I received a message from a woman whose nostril I pierced. Unfortunately, they started to give her a hard time about wearing the jewelry at work. So she got in a clear quartz crystal retainer and concealed it:
Hope your well and your travels are treating you good. Well, today is one day shy of three months from the initial nostril puncture piercing. Yay! I have pulled it off. I still have the clear retainer being covered with a hole punched micro pore skin tone bandage, but is it safe to remove now without risking the piercing site from closing? If I can remove it when having to be here at work Wed, Thurs and Fri and replace it Friday evenings upon arriving home?
Please advise when time permits.
My reply:
I'm glad to hear that it is still in and that the tape has been working for you with the retainer.
Unfortunately, 3 months is the minimum time that can be expected for the piercing to epithelialize and no longer be an open wound--though it can certainly take longer for initial healing to take place. Some find the piercing takes 6-9 months or so to heal!
In any case many people find the nostril piercing starts to shrink and close instantly when jewelry is removed--even after wearing it for years!
I cannot suggest you remove the jewelry or plan to remove and try to reinsert it frequently, and most certainly not on a daily basis. Even an older piercing (1 year+) would probably get irritated from that. But trying to leave it out this soon (even for a short time) is likely to cause problems.
Sorry if that wasn't clear. The 3 month time is the period that you should normally leave in initial jewelry before chaining it--but certainly isn't a good time to leave it out.
Let me know if you have other questions.