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Lend me your ears
Jan. 25th, 2026 12:01 pmThis may be a short entry. I'm fighting off a bug today, I think; it's the only explanation that comes to mind for why I horribly overslept and still feel as if I haven't had half enough sleep.
I swore for years I'd never get my ears pierced. I reckoned there was no need, as I could wear all the earrings I wanted without going to the trouble. I had quite a lot of earrings when I was at university, my favourite pair being painted wooden ones in the shape of a couple of colourful parrots. Those had screw-on fittings, which are really the best non-pierced arrangement you can have, because you can adjust the grip minutely; the sweet zone between "so tight they pinch" and "so loose they fall off" is not a large one. And, being made of wood, they were pretty light, so I had them for quite a few years till I inevitably lost one.
It is quite hard to get screw fittings. Most non-pierced earrings have clips, which are difficult or impossible to adjust. During the intervening years I had a number of pairs of clip earrings, and most of those were on the tight side, so I couldn't wear them for more than a couple of hours at a time. I'd have to put them on just before I went out in the evening, then take them off again as soon as I got out of wherever I was going. When I later discovered magnetic earrings, I thought all my problems were solved; but no. Magnets are just as capable of pinching as clips are.
Some time around my sixtieth birthday, I thought "blow this - I'm having them done". I like earrings and I was just fed up with all the hassle. Getting that arranged turned out to be a bit more awkward than I thought, but in the end I had them done at H Samuel in Cambridge. The only thing was, I really didn't know what to expect. I'd been told so many conflicting things about it that I was completely confused.
Well. The first thing I need to say here is, if anyone tells you it doesn't hurt, that is not quite true. It doesn't hurt much, and it certainly doesn't hurt anywhere near as much as you'd think it ought to. It does hurt a little, but only very briefly. I've had far worse injections. So after the chap had done my left ear, I said, "Oh, that's fine. Not bad at all. I don't need a break - you can go ahead and do the other one." So he did, and then we were chatting quite happily for about five minutes and then...
You know how my blood pressure is liable to tank under stress? The combination of not knowing what to expect and a couple of (albeit mild) physical shocks turned out to be a bit too much for it. "Er," I said. "This is a bit embarrassing, but do you have anywhere I can lie down?"
"Sorry, no."
"Oh. Right. Well then, I shall just put my head between my knees for a little while..."
And there it stayed till I stopped seeing interesting fractals. The chap said he'd had two people who'd actually fainted, and I was not quite the third, but it was a close thing. I'm not the only person with the weird glitchy blood pressure. Fortunately, the friend who'd brought me was a doctor, so if I had fainted she'd have known what to do!
My nice new studs (little red CZs) had safety backs, so I had been assured I'd be fine sleeping on them; however, I sleep exclusively on my right side because of Sibyl, and that, it turned out, wasn't at all comfortable. So I jury-rigged a kind of split mini-pillow; the two halves were held together by a strip of fabric, keeping the gap constant, and my ear went into that gap so it wasn't under any pressure. Later, after I was able to take the original studs out, I was a bit worried about taking my earrings out at night for a while, just in case the holes closed up. I eventually graduated to a kind of tiny knitted bag, double thickness, with a "handle" just long enough to loop over my ear, providing enough padding to stop the back of the earring from digging in anywhere. The things they don't tell you.
Now, of course, it's fine. I just take them out at night and put them in the following morning, and I can wear dangly ones, so I almost exclusively make my own. (I also have them for sale, but only within the UK, overseas shipping being complicated to deal with and in some cases problematic.) I've designed a few different styles.
And, yes, I can make them with clips. I haven't forgotten the people who'd rather not get their ears pierced!
I swore for years I'd never get my ears pierced. I reckoned there was no need, as I could wear all the earrings I wanted without going to the trouble. I had quite a lot of earrings when I was at university, my favourite pair being painted wooden ones in the shape of a couple of colourful parrots. Those had screw-on fittings, which are really the best non-pierced arrangement you can have, because you can adjust the grip minutely; the sweet zone between "so tight they pinch" and "so loose they fall off" is not a large one. And, being made of wood, they were pretty light, so I had them for quite a few years till I inevitably lost one.
It is quite hard to get screw fittings. Most non-pierced earrings have clips, which are difficult or impossible to adjust. During the intervening years I had a number of pairs of clip earrings, and most of those were on the tight side, so I couldn't wear them for more than a couple of hours at a time. I'd have to put them on just before I went out in the evening, then take them off again as soon as I got out of wherever I was going. When I later discovered magnetic earrings, I thought all my problems were solved; but no. Magnets are just as capable of pinching as clips are.
Some time around my sixtieth birthday, I thought "blow this - I'm having them done". I like earrings and I was just fed up with all the hassle. Getting that arranged turned out to be a bit more awkward than I thought, but in the end I had them done at H Samuel in Cambridge. The only thing was, I really didn't know what to expect. I'd been told so many conflicting things about it that I was completely confused.
Well. The first thing I need to say here is, if anyone tells you it doesn't hurt, that is not quite true. It doesn't hurt much, and it certainly doesn't hurt anywhere near as much as you'd think it ought to. It does hurt a little, but only very briefly. I've had far worse injections. So after the chap had done my left ear, I said, "Oh, that's fine. Not bad at all. I don't need a break - you can go ahead and do the other one." So he did, and then we were chatting quite happily for about five minutes and then...
You know how my blood pressure is liable to tank under stress? The combination of not knowing what to expect and a couple of (albeit mild) physical shocks turned out to be a bit too much for it. "Er," I said. "This is a bit embarrassing, but do you have anywhere I can lie down?"
"Sorry, no."
"Oh. Right. Well then, I shall just put my head between my knees for a little while..."
And there it stayed till I stopped seeing interesting fractals. The chap said he'd had two people who'd actually fainted, and I was not quite the third, but it was a close thing. I'm not the only person with the weird glitchy blood pressure. Fortunately, the friend who'd brought me was a doctor, so if I had fainted she'd have known what to do!
My nice new studs (little red CZs) had safety backs, so I had been assured I'd be fine sleeping on them; however, I sleep exclusively on my right side because of Sibyl, and that, it turned out, wasn't at all comfortable. So I jury-rigged a kind of split mini-pillow; the two halves were held together by a strip of fabric, keeping the gap constant, and my ear went into that gap so it wasn't under any pressure. Later, after I was able to take the original studs out, I was a bit worried about taking my earrings out at night for a while, just in case the holes closed up. I eventually graduated to a kind of tiny knitted bag, double thickness, with a "handle" just long enough to loop over my ear, providing enough padding to stop the back of the earring from digging in anywhere. The things they don't tell you.
Now, of course, it's fine. I just take them out at night and put them in the following morning, and I can wear dangly ones, so I almost exclusively make my own. (I also have them for sale, but only within the UK, overseas shipping being complicated to deal with and in some cases problematic.) I've designed a few different styles.
And, yes, I can make them with clips. I haven't forgotten the people who'd rather not get their ears pierced!
