I like this bit of advice. I sleep without mine in maybe once a week. Keeps them nice and tight.
As long as I take mine out and wash them in the shower every day I don't have any issue with smell, personally.
Different materials also effect smell depending on what your ear is sensitive to and whether or not it's a porous material like wood or bone. [Those actually smell A LOT less!]
Concerning the future: whether or not your ears ever 'look normal' again depends on your skin elasticity and how carefully you stretched. The more damage you did... the less likely you are to wind up with normal sized holes. When I first stretched when I was 16... I stretched to 00. I took them out for less than a year and I could barely get a 16g hoop back in when I started wearing earrings. I went to 5/8ths when I was 21... took them out when I was 26 and was able to get back down to a 6g in 2-3 months.
On the other hand, there are people who only stretch to an 8g who always have sort of fucked up looking ears. It all depends.
I have a second hole that I use for dangly earrings if they're short like so: [
click for picture]
Otherwise I'll wear tunnels and just clip my hoop right through the first hole. [
like this] This actually looks surprisingly cute with even decent sized hoops.
Stretching is always preferable to dermal punches unless it's in a place where you just don't really have any other choice in order to achieve the look you want.
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