Earrings for Sensitive Ears What to Do if Earrings Irritate Your Skin

Do some earrings make your earlobes burn with pain, leaving behind piercing holes that look red and irritated even if they’ve fully healed? Do you find your earlobes discolored when you wear certain earrings? If so, there’s good news. You can enjoy earrings without the painful or annoying side effects. All you need to do is focus on the right kind of metal.

Why Cheap Jewelry Isn’t Worth It

Have you ever worn a ring that turns your finger green or earring posts that make your piercing holes bleed? Chances are that these jewelry pieces were pretty inexpensive. Jewelry that stains the skin usually has copper included in its mix of metals, while people with sensitive ears can react to a wide range of metals, including so-called surgical steel. These metals help keep jewelry costs down, but if they’re uncomfortable to wear or discolor your skin, the savings just aren’t worth it.

Even pricier jewelry made from cheap materials can be painful if you have sensitive earlobes. In most cases, this kind of sensitivity is caused by a nickel allergy. Nickel is used in a variety of different inexpensive metal alloys, and it can be hard to tell whether the jewelry you’re buying will trigger allergy symptoms or not. On top of that, nickel allergies can come out of nowhere, cropping up suddenly and making your previously beloved collection of earrings a source of discomfort.

What to do When You Have Sensitive or Reactive Ears

If you’ve suddenly found yourself bleeding from your earlobes or simply being unable to bear the pain of even a very lightweight pair of stud earrings, the solution isn’t to swear off earrings forever. Similarly, you aren’t cursed to rub stains off your ears for the rest of your life. Rather, the solution is to wear metal that doesn’t include nickel, copper and other commonly reactive metals. That means that the earring posts or hooks for all of your earrings should be made from an allergy-safe metal. Your metal options include:

●High-karat yellow gold

●Palladium alloy white gold

●Titanium

●Platinum

●Niobium

●Fine silver

A few words of caution about this list. As you may notice, gold and silver are included in the list, but not without caveats. With both of these common metals, purity matters. Sterling silver, for example, typically includes enough nickel to prompt an allergic reaction. Low-purity gold alloys may also include reactive metals that prompt an allergic reaction or discoloration. If sensitivity is your only issue and you don’t get skin discoloration, you can wear high-karat rose gold, which contains copper but no nickel.

If these issues sound familiar, come see Westwood Jewelers to replenish your collection of earrings with sensitive-skin friendly pieces. Experienced professionals will be able to steer you toward a high-quality jewelry piece or make you something custom in metals that won’t cause problems. We may even be able to remake some of your favorite earrings with new posts or hooks in a metal that’s safe and comfortable for your sensitive skin.