How to convert your earrings, if you have sensitive ears

A few years ago I developed a metal allergy.  My ears would get red, swollen, and itchy whenever I wore earrings.  Many times people with sensitive ears can still wear gold earrings.  But unfortunately, even my gold earrings caused irritation.  I tried several things including painting the earring hook with clear nail polish and covering the hook with coconut oil.  By doing this, I was usually able to wear the earrings for a few hours without too much irritation.  But then realized that the itching and swelling were just delayed.  For several days, I wouldn’t be able to wear earrings again.

That is until I discovered Niobium.  Niobium is a nickle free and hypoallergenic metal.

I bought some Niobium earring hooks and replaced the current hooks.  Woo Hoo!  I was able to wear earrings all day with no irritation!  Finally, I could wear earrings comfortably again!  I only bought a few hooks to test them out.  But after I saw how well they worked for me, I bought enough to replace the hooks on all my earrings.

In order to replace your earring hooks with your new Niobium hooks, simply twist open the circular area.  Don’t make the mistake of trying to open the circle into a C shape.  That will just distort the shape of the circle and make it more difficult to close back up.  The sideways twist is the way to go.  A small jewelers pliers is a great tool for this and it is pretty inexpensive.

Here are a few photos to illustrate the twist to the side.  Once the earring hook is opened, you can remove it from the earring and replace it with the new Niobium hook.

The entire process should only take a couple of minutes.

The natural niobium color is a bit darker than the silver color of most earrings.  As you can see by the photo below.  I noticed that some people on Amazon gave the niobium earring hooks a bad rating because of the color.  However, I was so happy to be able to wear earrings again, that I did not care about the darker color.

In my research I also found that Titanium could be used for sensitive ears.  Since I had such good luck with the niobium, I did not try the titanium.  But, it is an options worth trying if you are interested.

Niobium ear hooks can be purchased in a wide variety of colors.

One final thought for people with sensitive ears.  If the end of the earring has any rough or sharp edges, it will scrap your ear piercing, causing irritation.  The end of the earring can be smoothed with a cup bur.

 

Below are some handy links for your convenience.  These are affiliate links, so if you click on them and then purchase, I will get a very small percentage, although the cost to you will be exactly the same.