AWFUL MODS

H20cean is good if you don’t have anything else at hand, but because it’s a spray, it doesn’t penetrate right in if that makes sense? You want something that can drag all of the nasties and crusties out of there to make sure it stays happy and healthy!

So, you want to make a sea salt soak. Here’s the recipe:

1) When you go to a hospital with a wound, it’ll be washed with what’s known as a saline solution. This is a simple mix of salt (NaCl) and distilled water. This has powerful healing qualities, and is the only thing that you should be cleaning a piercing with.
2) So, you need salt, not just any salt, but SEA SALT. Why sea salt, I hear you ask? Well, other salts, such as table salt have other chemicals such as potassium and carbon added to add desirable properties. They might be ‘desirable’ for your cooking, but not for your piercing! A prime example of rough sea salt is Maldon Sea Salt, which is found in virtually all supermarkets.
3) You’ve got your sea salt. Now what to do? Fill a mug with HOT water that has been boiled. Obviously, you don’t want to scold the piercing with boiling water, but hot water will help draw out the nasties. Add 1/4th of a teaspoon of sea salt. Any more than this, and you’ll dry out the skin around the piercing.

Why will it dry out the piercing? Here’s the biology bit.

• As we’ve all been taught in school, people are made of A LOT of water. We’re looking at about 80% here!
• In our cells, there’s a substance called cytoplasm. Cytoplasm is made primarily of water, and swells when there’s a lot of water around, which explains why our skin gets happier when we drink a lot of water!
• Here’s the harder bit: When you expose your skin (around a piercing in this case) to water, the skin takes up water through a process called osmosis.
• Osmosis is where water moves from a high concentration to a lowconcentration. So, the water and the salt in the saline solution will move into the cells surrounding the piercing. This brings the salt in with it.
• Now, we have a different problem, the salts like to move from a highconcentration to a low concentration, much like water. Now all the salt’s inside the cell, it’s in a high concentration. It wants to move to a lower concentration.
• The salt diffuses out of the cell, but, also brings water with it. Obviously, this is all happening on a molecular level, so we can’t see it.
• So, the water has moved out of the cell, with the salt. If too much water leaves with the salt, the skin becomes dry and irritated.

Enjoy my dear! Hope it goes okay! -Emily