Captive Segment Earrings

I am sensitive to jewelry that is made with cheap metal so I had been using a set of stainless steel captive earrings from Hot Topic. They were ok but I have never really like the look of the ball used to close the earring. I also had lost several of the balls and ended up just wearing the open hoop which would get caught on stuff and cause my ear to get irritated.


I figured there had to be some kind of earring that was a continuous loop so I searched eBay and found the captive segment earrings. The only downside to these earrings is that the smallest gauge they come in is 16 so if you have regular size earrings, normally 20g, then you will have to stretch the holes slightly. Since I had been using 18g captive hoops for a while it was a big deal to get to the 16g. I grabbed some picture hanging nails, put some anti-bacterial soap on them and they slid right in. After clipping the points off and wearing the nails for a few days, I was ready for the segment earrings. I don't know if they are a new item but I would think so because I called several local piercing shops to see if I could buy the earrings locally and they had no idea what I was talking about.

They only sizes I could find were 5/16" and 7/16". I first bought the 5/16" and they were just barely too small and would have squished my earlobes a little. I ordered a set of black 7/16"s and they are cool. They are a little bigger in diameter than I would prefer but at least I am close to what I want - a continuous loop earring that won't get caught on stuff.