Too holey?

I have a wee bit of a dilemma.

I have a few piercings. Okay, strictly in my ears. 7 to be exact. 2 in my right ear, and 5 in my left. Why the lack of balance? I'm not sure whether there's a reason or not. Hey, it was the thing to do! The thing I did, anyhow.

So I found a bunch of these nice, thicker guaged, sterling silver, sleeper hoops at Shoppers Drug Mart. I was having trouble with regular, thinner earrings making my holes (how else am I supposed to say that?) get infected - these thicker earrings worked like a charm. However, while I was pregnant, most of them became badly tarnished to the point where the finish was gone. Nothing I had would clean them up. So I went out and bought more. Yes, 7 more. Within a short period of time, they became badly tarnished as well.

I asked a couple of people what they thought about it. My hairdresser felt that the earrings in my left ear were placed in such a way that they touched the skin just behind my ear (the ones on the right weren't as bad as those on the left). She said there's a gland behind there and perhaps the pregnancy hormones were killing my silver. She suggested trying stainless steel. I found a store that sold stainless steel, but they were way too heavy a guage, more meant for funky piercings, not so much ears. It was suggested I try another jewellery store. I found and spoke to the manager of this jewellery store (more of a costume jewellery type shop, not the real good stuff). I told her about the problem I've been having and she proceeded to tell me about a relative of hers. This relative could not wear either silver or gold without it tarnishing. She figured I was in the same boat.

I decided to do a little experiment of my own. Mom had a couple of gold studs around that she let me borrow. They've been in my ears for weeks now and not a problem to be had. That got me thinking....I'd rather stick with the silver colour.....what about WHITE GOLD!!!!

I splurged. I bought myself a REALLY nice pair of white gold hoop earrings. Yes, they were expensive.

Okay, I tell you all of this as an introduction to something else.

I just turned 35 and I've got all of these holes in my ears and my skin is tarnishing all of the cheap stuff I get. Should I spend some bucks and replace all of my silver with white gold? Or should I bite the bullet and let them all go except my very first 2 original holes (well, and the one through the cartilege at the top of my left ear). Does it look stupid in this day and age for a regular Jane like me to have 7 holes in her ears??? Will I lose my youth, my cool, forever if I let them grow over?

Has anyone else been there and done that? I'd love to hear some opinions, thoughts, ideas and stories. What did you do?