High nostril piercings, like those up nearer to the top of your nose, may hurt less but can take longer to heal. The pain during recovery might be worse than that of a septum piercing.

It depends on who you ask, but the general rule of thumb is to wait until:

1. it’s no longer tender.
2. the minimum healing time has passed, usually at least 2 to 3 months.
3. it’s no longer weepy or crusty.

What happens after septal piercing? The initial period after the piercing can be very painful, and the nose can be tender to touch. This initial part of healing takes around 1-3 weeks. Septum piercings can take around 6-8 months to completely heal.

The septum piercing is done on the center of the face, and it can be moved naturally when eating or talking. Straightening it is okay as long as you are only touching it with clean hands. Ideally you don’t want to move the piercing, but one of the reasons that people get this piercing is because it is so easy to hide.

Check if you have an infected piercing Your piercing might be infected if: the area around it is swollen, painful, hot, very red or dark (depending on your skin colour) there’s blood or pus coming out of it – pus can be white, green or yellow. you feel hot or shivery or generally unwell.

Technically, you need to keep cleaning it forever, but, once it’s fully healed, you can clean it less often. You can also switch to plain water cleanings, instead of saline. Unless your piercing professional tells you otherwise, you’ll want to keep up the daily saline cleanings for 4 to 8 weeks.

A septum piercing does most of its healing in 2 or 3 months , though it can take as long as 6 to 8 months to heal completely for some people. How quickly and how well you heal depend on factors…

For this reason, most piercers recommend that you wait the maximum four months for nostril piercings and eight weeks for septum piercings before attempting to change the ring yourself.

Keep up a cleaning routine for at least a month. While septum piercings take six to eight months to fully heal, you only need to follow a strict cleaning regimen for about a month. During this time, do a sea salt soak three times per day.

A septum piercing–a piercing of the cartilage–will heal in six to eight months. A bridge piercing–a piercing trough the skin at the top of the nose, will heal in eight to 10 weeks, according to the Center for Young Women’s Health, Children’s Hospital Boston.