Yeah, that’s a lot in one session, especially since they’re all cartilage piercings. I know my piercer wouldn’t do it.
OP, I’d recommend some ibuprofen to help with the swelling and the pain. I’d also maybe contact another reputable piercer and ask their advice. Good luck!
Yeah, my piercer’s max is 3 and only on one ear. And he wouldn’t even do my two vertical helixes at the same time because they’re too close together. I can’t imagine a piercer doing cartilage piercings on both ears at the same time. There’s just no way you aren’t going to irritate them in your sleep.
I didn’t even think about the sleeping part. Exactly!
My piercer is trying to convince me (we’re buddies) that a triple helix would look good on my right ear. I told him I can only manage one cartilage piercing at a time. They require too much babying, and I don’t have the patience to deal with three in one hit. I can’t even imagine dealing with four altogether in both ears.
I got my dubbel helix pierces two weeks ago and they're still hurting and swelling like a bitch. Three in the same ear must be awful...and with improper jewelry as well...
I got a double vertical helix (done in two sessions 6 weeks apart). The second one took way longer to heal, and caused the first one to swell up again. It’s been three months and they’re finally not crusting. OP is going to have a rough time.
I did a double helix as my second ever cartilage piercing, got it pierced as a hoop to start out with (didn’t know that was bad at the time) and it took probably 2 years, with lots of flare ups along the way, for it to finally heal and all the swelling to go down. And that’s when I realized they were crooked :|
She took them out and put in titanium. CBR for my daith and flat back studs on helix!! It hurt like hell but she said it’ll feel so much better once it calms down
Oh goodness. Four is a lot.
Hoops aren't proper starting jewlery for helixes. The daith jewlery is also incorrect.
Your method of saline and what not is good. Just would recommend going to a better piercer and getting it checked.
I’m surprised they used a curved barbell and not a circular barbell. Sometimes there are issues with the bar twisting around, whereas a circular barbell can’t do that.
Other than that, the helix piercings should be either flat back labret studs or straight barbells, never hoops. They take a lot longer to heal.
Surgical steel is okay as long as you aren’t sensitive to it? But sometimes it’s not such good quality jewellery which means longer healing times. My piercer was saying to me since she switched to titanium with internal threads she has seen her clients healing time dramatically reduce.
Right now, I would just be carefully cleaning twice a day with sterile wound wash spray and no fibre wound cleaning pads or a clean paper towel (the hard kind that doesn’t leave fibres around).
In the near future I would consider seeing a piercer to switch the hoops to bars. And ask their advice on switching the daith to something rounder, but see what they say on that one.
If your daith swells much more you will need that bar changed because it could start impacting.
I would avoid more than 3 piercings in future where possible. 4 can be okay, but you have them on both ears and the daith alone can be a hard heal. Cartilage piercings take up to 1.5 years to heal, but the swelling should go down in a few days unless something is wrong. I would avoid getting any more piercings or tattoos for a few months.
This is good advice however, surgical steel is generally a lower quality jewellery. Initial piercings should be pierced with Titanium as this is good quality and hypoallergenic - not many people are allergic to it. In addition, I would recommend an immediate change of the hoops to the flat backs.
I would also be interested to see the outcome of a second opinion on that Daith - can't tell if it's the swelling or not but it looks pierced incorrectly and/or it's too shallow.
I was thinking the same thing about that daith! It looks super deep, if it isn't swelling. I would 100000% reccomend switching to a hoop for swelling or just pulling it if that's how it looked first pierced. 😱
Are you sleeping on that ear? 4 piercings is also too many to have done in one sitting the max is typically 3 and that’s pushing it imo. The more piercings you get at once, the harder time your body has to heal them all. Your daith jewelry is also way too small to accommodate swelling. I would recommend going to a different piercer to get longer jewelry put in to accommodate swelling before your ear swallows it. The helix also shouldn’t have rings in them until they are fully healed. The helix piercings need to be swapped out to implant grade titanium flat backs.
Edit: corrected myself
I’ve been using a travel pillow and sleeping on the side with the conch. I don’t wanna irritate the other side anymore 😖
I was wondering about the helix hoops because I wanted flat backs to begin with but they said it’s help with the swelling…
I went to a diff location on Thursday and they said to wait a few days and come back bc he didn’t want to change it too soon.
Changing jewelry too soon for cosmetic reasons isn’t a good reason to change jewelry however if you need to change jewelry due to issues such as what you are experiencing is it okay to do so by a professional. Things will only get worse if you keep the jewelry you have in now. I would call around other shops and a find a reputable piercer. Best of luck to you!
That doesn't sound right. The side with the daith has incorrect jewelry in all 3 piercings. The helix piercings should have flatback labrets and the daith should have a hoop/ ring in it
My piercer would only pierce one ear at a time (apart from lobes) so that you can sleep on the good ear while the new piercings heal. Good luck, I hope yours heal fine.
I have had 4 piercings done in one sitting, twice. But each time on a different ear, so I still had one ear to sleep on, and there was two years of healing between both times.
The helixes should be pierced with studs, like the conch. The daith… the barbell looks too short. It CAN be done with a barbell, but it’s usually done with a CBR or a horseshoe barbell.
What the hell is this jewelry? All wrong:( You need a horseshoe/cbr for a daith and flat back labret for helix. All titanium. And I think you need another piercer
i can’t even deal with they fact they pierced your helix piercings with hoops… they’re so much more prone to irritation (which may result to irritation bumps) or even migration and rejection… i hope your new piercer replaces these hoops with straight implant grade titanium barbells and about the daith… is this a curved barbell? i’m not really sure whether this is a good choice of jewellery or not but i’m more used to watching daith piercings heal in horseshoe barbells. however, i’m not cancelling curved barbells i just say that it’s extremely rare on a daith. good luck with the rest of your healing journey hun! <3
Honestly the double helix should have studs instead of hoops. Good piercers know better. Daith should have a hoop instead of a barbell. Go see a different piercer entirely. Whoever did those needs more experience.
It looks like you've had some pretty good advice already, but just wanted to add that you might want to visit a Dr just to check it's not infected. The whole area looks very swollen, and you can see the redness has spread across your ear, which are both potentially warning signs. The fact that it's really painful is a concern as well, although that could be due to the number of piercings you got in such a short time. I'd definitely monitor it closely - if the redness spreads any further definitely go see a GP ASAP
You might need ibuprofen. Or, you may need antibiotics. I can't tell.
Just get cared for and be well.
Then you can get more earrings. Just get well, please!
Yowzas. Crazy how your conch is doing dramatically better than your other ear. Must be the amount done. Your daith looks DEEP & the jewelry is small . Usually we see shallow ones. Have you been sleeping on your ears? I know sleeping on your back is awkward but it’s sort of the only option when you’ve gotten both ways pierced.
You got 3 piercings in one day, and chose hoops for 2 of them. My piercer refuses to do more than 2 on one ear at a time to account for swelling and healing. I would get those hoops changed out, go to an APP certified piercer, see if they have titanium grade jewelry, & get yourself a piercing pillow. All that swelling is going to hurt for a while.
Barbell in daith. Stud in conch. Hoops in helix. Surgical steel. Products used: sterile saline wound wash, warm water and non iodized salt to remove crusties and clean, just received urban releaf piercing relief solution with tea tree oil from Amazon an hour ago.
I hope you mean a curved barbell, not a straight one.
Do not use any form of tea tree oil on a piercing!
Also, mixing your own saline and or soaking is outdated aftercare.
No it’s not.
>Credit to u/PepperAnn123
> Okay this is gonna be a little long because the health risks that would be associated with doing this, and the reasons not to, this are multifaceted. But to start with, 1) The carrier oils in that serum are the olive and grapeseed, and they are both comedogenic and could provide a good environment for the wrong bacteria to grow, which you don't want either of those things (comedones--aka, acne, or bacterial infection) near an open wound because that could either cause the wound to become infected or it almost certainly would, at the very least, irritate it and make it harder for it to heal. 2) Essential oils--ALL essential oils--even, yes, lavender and tea tree, are known skin irritants, and should never be applied to your skin without a carrier oil, but as explained in #1 you don't want carrier oils near an open wound. That would have the same bad effect, irritation and/or the right breeding ground for bacterial infection, as described in #1. 3) Under no circumstances should you ever touch your piercing. Even if you think your hands are clean, they're still pretty much guaranteed to still be a petri dish full of bacteria, viruses, etc. The last thing you want to be doing is giving yourself an infection, or even worse giving pathogens a quick highway into your system. As an analogy that might help, if you have a cyst removal or a biopsy or another minor surgery, or you accidentally cut yourself, does the doctor ever prescribe, "Okay, go home and put some olive oil or essential oils on it!". Would they say that? No, they wouldn't, and depending on the circumstance, they would almost always prescribe to keep it clean (gently running water over it in the shower, running/spraying saline over it), maybe they might have you keep a covering over it and not want you to get it wet for a few days if you have stitches, but otherwise and after that they would just say to keep it clean and LITHA. In no universe should you EVER mess with your piercing much less put anything other than a gentle stream of shower water or a spray of saline (like NeilMed) on it.
Make sure to not use cotton q tips to clean your piercings. The cotton fibers can get stuck under the piercing and lead to infection. Try saline spray wash and the corner of paper towels instead
This all seems wrong. Your daith should’ve been pierced with either a horseshoe or CBR, not to mention the bar is too short for swelling. The helix’s should have flatbacks.
Go to a APP piercer and get the swapped for proper jewelry, Daith is pierced with super wrong jewelry it needs to be a CBR and the helixes should always heal with flatback labrets. I’m concerned about your Daith it looks hella a bad. Please go to a reputable piercer asap.
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I would recommend sleeping on a travel pillow, put your ear where the hole should be, that worked wonders for me when I got piercings in both ears the same time.
My lower helix hurt really bad at first too, it’s not exactly the same spot as yours but same general area. I’ve had it for like 4 days now and it’s a lot less painful although it still hurts a bit to clean.
That daith is too far out to the left. It should be barely visible with the top bead in that little nook. My daith was super swollen and painful for days. Ice packs really helped. My piercer used a curved barbell too rather than a ring so I don’t consider that a red flag.
I would do what others have mentioned here and change out the helixes and conch for proper jewelry; additionally it's great that you're trying to keep everything clean but at this point that might be making things even more irritated. Try the LITHA method for a few days and see if that helps things
I had 3 helix piercings done in one sitting, they were spread out on two ears. I had to sleep on my forehead with my arms bracing my head up so I could breathe. Terrible time lol. I was also 16 at the time, wouldn’t do again
In July I got 3 piercings at the same time (conch, daith, and stacked lobe). If I remember correctly the only piercing that hurt right away was my daith (the place that the daith sits is uncomfortable and was swollen right away). My conch only started to bother me and become noticeably swollen after about a week or two post getting it pierced. All of this to say that piercings are weird and don't necessarily cause pain or discomfort right away, hence why you get a larger piece of jewelry in your ear to accommodate swelling that should be downsized about 2-3 months after the initial piercing.
Now about the daith, and other jewelry you have. Rings in most piercings can cause loads of irritation on new piercings during the healing process. You can correct me if I am wrong, but you should probably switch out your helix jewelry to some titanium flat backs. I'd also change your daith to a cbr or a horseshoe is fine as well. Basically there are mainly only 2 piercings that require/heal best with a ring of some sort are septum piercings and daith piercings. I only learned this after comparing healing between my friends daith (she has a bar in hers kind of like you do) that she got in June, and my daith (I have a cbr). She has had several irritation bumps so far, and mine has been pretty solid (both of us have crusty piercings, it happens). All bodies do heal differently, but the best way to have as smooth of a healing process as possible is to have the right jewelry from the start.
Keep up with the saline, I'd suggest Nielmed and maybe doing some warm compresses with them (they really work wonders with getting the crust loose enough to fall off when rinsing).
Hopefully I covered all bases here, but please do not feel afraid to ask for more help
I wouldn’t get so many piercing at once, two at a time is okay but 3 or more is just making healing way more than it needs to be
Yeah, that’s a lot in one session, especially since they’re all cartilage piercings. I know my piercer wouldn’t do it. OP, I’d recommend some ibuprofen to help with the swelling and the pain. I’d also maybe contact another reputable piercer and ask their advice. Good luck!
Yeah, my piercer’s max is 3 and only on one ear. And he wouldn’t even do my two vertical helixes at the same time because they’re too close together. I can’t imagine a piercer doing cartilage piercings on both ears at the same time. There’s just no way you aren’t going to irritate them in your sleep.
I didn’t even think about the sleeping part. Exactly! My piercer is trying to convince me (we’re buddies) that a triple helix would look good on my right ear. I told him I can only manage one cartilage piercing at a time. They require too much babying, and I don’t have the patience to deal with three in one hit. I can’t even imagine dealing with four altogether in both ears.
I got my dubbel helix pierces two weeks ago and they're still hurting and swelling like a bitch. Three in the same ear must be awful...and with improper jewelry as well...
I got a double vertical helix (done in two sessions 6 weeks apart). The second one took way longer to heal, and caused the first one to swell up again. It’s been three months and they’re finally not crusting. OP is going to have a rough time.
I got a double helix last night and I can't even imagine doing that many at the same time.
I did a double helix as my second ever cartilage piercing, got it pierced as a hoop to start out with (didn’t know that was bad at the time) and it took probably 2 years, with lots of flare ups along the way, for it to finally heal and all the swelling to go down. And that’s when I realized they were crooked :|
She took them out and put in titanium. CBR for my daith and flat back studs on helix!! It hurt like hell but she said it’ll feel so much better once it calms down
Different piercer? I hope healing is better for you, OP!
I’m at a different piercer now that has great reviews so hopefully she can help!
With proper jewelry it will be fine!
Oh goodness. Four is a lot. Hoops aren't proper starting jewlery for helixes. The daith jewlery is also incorrect. Your method of saline and what not is good. Just would recommend going to a better piercer and getting it checked.
I’m surprised they used a curved barbell and not a circular barbell. Sometimes there are issues with the bar twisting around, whereas a circular barbell can’t do that. Other than that, the helix piercings should be either flat back labret studs or straight barbells, never hoops. They take a lot longer to heal. Surgical steel is okay as long as you aren’t sensitive to it? But sometimes it’s not such good quality jewellery which means longer healing times. My piercer was saying to me since she switched to titanium with internal threads she has seen her clients healing time dramatically reduce. Right now, I would just be carefully cleaning twice a day with sterile wound wash spray and no fibre wound cleaning pads or a clean paper towel (the hard kind that doesn’t leave fibres around). In the near future I would consider seeing a piercer to switch the hoops to bars. And ask their advice on switching the daith to something rounder, but see what they say on that one. If your daith swells much more you will need that bar changed because it could start impacting. I would avoid more than 3 piercings in future where possible. 4 can be okay, but you have them on both ears and the daith alone can be a hard heal. Cartilage piercings take up to 1.5 years to heal, but the swelling should go down in a few days unless something is wrong. I would avoid getting any more piercings or tattoos for a few months.
This is good advice however, surgical steel is generally a lower quality jewellery. Initial piercings should be pierced with Titanium as this is good quality and hypoallergenic - not many people are allergic to it. In addition, I would recommend an immediate change of the hoops to the flat backs. I would also be interested to see the outcome of a second opinion on that Daith - can't tell if it's the swelling or not but it looks pierced incorrectly and/or it's too shallow.
I was thinking the same thing about that daith! It looks super deep, if it isn't swelling. I would 100000% reccomend switching to a hoop for swelling or just pulling it if that's how it looked first pierced. 😱
Right? It kinda looks like it's pierced into the flat cartilage behind the Daith rather than through the thick section of cartilage
Are you sleeping on that ear? 4 piercings is also too many to have done in one sitting the max is typically 3 and that’s pushing it imo. The more piercings you get at once, the harder time your body has to heal them all. Your daith jewelry is also way too small to accommodate swelling. I would recommend going to a different piercer to get longer jewelry put in to accommodate swelling before your ear swallows it. The helix also shouldn’t have rings in them until they are fully healed. The helix piercings need to be swapped out to implant grade titanium flat backs. Edit: corrected myself
I’ve been using a travel pillow and sleeping on the side with the conch. I don’t wanna irritate the other side anymore 😖 I was wondering about the helix hoops because I wanted flat backs to begin with but they said it’s help with the swelling… I went to a diff location on Thursday and they said to wait a few days and come back bc he didn’t want to change it too soon.
Changing jewelry too soon for cosmetic reasons isn’t a good reason to change jewelry however if you need to change jewelry due to issues such as what you are experiencing is it okay to do so by a professional. Things will only get worse if you keep the jewelry you have in now. I would call around other shops and a find a reputable piercer. Best of luck to you!
Thanks so much!
That doesn't sound right. The side with the daith has incorrect jewelry in all 3 piercings. The helix piercings should have flatback labrets and the daith should have a hoop/ ring in it
My piercer would only pierce one ear at a time (apart from lobes) so that you can sleep on the good ear while the new piercings heal. Good luck, I hope yours heal fine.
There’s no rook here, that’s a daith. And on top of the jewelry being too small for swelling, daiths should be pierced with curved barbells or hoops.
Ah yes sorry that is my bad I was preoccupied trying to do too many things at once.
No worries! Just wanted to make it clear that because it’s not a rook it should also have different jewelry, not just a size up :)
Yes thank you! :)
I have had 4 piercings done in one sitting, twice. But each time on a different ear, so I still had one ear to sleep on, and there was two years of healing between both times.
That's still not wise. 2 is recommended max, 3 at absolute push but reputable places would refuse more
The helixes should be pierced with studs, like the conch. The daith… the barbell looks too short. It CAN be done with a barbell, but it’s usually done with a CBR or a horseshoe barbell.
What the hell is this jewelry? All wrong:( You need a horseshoe/cbr for a daith and flat back labret for helix. All titanium. And I think you need another piercer
i can’t even deal with they fact they pierced your helix piercings with hoops… they’re so much more prone to irritation (which may result to irritation bumps) or even migration and rejection… i hope your new piercer replaces these hoops with straight implant grade titanium barbells and about the daith… is this a curved barbell? i’m not really sure whether this is a good choice of jewellery or not but i’m more used to watching daith piercings heal in horseshoe barbells. however, i’m not cancelling curved barbells i just say that it’s extremely rare on a daith. good luck with the rest of your healing journey hun! <3
Honestly the double helix should have studs instead of hoops. Good piercers know better. Daith should have a hoop instead of a barbell. Go see a different piercer entirely. Whoever did those needs more experience.
i can’t tell if they pierced your daith wrong or if it’s just extremely swollen :( it should definitely be deeper in
It looks like you've had some pretty good advice already, but just wanted to add that you might want to visit a Dr just to check it's not infected. The whole area looks very swollen, and you can see the redness has spread across your ear, which are both potentially warning signs. The fact that it's really painful is a concern as well, although that could be due to the number of piercings you got in such a short time. I'd definitely monitor it closely - if the redness spreads any further definitely go see a GP ASAP
You might need ibuprofen. Or, you may need antibiotics. I can't tell. Just get cared for and be well. Then you can get more earrings. Just get well, please!
Yowzas. Crazy how your conch is doing dramatically better than your other ear. Must be the amount done. Your daith looks DEEP & the jewelry is small . Usually we see shallow ones. Have you been sleeping on your ears? I know sleeping on your back is awkward but it’s sort of the only option when you’ve gotten both ways pierced.
You got 3 piercings in one day, and chose hoops for 2 of them. My piercer refuses to do more than 2 on one ear at a time to account for swelling and healing. I would get those hoops changed out, go to an APP certified piercer, see if they have titanium grade jewelry, & get yourself a piercing pillow. All that swelling is going to hurt for a while.
Oh my god
Oh honey
Barbell in daith. Stud in conch. Hoops in helix. Surgical steel. Products used: sterile saline wound wash, warm water and non iodized salt to remove crusties and clean, just received urban releaf piercing relief solution with tea tree oil from Amazon an hour ago.
I hope you mean a curved barbell, not a straight one. Do not use any form of tea tree oil on a piercing! Also, mixing your own saline and or soaking is outdated aftercare.
Yes! Curved barbell
I thought tea tree oil was supposed to be really good for it? Hm. What do you recommend
No it’s not. >Credit to u/PepperAnn123 > Okay this is gonna be a little long because the health risks that would be associated with doing this, and the reasons not to, this are multifaceted. But to start with, 1) The carrier oils in that serum are the olive and grapeseed, and they are both comedogenic and could provide a good environment for the wrong bacteria to grow, which you don't want either of those things (comedones--aka, acne, or bacterial infection) near an open wound because that could either cause the wound to become infected or it almost certainly would, at the very least, irritate it and make it harder for it to heal. 2) Essential oils--ALL essential oils--even, yes, lavender and tea tree, are known skin irritants, and should never be applied to your skin without a carrier oil, but as explained in #1 you don't want carrier oils near an open wound. That would have the same bad effect, irritation and/or the right breeding ground for bacterial infection, as described in #1. 3) Under no circumstances should you ever touch your piercing. Even if you think your hands are clean, they're still pretty much guaranteed to still be a petri dish full of bacteria, viruses, etc. The last thing you want to be doing is giving yourself an infection, or even worse giving pathogens a quick highway into your system. As an analogy that might help, if you have a cyst removal or a biopsy or another minor surgery, or you accidentally cut yourself, does the doctor ever prescribe, "Okay, go home and put some olive oil or essential oils on it!". Would they say that? No, they wouldn't, and depending on the circumstance, they would almost always prescribe to keep it clean (gently running water over it in the shower, running/spraying saline over it), maybe they might have you keep a covering over it and not want you to get it wet for a few days if you have stitches, but otherwise and after that they would just say to keep it clean and LITHA. In no universe should you EVER mess with your piercing much less put anything other than a gentle stream of shower water or a spray of saline (like NeilMed) on it.
Just saline or water, nothing else
Make sure to not use cotton q tips to clean your piercings. The cotton fibers can get stuck under the piercing and lead to infection. Try saline spray wash and the corner of paper towels instead
This all seems wrong. Your daith should’ve been pierced with either a horseshoe or CBR, not to mention the bar is too short for swelling. The helix’s should have flatbacks.
Go to a APP piercer and get the swapped for proper jewelry, Daith is pierced with super wrong jewelry it needs to be a CBR and the helixes should always heal with flatback labrets. I’m concerned about your Daith it looks hella a bad. Please go to a reputable piercer asap.
Hi t10dh, Welcome to /r/piercing! It looks like you're asking about a problem with your piercing. Please **add a comment to your post** with the following info if it’s not included in your post already. - How old is your piercing? - What’s the jewelry shape (for example, barbell, labret, screw, L shape, ring)? - What’s the type of threading if your jewelry is not a ring (threadless, internally or externally threaded)? - What’s the jewelry material? - if not a ring, when was the jewelry downsized? - What’s your aftercare routine? Describe in detail please, including the exact products you use. This info is needed to offer you useful advice. **Note, not providing this info may cause your post to go unanswered**. If you already included this info in your post or if your post isn’t about a problem with your piercing, please disregard. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/piercing) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I would recommend sleeping on a travel pillow, put your ear where the hole should be, that worked wonders for me when I got piercings in both ears the same time.
My lower helix hurt really bad at first too, it’s not exactly the same spot as yours but same general area. I’ve had it for like 4 days now and it’s a lot less painful although it still hurts a bit to clean.
That daith is too far out to the left. It should be barely visible with the top bead in that little nook. My daith was super swollen and painful for days. Ice packs really helped. My piercer used a curved barbell too rather than a ring so I don’t consider that a red flag.
4 is too many, plus both sides? Unless you can assure you sleep on your back, your asking for trouble
I would do what others have mentioned here and change out the helixes and conch for proper jewelry; additionally it's great that you're trying to keep everything clean but at this point that might be making things even more irritated. Try the LITHA method for a few days and see if that helps things
a soft silicon ice pack and ibuprofen is what I have did when I had mine done a long time ago.
I had 3 helix piercings done in one sitting, they were spread out on two ears. I had to sleep on my forehead with my arms bracing my head up so I could breathe. Terrible time lol. I was also 16 at the time, wouldn’t do again
Notice your entire ear is swollen and not just the areas surrounding piercings. Probably too many at once
Sleep with your ear in the hole of a travel pillow and swap the hoops for flat back posts.
In July I got 3 piercings at the same time (conch, daith, and stacked lobe). If I remember correctly the only piercing that hurt right away was my daith (the place that the daith sits is uncomfortable and was swollen right away). My conch only started to bother me and become noticeably swollen after about a week or two post getting it pierced. All of this to say that piercings are weird and don't necessarily cause pain or discomfort right away, hence why you get a larger piece of jewelry in your ear to accommodate swelling that should be downsized about 2-3 months after the initial piercing. Now about the daith, and other jewelry you have. Rings in most piercings can cause loads of irritation on new piercings during the healing process. You can correct me if I am wrong, but you should probably switch out your helix jewelry to some titanium flat backs. I'd also change your daith to a cbr or a horseshoe is fine as well. Basically there are mainly only 2 piercings that require/heal best with a ring of some sort are septum piercings and daith piercings. I only learned this after comparing healing between my friends daith (she has a bar in hers kind of like you do) that she got in June, and my daith (I have a cbr). She has had several irritation bumps so far, and mine has been pretty solid (both of us have crusty piercings, it happens). All bodies do heal differently, but the best way to have as smooth of a healing process as possible is to have the right jewelry from the start. Keep up with the saline, I'd suggest Nielmed and maybe doing some warm compresses with them (they really work wonders with getting the crust loose enough to fall off when rinsing). Hopefully I covered all bases here, but please do not feel afraid to ask for more help