To keep your new septum piercing looking and feeling great, you’re going to need to take care of it. Taking care of your septum piercing isn’t really any different than taking care of any other body piercing.
A new septum piercing is not hard to take care of, but will require some effort. Taking care of a septum piercing while it’s healing is as easy as incorporating it into your existing cleaning routine. Good hygiene practices will help your septum piercing heal properly and fight off infections.
Taking care of your septum piercing isn’t as complicated as you may think. Let’s take a look at how to effectively care for your new piercing.
How Do You Take Care of a Septum Piercing?
As with any new piercing, it is important to incorporate your septum piercing into your daily hygiene routine. A freshly pierced septum should be cleaned with warm soap and water or a saline solution. By regularly washing your septum piercing, you will keep it clean of germs and it will be less likely to develop an infection.
It’s also important to keep your hands clean. We often subconsciously touch our faces with our hands and fingers. Make sure to regularly wash your hands throughout the day to prevent the transfer of germs from your hands to your face. It’s recommended that you carry hand sanitizer around with you and regularly sanitize after daily activities.
Don’t touch your new jewelry unless absolutely necessary. Aside from transferring germs from your hands to your face, touching your septum piercing may further irritate the wound and cause further trauma. If you have to blow your nose, then blow as gently as possible into an unused tissue and avoid putting too much pressure on your nose.
Your new septum piercing may be painful to touch or sleep on, but it’s very important that you don’t use any blood thinners like Tylenol or Advil. Blood thinners can prevent the piercing from clotting and healing normally. The lack of clotting can also lead to excessive bleeding. It’s not widely known that caffeine is also a blood thinner!
How Do You Clean a Septum Piercing?
Warm water and a gentle soap is a great place to start when cleaning your septum piercing. It’s important to not apply soap directly to the piercing itself, rather allow sudsy water to do the cleaning. Too much soap can lead to excessive drying and can actually hurt the healing process.
Your body piercing artist may have sold you a saline solution such as a saline mist. Mist on and around your septum piercing throughout the healing process. Saline solutions have been used in modern medicine for years and boast the gentlest and most effective way to clean an open wound.
If you do not own any saline mist, then you may create your own solution with sea salt and warm water. Squeeze a cotton ball to pour the solution over the piercing. There’s no need to rub the affected area, simply let the water wash through your septum piercing. A sea salt solution is gentler than soap and water and won’t cause excessive dryness.
An antiseptic spray may be used sparingly if you notice an infection is beginning to take hold. The overuse of an antiseptic spray, antibiotic ointments, hydrogen peroxide, or rubbing alcohol may actually slow the healing process. None of the products mentioned above should be used for more than two weeks throughout the healing process.
How Often Do You Need to Clean a Septum Piercing?
Warm soap and water should be used two to three times per day to clean your septum piercing. You should incorporate one cleaning session into your morning routine and another cleaning session in your evening routine. Continue cleaning two to three times per day until the septum piercing is fully healed.
If you notice excessive dryness, redness, flakiness, or itchiness, then you should reduce your cleaning schedule to two times per day or otherwise switch to a sea salt and warm water solution. The sea salt solution is generally more gentle. Use the sea salt solution the same as you would the warm soap and water. Two to three times per day is plenty.
A saline spray purchased or given to you by your body piercer may be used anywhere from three to six times per day. Make sure to read the instructions on the product’s label for the best results. Continue using the saline mist until the septum piercing is completely healed.
Most septum piercings are fully healed within two to three months. Everyone’s body is different, so the healing time may vary from person to person. Once your septum piercing is completely healed, you should continue to wash your piercing on a daily basis. If you develop an infection, use an antiseptic spray sparingly until healed.
Can You Shower With a New Septum Piercing?
You absolutely can and should regularly take showers with a new septum piercing. When showering, make sure not to use a body wash or any other scented soaps to wash your septum piercing. A soap such as a body wash may be too harsh and contain too many irritating chemicals.
Cleaning your new septum piercing in the shower is a great way to include your daily cleanings into your regular routine. Bring your saline solution, sea salt solution, or gentle soap into the shower with you. Avoid allowing any other face washes, shampoos, or body washes from entering the wound.
You should also avoid allowing the shower water to strike your septum piercing directly. The water pressure from your shower could further traumatize the wound. Let the water run over your septum piercing rather than directly at it. You can pond water by cuffing your hands together. Splashing the ponded water over your face is a safe alternative.
Lastly, make sure that you thoroughly rinse your face before exiting the shower. Any residual soap can quickly turn into a breeding ground for infection. Residual soap turns gunky and can clog your healing wound. Residual soap can also cause excessive drying and further irritate your septum piercing.
Common Septum Piercing Care Mistakes
It’s important to not only understand how to care for your new septum piercing, but to also understand how not to take care of your new septum piercing. Below are some common mistakes to avoid making when caring for your new piercing:
- Cheap Jewelry: Cheap metals should be avoided with any new piercing. Coated metals easily flake. The exposed alloy metal base can cause adverse reactions.
- Rubbing Alcohol: Rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide should not be used unless there is an infection. These products can slow the healing process by killing new and healthy skin cells.
- Taking Jewelry Out: Do not take your jewelry out unless you are completely confident that it has healed. Otherwise, you run the risk of exposing the wound to bacteria and there is potential for the hole to close, requiring a new piercing.
- Hair Products: It’s wise to sleep with your hair up for the first couple of weeks. Residual soap or conditioner are breeding grounds for bacteria and may transfer to your new piercing.
Taking the above advice will allow for your septum piercing to heal safely and quickly. Avoiding these common mistakes will help you avoid painful and unsightly infections at your new septum piercing.
Materials to Avoid With Septum Piercings
Before you get your septum pierced, make sure that the piercer uses jewelry that is made of high quality materials. Low quality materials could prolong the healing process and increase your risk of infection. Let’s take a look at some septum piercing materials:
- Coated Metals: Coating from these piercings can easily flake and get lodged in your wound, increasing the risk of infection and irritation. Once exposed, the underlying alloy metal can cause adverse reactions with your open wound.
- Sterling Silver: Avoid sterling silver at all costs. Sterling silver oxidizes and rusts, which can cause a severe reaction or lead to a nasty blood infection.
- Stainless Steel: Used by surgeons for decades, stainless steel is one of the best options on the market. Stainless steel’s antibacterial properties will help your piercing heal in no time. Another plus, it’s hypoallergenic!
- Titanium: Commonly used in the piercing industry, titanium is slightly more expensive than stainless steel but boasts the same hypoallergenic properties as stainless steel. Titanium can be anodized to any color of your choosing, making it a popular choice.
Choosing a high quality material will help you care for your septum piercing even after it is healed. High quality materials will not only last longer, but they will also prevent irritation and reinfection to your already healed septum piercing.
In Summary
Caring for your septum piercing is not hard if you include it into your daily cleaning regime. It’s important to remember that everyone is different, and that cleaning regime’s effectiveness may vary from person to person. Through trial and error, you will find a regime that works best for you and your skin.
Following this article’s tips and tricks and understanding how and when to clean your septum piercing will allow for it to heal quickly and safely. Don’t be discouraged if you develop an infection, as avoiding bacteria is impossible unless you live inside of a bubble. Just do your best to prevent the spread of bacteria and you should be fine!