is feeling a bit dry and/or itchy, you can add a dab of a petrolatum-based product like Vaseline or Aquaphor to keep the skin moisturized and protected, suggests Dr. Gohara. If you have particularly dry and/or sensitive skin that feels irritated, consider talking to your primary care doctor or dermatologist about a prescription-strength topical antibiotic, which can help calm things down and prevent infection. But avoid using over-the-counter topical antibiotics, such as those that contain bacitracin, in that area because they can cause further irritation or an allergic reaction, Dr. Gohara says.
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