Hey hun, I know this was posted in the girls section, but I've dealt with a lot of piercings (I've had 12 of them done) on myself and others, so I thought I'd share some insight on a method that works for me and most of the people I've met.
Usually when I go into a piercing parlor to get a pokejob, I get told the same aftercare instructions, and they've always been a help to me: a piercing is almost like a deep sliver in your skin, your body is designed to naturally try to reject it somewhat, because that's its primary way of dealing with foreign objects in the skin. The secondary way the body deals with it, barring the first method, is to create a fistula to compensate for the foreign object- this is the kind of healing you're trying to encourage to get a piercing to heal.
Harsh disinfectants like alcohol often dry the hell out of your skin and make the pierced area even more angry and irritated! (Also, it hurts!) And use of topical antiseptics like neosporin are discouraged for piercings, because they encourage the body to 'push things out'(like the jewelry).
To gently stimulate and draw the crust/pus out of a piercing, it's good to use a sea salt soak. You take a cup of clean water, microwave it so it's warm, bordering on hot, but not hot enough to hurt or scald you, then put a small spoonful of non iodized sea salt into it, stir until it dissolves, to create a soothing saline solution that is no more salty than your own tears. This is to approximate your body's natural saltiness. You submerge the piercing site into the warm saltwater, and soak it for 10-15 minutes. This loosens and draws out goo, and the heated water stimulates bloodflow and is soothing. This is one of the gentlest methods to clean a wound. After soaking, take a qtip and swab the gunk away.
After that, rinse the piercing in normal running water, with no salt in it, like at the sink, and rotate the jewelry gently to get all of the saline solution washed away, so you don't end up with any itchy salt in your piercing when it dries. I don't see anything wrong with sterilizing the jewelry itself in alcohol, but putting it onto the wound itself tends to make it angry. Sea salt soaks are recommended twice a day for new piercings, healing piercings, or flare ups of already healed piercings, and in the meantime, just use some gentle antibacterial soap once a day in the shower, it's good not to overdo it.
If the piercing feels dry or you want to lubricate it, try gently massaging some jojoba oil onto it, I've found emu oil works like a charm, as well, some very plain lotion like cetaphil would probably work just fine, too! I know it must be hard to have so much conflicting advice from different people, I was really confused by the contradictions people threw at me when I tried to learn about tattoos! Everyone's different, of course, so this is just my two cents.
Best of luck to you!
