Yes, cleaning your nose piercing once or twice a day with a sterile saline solution or mild soap is generally recommended for new piercings, but avoid over-cleaning as it can cause irritation and slow healing; the key is consistency and gentleness, not excessive scrubbing or using harsh chemicals. Focus on cleaning around the jewelry and inside the nostril gently to remove crust and discharge.
Aftercare Information
During the healing process, you should clean your nostril piercing two times a day: morning and night. First, you're going to want to buy some Neilmed Piercing Aftercare Spray. Essentially, it's a sterile saline solution in a can.
When it's first pierced, wait to do your cleaning a few hours later. Let it scab and stop bleeding, don't disturb it and make it bleed more. Leave the scabs or crusties to come off in the shower, you shouldn't pick or force any off. Just clean twice a day, once in the morning and once at night is enough.
Clean the Area Often
Extra mucus means more buildup. That stuff can get all over your jewelry and cause irritation or even infections if left too long. Use a saline spray to rinse the area regularly. Spray a cotton swab with saline and gently clean around the piercing and inside your nostril.
New piercings should be cleaned twice daily for 6 months, once daily for another 6 months, and after the first year should be cleaned weekly. If you're cleaning them frequently, there shouldn't be much crust.
The Importance of Nose Piercing Aftercare
Because the veins in this area are connected to your sinus cavity, any problems could be serious. Common issues that stem from improper aftercare include bleeding, loose jewelry, scarring, or an infection.
The "2:3 piercing rule" is a curated ear guideline suggesting that for every two piercings, you should have three units of space between them, aiming for a balanced look, often by placing two piercings on the lobe and three on the upper cartilage, or by using larger jewelry at the bottom (lobes) and smaller pieces (studs/huggies) as you go up the ear for a cascading, uncluttered aesthetic. It's a styling tip, not a strict rule, for creating harmonious ear stacks.
Your body pushes out lymph fluid that dries up and forms crust. It's literally part of the healing process. The worst thing that you can do is pick at it! That's how you irritate it, encourage piercing bumps and prolonged healing!
Without proper care, the hole can easily become infected, causing pain, disfigurement and bleeding. When first wearing a new nose ring or stud, simple actions such as blowing your nose and sneezing with a nose ring can be a new experience.
“It's very easy to overclean a piercing, and that can usually do more harm than good,” she explains. “Anything aside from sterile saline and water can cause irritation, resulting in bumps.” You can ask your piercer for a saline solution at their shop, or look for one on Amazon.
A good healing process is distinguished by visible signs: swelling decreases, the pain disappears, and the skin is gradually closing it uniform around the jewelry. When these signs appear, you can be assured that the healing of your nose piercing is progressing normally.
Try not to touch or twist your piercing. This can slow down the healing process. Avoid swimming pools, lakes, rivers, and hot tubs until your nose heals. Take showers instead of baths.
Be extra careful when pulling clothes over your head, when you wash and dry your face, and when blowing your nose. You can even put an adhesive bandage over the nose jewellery while sleeping.
The color of the area around the piercing can provide clues: If it is very dark red, it is probably in the early stages of healing. If it is pinkish, it is getting closer to being fully healed. If the color is flesh-toned, it is likely fully healed.
A piercing is rejecting when your body pushes the jewelry out, signaled by signs like the jewelry moving from its original spot, the tissue thinning and becoming see-through, the hole getting bigger, prolonged redness/irritation, or the jewelry hanging differently. Key indicators are the skin between the entrance and exit holes shrinking, the jewelry becoming more visible under the skin, and the skin looking shiny, dry, or flaky, meaning your body perceives the jewelry as a foreign object.
Note: Do not let your piercing air dry while healing. If you are having difficulties with drying your piercing, after you've dried all the moisture from the piercing with qtips, use a hair dryer on a cool setting to evaporate any moisture left behind.
✨ Why Crusties Are a Good Sign ✨ What you're seeing around a healing piercing—those little yellowish or brownish crusts—is actually lymph, not pus or infection. It's your body's natural healing fluid. As it dries, it forms a crust around the piercing.
The "3-2 piercing rule" is a popular guideline for creating a balanced ear piercing arrangement, suggesting three piercings on the lobe and two on the upper cartilage for a harmonious, curated look, or applying a 2:3 ratio of piercings to space for overall balance, often pairing small studs with statement pieces for a chic, "undone" style that avoids overcrowding and emphasizes personal anatomy.
We suggest cleaning no more than once a day. On average, most piercings will need to be cleaned over the next 3-4 months (unless otherwise stated by your piercer). It is vital that you do not over-clean the piercing. If it has been longer than four months, do not clean the piercing anymore.
Putting a foreign object in it and twisting it would irritate it, maybe make it bleed, introduce bacteria and possible infection, especially if your hands are dirty when you are doing it. Your wound will want to heal. It will shed skin. It will leak fluids.
There is no right or wrong side of the nose to get a piercing, it is up to you.
A nose piercing typically ranks around a 5-7 out of 10 on the pain scale, feeling like a sharp pinch or sting, but it varies greatly by placement (nostril vs. septum) and individual pain tolerance, with septum piercings often less painful if the "sweet spot" is found, while high nostril piercings can be more intense but heal differently.
Our guidelines recommend that you are healing no more than 3-4 piercings at one time. But how does that break down? If the piercings are only going through soft tissue, like earlobes for example, you can safely heal up to 4 piercings at one time.