I've had my eyebrow pierced at 18g for maybe 4 years now and two days ago I stretched it to a 16g with a taper. The process was annoyingly slow (took me over an hour, even with much lubrication and patience) and mildly painful, but there was no apparent injury done to my piercing and the new jewelry went in fine. I was careful to keep my hands clean and all that during the stretching, and have been avoiding touching my piercing since. I know that some discomfort is not a big deal, and considering how annoyed my piercing was with me two days ago, we're doing quite well.
However, I'm worried about using the right aftercare regimen for my piercing. Everywhere I look online has different advice, some of it completely contradictory. One sight says antibacterial soap is a great choice, others say don't clean your piercing after a stretch, just leave it alone, or don't use Dial because it's too harsh, ad nauseum.
When I originally had my piercing done, I was given Dial and Bactine to use for 4-6 weeks afterwards twice a day, and that worked perfectly. My piercing healed well and quickly. I'm wondering if any tenderness I'm feeling now after this stretch is the result of too much cleaning (once a day with Dial in warm water), not enough cleaning, or if it doesn't mean anything at all. I know that everyone is different and such, but there have got to be guidelines for this sort of thing. There aren't any piercing places near me that I can get in-person opinions from, so you guys are my primary source. Any advice?
Your piercing is healed, therefore there is no need for aftercare. Just because you stretched the piercing, does not mean that you need to clean it.
Have you cleaned it since your aftercare? Did you break any new skin? We would hope that you have not been cleaning it all this time and we hope that you did not break skin. Common sense dictates that you leave it alone as all you did was to change the jewellery to something a little thicker.
Since you are experiencing problems with the little that you are cleaning, common sense would dictate that you leave it alone.
