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Six ways a piece of jewellery stays in a nostril.
The piercing is healed. The plain gold or titanium thread you were pierced with has done its job and can come out.
Now comes the first real choice, and it is not the one most people expect.
Almost every guide to nose jewellery sorts it by appearance. Studs here, hoops there, stones in a third column.
That is the least useful way to sort it, because appearance is the part you can judge for yourself from a photograph. What you cannot judge from a photograph is how the piece stays in your nose — and that is what decides whether you can change it alone at eleven at night, whether it will still be there in the morning, and whether you will be visiting a jeweller every time you want a different one.
So this guide starts with the six fastenings in common use in India, then works outwards: what to wear for which occasion, what the metal should be once the piercing is healed, and what is actually being worn at the moment.
Face shape comes up too, and it gets a shorter answer here than you might expect. There is a reason for that, and it is explained where it appears.
This Is Part of the Totapari Nose Pin Knowledge Series
Wearing a nose pin well involves several separate questions — what the piercing means, how to get it done safely, how to heal it, what jewellery to put in it, and how it sits alongside everything else on your face. No single article can cover all of them properly, so each guide in this series takes one and goes into it in depth. This one deals with the kinds of nose jewellery there are, and when each is worn.
Published so far:
- Not From India? The Surprising Origin and Real Meaning of Your Nose Pin
- Nose Pins & Nose Piercing 101: Your Complete Guide to Getting Pierced in India
- The Safest Way to Get a Nose Piercing in India: Needle vs. Gun, Cost & Healing
- The Ultimate Nose Piercing Troubleshooting Guide
- Nose Pin Style Guide for India: Types, Occasions and Trends (You are here)
- How to Choose a Nose Pin for Your Nose Shape and Face Shape
Coming next:
- Nose Pin Size Guide: Gauge, Post Length and Hoop Diameter (to be published soon)
- How to Care for Your Nose Pin: Gold, Silver, Plating, Kundan, Enamel and Stones (to be published soon)
The Six Kinds of Nose Jewellery, and How Each One Stays In
Nose jewellery is usually sorted by how it looks. It is more useful to sort it by how it stays in, because that is what decides whether you can change it yourself, whether it will fall out, and whether you will need a jeweller every time.
There are six in common use in India.
The Nose Screw, or Corkscrew
A single piece with a pre-formed curl on the post. You twist it in, and the curl holds it against the inside of the nostril.
It is safe to estimate that eight or nine out of every ten Indian women who wear a nose stud daily are wearing this one. It is the everyday standard, and the reason is security: it is very unlikely to come out on its own.
The cost is that it takes practice. The first few times you put one in, it will feel like it is not going anywhere.
The Traditional Wire Stud, or Laung
A short post with a decorative end, the post not quite straight but carrying a slight twist. A jeweller works it into the piercing and then bends the end inside the nostril to fit that particular nose.
The name laung (लौंग) means clove, after the shape of the dried bud. The word is used more broadly than this one fastening — in much of India any nostril stud may be called a laung — but this twisted-and-bent form is the traditional piece it names.
Between the twist and the custom bend it is the most secure of the six. It is also the one you are least likely to be able to remove yourself, which is the same fact stated twice.
The L-Shape
A post with a simple ninety-degree bend. Modern, Western in origin, and the easiest of the lot to change yourself.
It is neither as popular nor as secure as the screw in India, and that is the trade you are making: convenience for hold. If you change your jewellery often, it is the sensible choice. If you put a piece in and forget about it, it is not.
The Labret, or Flat-Back Stud
Two pieces. A post with a flat disc on the end goes in from inside the nostril; the decorative top screws or pushes on from outside.
Professional piercing studios treat this as the standard for comfort and safety, because the flat disc sits against the inside of the nostril without a curl or a bent tail pressing into tissue. You will not find it at every family jeweller in India, but it is the most comfortable thing to sleep in.
The Hoop, or Nath
A ring through the nostril rather than a post in it. In daily wear it runs from a plain seamless ring to beaded hoops and clickers.
The large ornate bridal form is the nath (नथ), though the word covers more than a circle. The Maharashtrian nath is an elongated paisley curve rather than a ring at all, and the regional forms differ enough that they are worth a guide of their own — one is coming in this series.
A hoop is the one type whose size is not a free choice. The diameter has to clear the nostril and sit where the piercing actually is, so it is settled by anatomy first and taste second. Our size guide, to be published shortly, works through what that leaves you.
The Clip-On
No piercing at all. It holds by gentle pressure or by a magnet, and it exists for both the nostril and the septum.
It is the honest answer for anyone who wants to see the thing on her own face before deciding, and for occasions where a piercing is not going to happen in time.
Choose the fastening before the ornament. It decides whether the piece is yours to change or the jeweller’s.
Which Style Suits Your Face?
This is the most asked question in the whole subject, and it is the one this guide is least able to answer in a paragraph.
The short version is that the face is the second question, not the first. The jewellery sits on the nose. It is judged from much closer than the face is, and it has to work against the space around the piercing before it does anything for the face at all. Where the nose and the face point to different answers, the nose wins.
Nor is there a list of shapes to avoid. A round form on a round face repeats a curve; a pointed one interrupts it. Both are real choices, and neither is a mistake.
We have set that out properly, with the reasoning and the photographs, in how to choose a nose pin for your nose shape and face shape. That is the guide for this question, and it runs to some length because the question deserves it.
What to Wear, and When
A nose pin is one of the few pieces that can move between the office and a wedding without being taken off. What changes is scale, not category.
Daily Wear and the Office
Small, plain and quiet. A tiny gold ball, a bezel-set stone, a plain titanium stud, a thin seamless ring. The point of an everyday piece is that nobody at work forms an opinion about it.
Festivals and Parties
Room to be louder. A larger coloured stone, a cluster that catches light, a decorative hoop. Oxidised silver does something specific here that polished metal cannot — it reads as handmade rather than bought.
Weddings
If you are the bride, the ornate nath is the piece, and it is the one occasion on which the jewellery is meant to be seen before the face is. As a guest, a larger stone stud or a gem-set septum clicker holds its own without competing.
Occasion changes the scale of the piece, not the kind. The fastening you can wear every day is the fastening you wear to a wedding.
What Should It Be Made Of?
Once the piercing is fully healed, the metal question changes completely. During healing it is close to a medical decision. Afterwards it is largely an aesthetic one, within limits.
Gold at fourteen, eighteen or twenty-two carat. Sterling or oxidised silver, both safe in a healed piercing. Implant-grade titanium for anyone whose skin reacts to everything else.
The one thing worth knowing before you buy: higher-carat gold has the richer colour and is the softer metal, so a 22K piece worn daily on the nose picks up fine surface marks sooner than an 18K or 14K one. That is the trade, not a fault.
Which metal a fresh piercing can take is a different and much stricter question, and the 101 guide deals with it. What each metal needs once you own it is the subject of our care guide, to be published shortly.
What Is Being Worn Now
Three things are visible across India at the moment, and they are pulling in different directions, which is usually a sign that the category is healthy rather than confused.
Minimalism. Tiny studs and ultra-thin seamless hoops, worn to be noticed only up close. This is the strongest of the three and it has been strengthening for several years.
The septum, gone mainstream. Once read as alternative, now ordinary, and increasingly ornate — detailed clickers rather than plain rings.
Oxidised silver. Tribal and traditional forms, deliberately darkened. It is the direct opposite of the minimalist tendency and it is not weakening.
That last one carries a warning that belongs with it: an oxidised finish is deliberate and polish removes it. Our forthcoming care guide explains what to do instead.
Finding the One You Will Actually Wear
Everything above is a description of what exists, not a prescription.
If it helps to reduce it, the order is this. Decide the fastening, because that governs your whole relationship with the piece. Get the size right, because a piece that does not fit will never be worn whatever it looks like. Then choose the thing you actually like.
The last of those is the only one nobody else can do for you.
And if the piercing itself is giving trouble rather than the jewellery, the troubleshooting guide works through it.
Common Questions
Which type of nose pin is the most secure?
The traditional wire stud, or laung, because the post is twisted and then bent inside the nostril to fit one particular nose. The nose screw is a close second and far easier to live with. The L-shape is the least secure of the three, which is the same reason it is the easiest to change yourself.
Which nose pin can I change myself?
The L-shape and the labret, comfortably. The nose screw once you have had some practice. The traditional wire stud usually needs a jeweller, because the bend that holds it in was made for your nostril and undoing it is not something to attempt in a hurry.
What is a laung?
Laung means clove, after the shape of the dried bud. It names the traditional wire nose stud, a short post with a decorative end that is twisted in and then bent inside the nostril by a jeweller, though in much of India the word is used for any nostril stud.
What is the difference between a nath and a nose pin?
A nath is worn through the nostril and a nose pin sits on a post, and the nath is the older and more ceremonial of the two. Nath usually means a ring, but not always: the Maharashtrian nath is an elongated paisley curve rather than a circle.
Can I wear a hoop for everyday?
Yes, if the diameter is right. A hoop has to clear the nostril and sit where the piercing actually is, so its size is decided by anatomy before taste. A thin seamless ring in a small diameter is a perfectly ordinary daily piece.
Can I wear a nose pin without a piercing?
Yes. Clip-ons hold by gentle pressure or a magnet, and they are made for both the nostril and the septum. They are worth using to see a style on your own face before committing to a piercing.
Does my face shape decide which nose pin to wear?
It is a consideration, not a rule, and it comes second. The jewellery sits on the nose and is judged from much closer than the face is, so the space around the piercing settles the question first. Where the nose and the face suggest different answers, follow the nose.
Totapari Knowledge Series  · Nose Pins: six fastenings, one piercing. Browse the Totapari nose pin collection.
