If you run a piercing business, providing proper aftercare and support after performing any ear piercing is essential for both the health of your customers and the long-term profitability of your business. This means providing your customers with a wide variety of aftercare products so they can keep their new piercings clean, free of infection and (at least relatively) painless.
Whether you sell aftercare products to your ear piercing customers or provide them free of charge, you should always have a good supply of the following aftercare products in your stock room.
Disinfectant sprays, swabs and gels
Preventing infection is always your first priority when it comes to ear piercing aftercare, and is particularly important when piercing the ears of young people or first-timers who may not know how to keep the new hole in their body properly sanitised. To make sure that all of your ear piercing customers are capable of using antiseptic aftercare products effectively, you should ideally provide a range of different disinfectant products.
Disinfectant sprays are generally the easiest anti-infection products for piercing novices to use and can be sprayed on both ears and piercings safely to prevent contamination and potential infection. Antiseptic swabs are also useful and very easy to use, but applying them can be a little painful for people who aren't yet used to disinfecting new piercings. Most disinfectant swabs contain isopropyl alcohol, which can irritate sensitive skin, so you may wish to also stock alcohol-free swabs if possible.
Disinfectant gels are less widely used than sprays and swabs, but can also be a good aftercare product to stock. They are usually less painful to use than swabs and can be less messy to use than sprays, particularly for customers with longer hair.
Piercing deodorants
It's an unpleasant but unavoidable reality that ear piercings can smell pretty bad, even with proper aftercare cleaning. Many people report that their piercings give off a noticeable smell even after the piercing is fully healed. This unpleasant funk is caused by the sebum naturally produced by your skin, including ear skin, and over-cleaning your ears to try and get rid of the smell can leave skin dry and irritated.
Piercing deodorants are a useful way to keep piercing smells under control and usually come in a semi-liquid balm form that is easy to apply. While piercing deodorants are always a handy thing to have in stock, they can be particularly useful (not to mention profitable) if your piercing salon specialises in plugs and other stretched ear piercings, as these types of piercings can have a stronger smell than conventional piercings.
Ear jewellery cleaning supplies
A customer can keep their newly pierced ear as clean as possible, but they are still vulnerable to infection if the piercing itself is dirty. As such, may also find it useful to stock cleaning supplies that let your customers effectively clean their earrings, studs and plugs themselves.
The most basic ear piercing jewellery cleaning supplies are simple jars or packets of saline solution, which will kill bacteria and other pathogens. If you want to offer your customers a more robust jewellery cleaning solution, you can also stock jewellery steam cleaners. While these cleaners are somewhat expensive, they are hugely effective at keeping piercings and jewellery clean while not in use and can be very profitable for your business when sold at a modest markup.
