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Earrings For The Unpierced: Part One

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I haven’t got any piercings. I used to want my ears pierced when I was younger and I sometimes entertain fantasies of getting my right eyebrow (I can lift it very slightly on it’s own thanks to a few months practice), the top of my left ear (so that the piercings are evenly distributed), and/or my nose pierced. I also have a tattoo design in mind for my right shoulderblade, but it is even less likely that I will get that done. I’m not too keen on needles. I remember that when I had my second-to-last vaccination, the nurse kept having a go at me because I was too tense and she couldn’t find where to put the needle in.

Sometimes, people I’ve known for years have been looking at me one day when they exclaim, mid-conversation: “Your ears aren’t pierced!”. I usually respond: “Yeah, I know.” It’s almost as strange as being told that I am tall, or skinny, which happens even more frequently. I have eyes, a mirror, and self-awareness, funnily enough!

So to be unpierced is pretty unusual. At least jewellery designers think so, because there are very few earrings being produced today for unpierced ears. In fact, I would say that finding new earrings that don’t require piercings is even harder than finding shoes for big feet!

Options for the Unpierced

Clip-on Earrings

Pro: They have been around for longer than any other kind of non-pierced earring, so you are likely to find the oldest vintage earrings if you are looking for clips.

Con: High ouch factor. They squeeze tightly, so they can’t be worn for long periods of time unless you are good at resisting pain. I have tried some that have been padded with some sort of plastic foamy cushion, but it often isn’t attached securely to the earring, falls off, and to be honest it doesn’t make much of a difference to begin with.

Ear Cuffs

Pro: A different look to clip-ons and screw-ons.

Cons: Can have a ouch factor, as they pinch the ear. Also quite difficult to find, although you can make your own out of bendable plastic-coated wire.

Magnetic Earrings

Pros: Look like studs for pierced ears, take longer to cause pain than clips.

Cons: Can’t hold any weight, fall off really easily (hair often causes the pieces to move), and I find that the pain from these lasts the longest.

Stick-on Earrings

Pros: Don’t hurt, can look like studs

Cons: They have a cheap, novelty look, and you could be allergic to the adhesive, which also tends to be quite crap – try using eyelash glue to get them to stay on for longer.

Spring Hoop Earrings

Pro: Look almost the same as “real” hoop earrings.

Con: Oww…

Ear Hook/Hoop Earrings (hooks/hoops over the ear)

Pro: Not painful

Cons: Looks like you just hung something over your whole ear. Unimpressive unless you make a lot of effort to hang lots of pretty things from it. Some have an irritating habit of falling off when you tilt your head to the side and move.

Screw-on Earrings

Pros: Quite a lot of vintage earrings around. Can be worn for a long time because they can be adjusted to stay on the ear without pinching tightly.

Con: They loop under the ear and depending on the decoration, this can show and look too much like you’re “showing the mechanism”, distracting from the prettiness.

Do you have unpierced ears? Or have you worn earrings that don’t require piercings before? Which is your favourite kind?

Freeze your debit/credit card, I’ve got a whole bunch of discoveries to share in Part Two.

Guilt Is So Not A Good Look

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I write about my current obsessions but one thing should be clear. They don’t pass. They fade. I may not be obsessed with an item I have acquired anymore, but I still like it, and I always like it enough to not get rid of it and just move on to someone else. I only ever buy things I like enough to wear for a long time. I’m not a “disposable-fashionista” in the slightest.

I don’t high-street shop a lot. I went shopping three times in a fortnight not long ago, and that was pretty much my shopping done for the whole year. I probably won’t hit the high street until Christmas at the earliest, and even then I doubt I will buy much. I don’t really like the physical, beyond-my-desk-chair kind of shopping. It’s tiring, drains my bank balance considerably, and can be stressful if I’m looking for shoes. Also, it tends to make me feel guilty.

I’m an educated, socially and politically aware person. I have no excuses. I know about sweatshops. I know about organically grown cotton. I know that Primark and Topshop have been featured in the news for continuing to use factories with poor working conditions. I haven’t shopped at either for years, but to be honest, until recently my main reason for avoiding them is that I actively hate almost every item of clothing that they produce each season. I’ve never been into Urban Outfitters, because I know people (from the craft forums I frequent) whose designs have been ripped off by them. I’ve learnt that you can’t just trust the high street. Every store you ask will deny being involved in sweatshop production at the very least. Even if one avoids the less ethically-conscious manufacturers and stores, they can still be, when buying new clothes, be engaging in “fast fashion”, which damages the environment and wastes resources. I was much better at this last year. I signed up to a Buy Nothing New campaign, inspired by The Compact, that was running in one of my favourite forums, and joined Wardrobe Refashion for six months. But I’ve fallen behind. Shiny and new is distracting, but like I said before, I have no excuses for allowing that distraction. Back on the wagon I go! It’s a simple, three-point plan.

Shop ethically, and treasure our purchases.

Ethically means organic and Fairtrade. It is harder to find items that fit into both these categories – so I will also look for handmade and organic.

By treasure our purchases, I mean to say that we should look after them properly, check for repairs that need doing and do them. Darn our socks, sew up our hems that have fallen loose, mend the holes in our jeans and get our shoes re-soled. This is far cheaper in the long run than buying new items. Learn how to do it, it’s not difficult or time consuming. I recommend mending clothes as soon as you discover they need repair, otherwise you will put them back in the wardrobe, forget, and then either find yourself unable to wear them the next time or will go out, with, for example, a hole in the crotch of your jeans. Classy. No, I’ve never done that, but people I know have! If we no longer want items, we should pass them along to a friend or relative who will use them, or to a charity. Which brings me perfectly to my next point:

Shop second-hand, and donate unwanted items.

This means vintage and charity shopping (or “chazzing“)! This is better for the environment than buying new, even organic items. They have already done all the damage they can do, and buying from charities actually helps the world. Purists would argue that this does not include vintage which has travelled between continents to fetch a higher price, because it has acquired yet another carbon footprint in the journey. But at least it’s avoided the landfill. Find your nearest second-hand or charity shop here. My parents’ town has seven charity shops just on the high street, it’s brilliant. I love to tour them all, the staff are lovely and the Oxfam specialises in books so it entertains my literature-loving side as well. The best thing to do, however, is:

Buy as little as possible.

To just not go shopping unless we have to. To make do with what we’ve got and to create and reconstruct our own clothing. Okay, this isn’t possible for everything. For example, I can’t knit tights, can’t create my own shoes, and I lack the millinery skills to make hats. But I can alter the t-shirts I’m bored with, turn dresses into skirts, and decorate anything too plain for me to enjoy wearing. I can knit, I can sew, I can change buttons and I can bead. I just need to do it more often, and shop less.