Toronto & Vancouver winters are often best recognized as a great time for staying indoors. It’s cold with biting winds, and freezing rains seem just as common as snow. But we contend that winter is not just a great time for huddling around the radiator and watching Netflix. Toronto & Vancouver winters are also a perfect opportunity to get a new piercing. Although summer is the most popular time of year for piercings, we submit that winter is the best. Although the idea of summer piercings getting infected is a myth, winter still has a lot of advantages.

Advantages Of Winter Piercings

When it’s cold outside you need a good reason to get out of the house. The advantages of getting a piercing in winter are enough to get us out braving the cold Toronto & Vancouver streets.

Winter Piercings Can Heal Before Summer

You spend the winter all bundled up. Could there be a better time to heal from a piercing? With all your layers, unhealed piercings are not visible. When summer comes around and you shed those winter layers, your piercings will be healed and look their best. Right on time to be shown off! Showing off your piercings in your summer wardrobe is only one of the benefits of healing before the sun comes out. During piercing aftercare, some of the best summer activities should be avoided. Music festivals, concerts, and beaches are usually right off the list while you heal. With a winter piercing, you’re all ready to go for music fest season, and you’ve got a cool new piercing to attend with.

Fresh Body Piercings Are Easy To Protect In The Winter

A fresh body piercing needs to be protected. Rubbing, touching, or tugging on the new piercing can damage the skin or prohibit healing. In winter, our clothes cover more skin and can protect fresh piercings. As a bonus, they also keep the piercing out of sight and out of mind. After all, it’s always tempting to touch new piercings, even though it’s not good for healing. You do have to be careful about what clothes go over top of new piercings. You don’t want them rubbing up against it, causing the same problems you’re trying to avoid. For new bellybutton piercings, medical grade eyepatches are often recommended for protection. This works great under winter clothes where the patch is out of sight.

Piercings Swell Less In The Winter

During the first three days following a piercing, swelling is generally expected. This is part of your body’s reaction to a piercing. It’s nothing to be concerned about, but it can be tender and unsightly for 1-3 days. In the winter, however, swelling is reduced. Swelling is tightly related to blood flow. The lower the blood flow, the less swelling will occur. When it’s cold out, there is less blood flow. This is why we use ice packs to reduce or prevent swelling. The effects of the weather on blood flow are especially noticeable in the face, ears, and extremities. An ear piercing, for example, is likely to swell less in the winter than in the summer.

Managing Winter Piercings

As much as we consider winter to be a great time to get a piercing, there are some challenges to overcome. Fortunately, these challenges are easy to manage if you know what to expect.

Winter Is Cold

Why not start with the obvious one? In addition to low temperatures and biting winds, metal jewellery intensifies the cold of winter. Metal is an excellent thermal conductor. When it’s cold outside, metal jewellery in a piercing loses heat faster than your body. This results in intense cold in and around the piercing. The key to managing this is to minimize exposure. This can be a little more difficult with face and nose piercings. Scarves are a great option. But be sure to take care that your piercing doesn’t snag on the scarf. Once the piercing has fully healed, you can remove metal jewellery if you know you’ll be out in extreme cold.

Winter Is Dry

Toronto & Vancouver winters are very dry. As a result, our skin dries out much faster. You probably have a chapstick or lip balm in every jacket and bag as a testament to this. Having the skin dry out around a new piercing can impede proper healing. The best solution is to carry aftercare products with you. Mists and creams help to keep the skin around your piercing from drying out.

Piercing Shops & Artists Are More Important Than Seasonality

The most important aspect of getting a piercing isn’t when to get it, but where. Choosing a piercing artist and shop that is focused on safety above all else, is paramount. They work with you to ensure you get the piercing you want, and they advise your best aftercare procedure. A good piercing studio is the key to a successful piercing experience.