How to Wear Earrings when You're Over 50

Don't you hate when earrings pull your earlobes done to your shoulders? No matter how beautiful the earrings are, they will still have that ugly stretched look. It's not just age that does it, it's years and years of wearing heavy, dangling earrings. If you want perky ears again, do the following:

Stop wearing hanging earrings--These not only elongate the hole in your ear but also drag down your face, as well, and make you look older--just as long hair does on a mature woman. So get rid of heavy earrings and opt instead for earring studs or attractive post-type earrings which make a face over 50 look more youthful and chic.

Buy lighter earrings--Yes, solid gold and other heavy metals may be nice to own but not to wear anymore on earlobes that have worn thin. Today, you can buy many costume jewelry earrings that look like the real thing but are a third the weight and much less expensive. And if you lose one, you won't feel as bad.

Try earlobe patches--These self-adhesive patches go on the back of your ear. You pass the stud or loop through the patch and then put the backing on the earring. The patch supposedly secures the earring onto your lobe, preventing tearing and stretching. These may work for some people, but I found them to be ineffective unless I wore three or four patches at a time. So putting on earrings literally became a drag. These patches probably work best for new piercings, not older, stretched out ones. Nevertheless, they may work for you:
Lobe Wonder Support Patch

Get a new ear piercing above the old one--This is a good solution, but requires patience as the new piercing heals. If you have any systemic problems with healing, such as diabetes, always check with your doctor first. Make sure you go to a professional piercing salon instead of a jeweler. Don't make the same mistake I did: I went to a jeweler who wasn't so careful. He made a second piercing too close to the old one in one of my ears. When I started to wear regular earrings, the earring ripped down through from the new hole down to the old one and make one big hole. It hurt terribly when it happened and now I'm left with the same problem as before.

Use firm backings--Use solid backings on your earrings to keep them in place, such as the ones known as butterfly backings or the ones with a round disk in the back that pull the earring flat to the ear.

Change your hanging earrings into post earrings. I did this myself on a whim and I love it. It enables me to wear some pairs of earrings I had given up on. Take the earring you want to wear and pull or twist off the connecting part that hangs through your ear. You're now left with a small hole attached to the earring. (I found that this hole was big enough to pass a stud through.) Take your original pair of studs that your ears were pierced with. Get the earring in place, put the stud through the hole in the earring and then attach the backing. Voila! You now have a pair of hanging earrings that look like post earrings. They look great--even better than when they were dangling and they feel good, too. For me, my gold studs go well with any color earring. But you can buy different color post or stud earrings to match or complement your baubles.

Who says you can't teach an old lobe new tricks?

Ilene Springer is author of An American in Malta.com.