No matter how much we love our piercings sometimes it is appropriate to keep them hidden. It would be nice if we lived in a world where we could look however we liked all the time, but there are times when we need to ‘fit in’ and look/dress a little more conservatively!
It might be that you’re best friend has asked you to be a bridesmaid but would rather not have you with a face full of metal in her wedding photos. It might be that all important job interview where you need to show maturity and professionalism, or it might be that you need to keep your piercings discrete at work all of the time. Whatever the reason for wanting you keep your piercing hidden, you will need a piercing retainer.
All piercings will shrink if left without jewellery for a period of time. If you have had your piercing a long time and it is fully healed, it may never fully close up, but you may still want to wear a retainer to prevent it from shrinking and making jewellery harder to insert when you are ready to wear it again. Ideally a retainer shouldn’t be inserted until the piercing is healed, you really should try to avoid changing the jewellery at all during the healing period.
There are many different types of retainers, and it is up to you to choose the ones which suit you best.
For some people a normal piece of jewellery with clear balls will be enough to keep the piercing discreet, these are comfortable to wear for long periods of time but will obviously not hide the piercing completely.
Or you may prefer a flesh coloured retainer, or one with clear or white stem:
Facial Piercings are much harder to keep descreet, but there are several options available. For piercings such as lips and cheeks, a labret retainer may work best. You can choose one that is held in place with a rubber ‘O’ ring, or one that has a push fit stopper on the end:
Retainers with ‘O’ rings are quite secure providing you don’t mess about with them. I have found that some people do have a desire to keep checking on them and stretch the rubber by constantly removing and replacing that ‘O’ring. If left alone, a well fitted O ring will not come off easily.
The downside is that the O rings can come off if caught on something, such as clothing. Generally I only recommend them for piercings where this cannot happen, they are not ideal for navel piercings for example.
Nose Retainers also come in many styles. Most are designed like a normal nose stud with a tiny clear ball. The 1st one here is completely flexible for extra comfort, and has a discreet half ball on the end which is barely visible when worn, you can only see it close up. The 2nd one is a flat nose retainer, it has a tiny nobble on the end to keep it in place and the flat end sits flush against your skin, it is the most descreet type of nose retainer available.
For tongue piercings, there are also various types of retainers. The clear balls and O ring styles as mentioned above are common, however Gem’s Body Jewellery also stocks the ‘No-See-Um’ half ball / dome style which are becoming more popular, you can choose clear, flesh or pink depending on your skin tone:
I could go on for days talking about all the different types of retainers available, these are just the most common ones. Gem’s Body Jewellery also stocks flesh coloured plugs to help hide stretched ear piercings and larger guage retainers for stretched tongue piercings. If you want more information about any types of retainers please do contact me to discuss your needs.
Now that you know what you are looking for please visit the retainers section of my site and make your purchase. Our retainers are the lowest priced around because we want to do everything we can to help you keep your piercing. After all you won’t be buying much else if your piercing closes up!http://www.gemsbodyjewellery.co.uk/wholesalepiercingretainers.asp
A tongue bar can be plain metal, coloured metal, coloured plastic, jewelled or have a logo or fancy design on the top.
