Years of Gaguing, First Dead Stretch.

I started gaguing a few years ago. I did not know about dead stretching, I did not know the 1mm max for stretching. Recently I have been educating myself, and to be honest I still was not understanding what dead stretching was or how to do it until I went to size up and oh my gods. When I tell you. I have never has such a flawless, painless experience sizing up. My last size up was 6-7 months ago, from 2g to 0g with tapers. Pretty sure I almost had a blowout, but thankfully after like a week everything calmed down and my ears were fine, but looking into the gague to mm conversions 2g to 0g is a 2mm jump. No wonder that shit was tough. 

This time however, I prepared myself a little better and I started using ear butter on my ears after the 2g to 0g mess. I ordered 9mm tunnels, tapers, and jojoba oil. Yes i know tapers are not great now, but it helps me line up the jewelry and put it in right. But that doesn't even matter because i put that damn taper in the whole thing fell right through. I was SHOCKED. I have never seen that happen before. I got the new tunnels in without an issue, and it was then when I finally comprehended what dead stretching was. I am absolutely stoked, I feel like the rest of my stretching journey will be so much easier and I cant wait for my next size up. 

I have a new goal of 20mm. Here is a photo from the night i stretched my ears, featuring  my old tunnels next to my new ones.