The Old-School Trick For Wearing Heavy Earrings Without Stretching Your Earlobes

The only thing you need is already sitting in your bathroom cabinet.

The idea that “beauty is pain” is a long-held, somewhat-confusing adage that certainly doesn't foster much excitement. In fact, I’d like to retire the phrase altogether, with the exception of plucking rogue brow hairs. Sometimes, it has to be done. When it comes to long-term pain, such as sleeping in rollers, I’m generally uninterested. Until recently, the same went for wearing unpleasant items for the sake of aesthetics—like heavy earrings.

Why Do Earrings Make Your Earlobes Hurt?

While there is nothing quite as cute as a pair of dangly statement earrings, the discomfort they can cause to your earlobes from being too heavy and pulling too hard on your earlobes can be a deterrent from wearing some of our favorite jewelry. After a long while, earrings can even cause permanent stretching to your earlobes from weighing down your ears, which is impossible to naturally reverse. While I was under the impression that most people were just suffering in silence—and some are!—there happens to also be a helpful tip for wearing heavy earrings that helps alleviate the weight that our earlobes are burdened with for beauty.

How You Can Wear Earrings Without Pain or Stretching

This old-school secret has long been shared at the beauty counters of department stores as a way to keep earlobes from becoming permanently stretched after years of wearing beautiful earrings, and all you need is a basic Band-Aid from your bathroom drawer. (Even my grandmother who only wears clip-on earrings swears by it.) This is how it works.

You take a regular-sized Band-Aid and cut it so that you’re left with around one inch. Place the inch-long bandage on the backside of your earlobe (where you’ll be placing the back of the earring later). The goal is to place it in a position where it is not noticeable from the front. Next, put on your earring, piercing through the bandage before securing the back of the earring. At this point, the snippet of Band-Aid is basically layered between the backside of your earlobe and the earring back.

Instantly, you’ll not only notice the lack of pressure, pain, and physical heaviness; but also a visible difference in how the earring looks more supported from the front, rather than dragged down. If you put on one earring regularly and the other with this method, it’s easy to see the drastic contrast between how much each earlobe is supported.

Extra Tip

For extra heavy earrings, consider purchasing thicker or even foam-based Band-Aids.

Now, this trick is primarily helpful for earrings that are dangly or heavy. If you’re wearing studs, it won’t make quite as noticeable of a difference. However, for frequent earring wearers who are concerned about long-term stretching and sagging, it can be a beneficial habit. Moreover, if you’re someone who wishes to wear more statement earrings but refrains due to the discomfort, get ready to expand your jewelry box. 

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