There are several different types of clip on earring fastening and whilst all bar mini clips can be adjusted using a clip on earrings adjustment key, there is also a very easy way to make Shepard’s hook style clip on earrings more comfortable to wear.

Just for those of you thinking what the Shepard’s hook are you on about, Shepard’s hook clips are the type of clip on fastener that curves round. Standard paddles are flat or ever so slightly curved. Shepard’s hooks however loop over on themselves which makes them easier to adjust.

So easy to adjust you might even feel the need to go to the bathroom immediately and splash cold water on your face for not having thought of it yourself earlier… Yes, really!

Here’s the trick – simply squeeze the clip at the top of the moveable paddle so it’s not so wide. That’ll immediately make it have less pressure on your poor little lobes. Take a look, this photo says a thousand words – you can click it to see it bigger:

Loosening a Shepard's hook clip on earring

Just one pinch to end all your clip on earrings pinching. Now that was that easy? Then it’s cold water time!

Incidentally it works in reverse – if a Shepard’s hook is too loose just lift that flap up slightly to make it tighter.

Have you found that your clip on earrings pinch your ear lobes? Sometimes they pinch straight away, others seem to take a while before really beginning to nip by the end of the night.Why are they always so tight?

There’s a good reason for clip on earrings being so tight. It’s because clip on earrings are designed to fit anyone. Some women have very thin ear lobes and some women have very fleshy ones. In order for the same finding to work on the woman with a very slender earlobe, the woman with a fuller lobe will  find it a pinch! So what’s to be done?

Good news. Almost all clip on earrings are made with the ability to loosen them built in. It’s simply because most of the press cover pierced earrings that fewer women today know how to adjust their earrings. So how do you do it?

Most clip on earringgs have a movable part to the clip and a fixed part that has the actual earring on. Here’s a picture just so that you know what I mean by the moveable part of the clip on fastening and aren’t glazing over in confusion!

A clip on earring showing the moveable fastening

If you examine the moveable fastening part you’ll see that as well as the hinge that holds it on to the earring, there is a central tongue that rests upon the hinge. It’s this central tongue that determines the amount of tension in the clip on fastening.

So?

Simple. To loosen off the amount of tension all you need to do is lift the tongue so that it isn’t making the clip clamp shut. Here’s the trick – you need to do this gently. Take your time. It’s best to use a comfort key to loosen clip on earrings than just trying to force a butter knife underneath. You may have to lift the tongue gently several times, tetsing after each, before you get it right, however if you just yank the tongue up, you’ll make it too loose. So be ladylike when doing this!