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 To taper, or not to taper? That is the question!

No matter how long you’ve been stretching your lobes, you’ve probably at some point considered using tapers (the long, cone-shaped things designed to ease the jump between gauges).

For those of us wondering whether or not to use tapers, let’s start by asking one simple question: What size are you currently at? If you are under 00 (10mm) then yes we definitely recommend using tapers. If you’re currently 00 or over, we’ll have you guys covered with next week’s blog.

So for you folks in the proper size range (which again is under 10mm) here is the recommended use for stretching tapers. Take your pick from each of our two recommended methods of tapering:

1. Slow and Steady

The slow and steady method is exactly what it sounds like: slowly pushing the tapers through your lobes little bits at a time and wearing them around in your ears as you gradually move up to the next size. If you go this route, you can either use acrylic tapers (see pics above), which are cheaper but harder to sterilize and more difficult to move through your skin – or steel tapers (recommended) which are a little more expensive, but cleaner and move through your skin more easily. Go as slow as you like, but just make sure to use heavy amounts of moisturizer/lubrication to keep your lobes healthy and to prevent tearing.

2. Fast and Clean

Want to just get it over with? Get a good quality (and sterile) pair of steel tapers for gauging ears that have concave ends (see pics above). These hollow ends will leave room for you to place your next size plugs so that they’ll slip directly into your lobes with the taper. Again, you will need to use, heavy amounts of lubricant as you guide the taper through your ear until your new plugs are in place. A great place to stretch is in a nice, hot shower.

Final Thoughts

Everybody has that friend who is impatient and jumps sizes, or sizes up too fast. Do not be that guy. Trust us on this one. Wait a minimum of six weeks between stretchings. That way, your ears will have time to heal and you won’t get scar tissue. If you bleed, go back down a size and let it heal completely before trying again. And never, ever skip sizes. If you want thick, healthy lobes with no blowouts or major scar tissue/permanent damage, take your time and use your head. You’ll look way better and save yourself a ton of pain.

Stay tuned for next week when we cover stretching to sizes above 00!

Alright, we get asked a lot about this one. “Ear Butter? What the hell is that? I don’t need it do I?” As a matter of fact, this little taste of heaven in a can just happens to be a PYH shop favorite when it comes to stretching, maintenance, or just wanting to smell like a boss. So what is it and what does it do for you? Let’s look at a couple of the ingredients.

Probably the single most important thing found in Ear Butter is Jojoba (Ho-Ho-Bah) Oil, which is the closest thing in nature to replicating your own natural body oil. Just like the oil in your skin, jojoba oil works to cleanse, moisturize, and soften dry, flaky, and rough ear lobes. Ear Butter blends this with vitamin E, coconut, and clove bud oil for a silk-smooth effect.

Beeswax works as the protectant in Ear Butter, letting your lobes breathe while still protecting them. Vegetable glycerin helps protect your skin from harmful UV rays while working to help heal any scar tissue you may have built up. Oh and one more thing, Ear Butter lubricates your ears for stretching, while simultaneously preventing microbial infections.

Just when you'd given up hope that we'd ever post again.... Here's a new blog post. Aside from our recent outgoing email calamity, things are going extremely well over here at PYH. In the past few months we've opened a new store called Bangarang, hired some amazing new staff members, unveiled the BIG RED CHEST, and expanded the vision and potential of Plug Your Holes further than what we ever though possible. We also have a ton of amazing stuff on the horizon that is going to continue to push the envelope. 

In order to be showing you as much of this as possible, we're going to be bring videos back very this spring.

Get ready folks. It's gonna be a crazy year. 

Because Gauges are so cool!

We've been hearing it for years, are they called plugs or gauges? Tunnels or spacers? We're tired of answering the questions so we're just going to go ahead and rename the company. So now you can call us Gauge Your Holes.com! Along with the rebranding comes all new Grownup Gauges!

Ever feel like life is just too much to handle? Like the walls are closing in? Do you wake up in the morning and dread bills, daycare, or the responsibility of adult life? Well then these are the gauges for you! Now you can wear your worries on your sleeve, or lobes rather, with these limited edition Grownup Gauges! 

Hey friends,

today is the last day you can get your hands on our Spring Clean deals! We're all sold out of a lot of the items that were up for grabs, so congrats to those of you who got some of the goods. We're going to be rolling out some new product, plug designs and extras over the next couple months so be sure to keep your eyes peeled.

As well we just restocked our Hand Picked Collection. Head over and check out the selections we've got for sizes as low as 0g and up to an inch. We're working on getting larger stone items in stock for hand picked pairs, so bear with us as we find the best way to do that! We'll be dropping a couple awesome limited runs this week, too, so be on the lookout for those, too.

We'll be out all summer on the Vans Warped Tour again this summer! Hitting every single date on the tour, we can't wait to see all of your beautiful, smiling faces. Believe us when we say we love meeting and hanging out with all of you! We'll have some fun daily giveaway specials and contests for Warped coming out, too!

Random Bags of Crap will be shipping this week and next as we get into April. You're going to be very excited with the stuff we're putting in all these bags! Take pictures and videos of you opening yours once you get them and tag us in them on Instagram. We'll repost some of them and who knows, maybe you'll get some free gear for posting your random bag! 

As always we love hearing from you and if you have questions or concerns you can always drop us a line at support@plugyourholes.com!

Love, 

The PYH Team

Hey friends!

Last week we released a whole new slew of band plugs for your enjoyment. You can head on over here to pick up some selections from The Acacia Strain, We Came as Romans, Ice Nine Kills and more! Be sure to stay on the lookout for more in the future, too!

We're also in the midst of throwback week, a glorious and hectic week that offers numerous limited runs from the past weeks all at once. You can get your hands on some Donnie Darko plugs, "plugemon" plugs and a whole bunch more over here! Don't sleep on these because they're gone this Monday night.

Lastly we're going to be down in Texas for a whole week hitting up Never Say Never, South by Southwest and South by So What?! We can't wait for March every year because we get to hang out with good friends, great bands and nom on some killer eats! Shout out to Torchy's Tacos! 

As always, we love and adore each and every one of you, so if you ever have any questions, comments or candy you can hit us up at support@plugyourholes.com. 

Happy (almost) Spring!

Happy New Year!

We've got many a great thing up our sleeves for this new year. We're kicking it off with free shipping on every order until midnight January 5th, so make sure to cash in on that! As well, we might be running a special Twitter special that you can get in on! 

Last year was the biggest and best year we've ever had at Plugyourholes, and we owe it all to you! We're going to continue releasing Limited Runs and throwbacks every week for the foreseeable future so get stoked for that as well! We may or may not throw some more WWE, Anime and Film Icon runs at you for your pretty little ears! 

We're going to be out in Texas this spring for South by Southwest, South by So What?! and more so stay tuned for more updates on those if you want to come hang out with us. We'll bring the good hangs, you bring the cookies. Sound good? 

All in all we're looking forward to another amazing year here at PYH and we want you all to be a part of it. Thanks for being our friends and here's to 2014!!

With love,

the PYH team

Hey there!

We wanted to drop a line and let you all in on all of the exciting new things we're rolling out here at the PYH camp. You've probably noticed a few changes around the site by now, but hopefully you love them! Our 12 Sales of Christmas is now going on, which features some amazing deals on many of our already popular products. We've discounted our entire clothing collection, too!

In addition to the 12 Sales, we've been releasing some new products! We've added a whole slew of image plugs and engraved plugs to our site, which you can find under the New section. Some new designs, a few classic throwbacks and some that will even make you say, "huh?" 

We just released a new YouTube video as well! It's a showcase of some of our new plugs, including a sneak peak at some all-new resin inlayed plugs we'll be releasing soon! You should probably check it out, because it's funny as all get-out.

Lastly we just want to wish all of you the best as we head into the holiday season. We have so much to be thankful for here at PYH, and we owe all of that to each and every one of you. Without your love and support we wouldn't be half of what we are now, so from all of us here at PYH, thank you!

Til next time!

Love,

The PYH Team

That's right! We're fixing some things around here this week. So be aware that some things may not seem 100% for very short periods of time. There's some things listed below to serve as examples of what you might see, and how long to expect to wait. With that being said, all of these issue should be fixed by Friday Night (Nov/12/2013).

*Missing pictures (should be fixed within seconds)

*No product options on 1 product. (as we go product by product this can take up to 5 minutes)

*Too many Product options. (Same as above)

*Things being priced differently than the prior day/hour/minute. (most items are getting cheaper, and the things that are going up in price is by a max of 4 dollars)

Once again, all of this will be done by Friday. Cheers!

Boo!

Happy Halloween season to you all! We just wrapped up our "Guaranteed by Halloween" week sale and we're working on getting all of your plugs out the door so you can have them by the 31st. We're also working on some all new and exciting stuff for your ears. Hint, hint, new wood products and more!

We're dropping a new limited run tonight at midnight along with a few super sexy sales. That's right, sexy sales. What is a sexy sale, you ask? Well, if we told you, we'd have to kill you. Not really though, we're kidding. Or are we....

Either way, keep your eyes peeled and ears to the ground this week, because we're looking to rock your socks off and drop some elbows on the upcoming cold and dreary weather that's inevitably going to draw us indoors and keep us from the sun. 

Hugs and kisses,

The PYH team