To start with, did you know that a (piercing) wound heals in 4 phases?
Phase 1: Starts the moment you are pierced and can last 3 to 5 days.
In this phase, your wound closes due to blood clotting. You may therefore still bleed or bruise a bit during the first few days after the piercing.
Phase 2: The swelling phase. In this phase, the skin around your piercing will swell and become red.
This phase begins immediately after the wound is closed. For some people this can start the day after the piercing or only a few days later.
This takes an average of 6 to 8 weeks, but can certainly take longer with some piercings.
This is why we start a piercing with a slightly longer gem, and after this phase you need to shorten the bar of your piercing so that you can easily move on to phase 3.
Phase 3: Your body will rebuild the tissue around your piercing, make new cells and repair blood vessels.
The further you are in this phase, the more your skin or ear will begin to feel normal again. This can vary between 6 to 9 months.
Once you are through this phase, you can in principle declare your piercing as healed and you can easily sleep on your ear again.
Phase 4: The maturation or maturation phase. After your wound has healed and all the swelling and redness has gone, your body will start to create scar tissue from the outside in and close the wound from the outside world.
You can see this when you take out your jewel that the hole is nicely round and you can see through it. This may take some time.
After you've completed this phase, your piercing will basically stop growing, but it may shrink a bit if no jewel is worn in it.
Photo @reddit
!! Sometimes it is also possible that you are going backwards in your healing.
For example when you are at your hairdresser and he/she continues to get stuck with your piercing and it starts bleeding again, then you return to phase 1 and it must first solidify again, then swell.... The further you were already in your healing the faster you go through all phases again with the right aftercare.
Suppose you never made it all the way through phase 4, so your piercing can also close completely if you don't wear a jewel in it.
PS. Quality jewelry and good aftercare help you with a smooth healing of your piercing.
If you experience problems, it is therefore best to come by for a check up so that you can get back on schedule and continue to heal.