Won't even lie - I had been drinking. Not SUPER heavy drinking, but my inhibitions were definitely worn off. The only photo I have, is really small, and I just washed my face for the night, so no photo yet!

Anyways, it was pretty simple. Walked in, handed my ID (this place is EXTREMELY well known in my town. I think there's a few hundred reviews on them, and all giving 4 or 5 stars. Plus the lady who did it, has been there for years. I had read up on them some time ago, and just happened to be drinking at the bar next door. =) Yeah so, walked in, gave ID, and sat down with piercer. Talked a bit about how I wanted it placed perfectly for a ring, but pierced with a nose screw (work and stuff). And I was in and out in about 10 minutes.

Before this piercing, I've had... *counts*... 10 piercings. Nothing on the face, and the hardest to heal would be a tie between the industrial, or the navel (6 months for each, and they were PAINFUL). All of my piercings stopped at the age of 18 (I'm about to turn 24). So, it's been awhile.

Here's the thing - I feel like I'm just waiting for a problem. I haven't caught it on anything, and have mostly left it alone. I don't put make up near it, and wash it 3x a day. Other than that, I don't use any sort of salt soaks or spray.

Every other piercing has been a PAIN to heal. I mean, horrible... I think half was that I was sensitive, half was that I caught it on everything. And now that I've been out of the piercing game for so long, I feel like I'm doing something wrong.

Anyone else just leave it alone (with washing), and it go alright? I'm just really amazed how pain free this has been (about 6 days now).

What are you washing it with? If you're using soap I'd cut that out since it can be drying and also blocks out oxygen from getting to your piercing.

The only piercings that have ever given me problems (navel and snug) weren't done by my piercer and I am blaming that because out of my 20+ piercings I have never had a single problem. My piercer used to recommend sea salt soaks but now he gives out this vegan spray called Simple Care.

Honestly? I have always just followed the LITHA (leave it the hell alone) method with every piercing I have ever had. If my piercing starts to feel a little off I will spray a little Simple Care on it but that's about it. My nose healed pretty easily and I think it's one of the easier cartilage piercings to heal.

I love H2Ocean. My piercer gave it to me when I got my dermal done and it healed really well. Spray it on 2-3 times a day and you're good. It definitely plays to my inherent laziness. I couldn't keep a nose piercing, though, so you might not want to trust me too much on this one.

Brit, this is where I feel like a dork.. I completely forgot that the leaving it alone method was so popular, that we all know what LITHA means. So I guess that's my method.

I used Dial anti-bacterial on it, just because of my history with infections (MRSA still terrifies me) and I'm super safe about it. I've cut down to twice a day already, but just because of general crap in the air, plus make up on most of my face, and skin oil, etc., I keep washing. Doesn't seem dry to me yet.

And PinUp, I can't even imagine myself healing a dermal! I'd mess that up so bad!

I just did the warm sea salt soaks once or twice a day and it healed up perfectly. No soap, didn't mess with it. I even played with it more than I should have and didn't wash my pillowcases as often as they suggested but it was fine with the salt soaks.

I just did sea salt soaks every now and then basically tried to leave it alone. I never had any problems with it whatsoever and it healed pretty quickly for me.

My nose was the easiest healing piercing I've ever gotten. I could basically just leave it alone. It never hurt, never oozed, only bled for the first couple days if I hit it wrong. I wish everything healed that easily.

The only time I ever had a problem was when I got some sand in it almost a year later and it got infected. I just wore a hoop for a while as the swelling went down and started cleaning it again. It got better in about 2 weeks.

So far, it's come out twice. Once while I was sick and blowing my nose, I caught it on a tissue. This was in the first week, so I just immediately stood up, grabbed my purse and drove down to my piercer. Problem solved.

Then a few days ago, I caught it on a towel after a shower. I didn't really even notice it until I saw that the very tip of the nose screw was the only thing keeping it there. Took me a bit to understand how the heck people get nose screws back in, but I got it. I'm so excited to change it out of this diamond (crystal?) nose screw, but I know I should just suck it up and wait. Which, by the way, I read something by a tattoo shop that said to wait 8 months to change it. Shop looked super sketchy, but I kinda chuckled.

My nose piercing healed really easily too, I kind of kept waiting for something to go wrong with it too as I've had bad luck with other piercings, but mine was fine. I've knocked it out a couple of times and it went pretty sore when I had a cold but it's never been a pain to get back in and it's never gotten infected. I just use rock salt wash on it every now and again and sometimes a tea tree oil based wash on it.

If you've healed other piercings, then you shouldn't have a problem with this one.

My method is usually sea salt soaks, lavender Dr. Bronner's, and some tea tree and/or lavender essential oil upon occasion.

I found the biggest challenge with my nostril was indeed getting it caught on stuff-- for one, the shaft on my screw was too long and sometimes even when I'd be pulling my glasses off the wrong way they'd catch it! I think it would've healed a lot faster if I weren't always catching it on crap. The next hardest part is the gross factor-- mmm, blood clots + boogers (sorry, that was graphic, lol).

You could always try LITHA, though-- just keep in mind you may have to abandon it and start paying it some care. For my first industrial, that wasn't working for me-- if I didn't soak + clean religiously for the first couple months, it'd get irritated. For my second one-- which is exactly two weeks old today-- I haven't touched it in days and it seems to be doing fine. Go figure.

H2Ocean is a great product to help clean any piercing. It does not hurt. It is basically a salt water solution. It is safe for cleaning of any piercing or cuts. The cuts may hurt a bit though. I had no issues with my nose piercing. It hurt a lot less than my cartilidge piercing. It's been over two years and they still haven't healed all the way. Everyone heal at different rates. As long as the skin is not growing over the nose stud, you are fine. It can take 6 months or more to heal. Just clean twice a day with the H2Ocean or salt water. You can apply with a q-tip. I hope this helps!