Huggie Hoops vs Sterling Silver Hoops: Which Is Better for Daily Wear

The drugstore hoops used to go in at seven in the morning and come out by suppertime, because by then my earlobes were red and itchy and I had stopped pretending otherwise. I gave up on earrings for close to two years after that. It was not a decision I sat down and made. It was just a slow quitting, the way a lot of things go when you are past sixty and tired of being uncomfortable.

Then the first week of February I bought a pair of Gabry&jwl huggie hoops, the 10mm size, 316L surgical stainless steel, hinged, and I have worn them nearly every day since with no complaint from my lobes. So when I stood at a department store counter a few weeks back looking at sterling silver hoops, I had a fair question in my head. Is real silver worth the extra fuss? The short answer is that it depends on which fuss you would rather live with. Silver asks to be looked after and gives you a precious metal in return. The Gabry&jwl pair asks for almost nothing and gives you a workhorse you put on and forget. One piercing in each ear, never more, so this is a decision I make once and live with.

	Gabry&jwl Huggie Hoops	Sterling Silver Hoops
Metal	316L surgical stainless steel, hinged closure	925 sterling silver, usually a post and back
Tarnish	Does not tarnish. The finish stays where it is	Darkens with air and humidity and needs a silver cloth
Daily care	Wipe with a dry cloth and put it away	Polish, store airtight, keep away from damp
Sizing choice	6mm, 8mm, 10mm, 12mm and 14mm	Usually one or two sizes at the counter
Comfort on the lobe	Hinged and flat against the ear, nothing behind it to catch	Depends on the back. A post and butterfly can poke at a collar
Repair and restyling	Cannot be resized or repaired. When it wears out you replace it	A jeweler can polish, re-shape and re-solder it
Value kept	None. It is a wear item and it is priced like one	It is a precious metal and keeps some value
Dressing up	Neat and plain, fine for church and fine for the grocery store	Reads finer with a dress and a strand of pearls
Sensitive ears	316L steel suits plenty of people who react to plated jewelry	Sterling suits many people too, but it is not a promise for everyone
Best for	One pair you wear and stop thinking about	A pair for occasions that you intend to keep for years

Where the Gabry&jwl Huggie Hoops Win

The first place they win is the one nobody talks about, which is the drawer. Everything I own lives in one lined tray in the top drawer of my dresser, each piece in its own little compartment, and the huggies go in there at night and come out in the morning with nothing in between. No cloth. No polish. No little packet of anything. My wedding band is real gold and it never comes off, so I have a fair idea what it means to look after a metal, and the steel simply does not ask. Silver left sitting in a bedroom drawer will darken. It is not a flaw in the silver. It is just what silver does, and you have to be willing to keep after it.

The second place they win is the choice of size. The Gabry&jwl pair comes in 6mm, 8mm, 10mm, 12mm and 14mm, and that sounds like a small thing until you have stood at a counter holding two hoops and being told that is what there is. I picked the 10mm because I wanted something I could see in the mirror without it hanging down toward my jaw, and I got exactly that. A friend at church wears a smaller pair and they look just as right on her. The point is that the size fits the ear rather than the ear fitting whatever the store ordered in.

The third is the way it sits. The hinged closure on mine opens, slips through the hole and clicks shut, and there is nothing at all behind my earlobe afterward, no back to press against my neck when I turn my head or talk on the phone. First thing in the morning, half awake, the little hinge is fiddly in my fingers and it takes me two tries more often than not. I will not pretend otherwise. But two tries in the morning beats a sore lobe by four in the afternoon.

Where Sterling Silver Hoops Win

Now the honest part. Sterling silver is a real metal and steel is not, and no amount of thrift changes that. I looked at a pair at a department store counter and I could feel the difference in the weight of them without even putting them on. Silver is something a jeweler will take in and polish for you, re-shape if a hoop gets bent, and re-solder if a joint gives out. My steel pair will never see a jeweler's bench. When it finally wears, I will put it in the bin and buy another, and that is the whole story of it. If you want a pair that could go to your daughter one day, silver is the one that can.

The second thing silver wins is dressiness, and I say that as somebody who does not go many places. Silver reads finer against a good dress. I swap to my pearl studs for church and for Thursday lunch with Donna, and a thin silver hoop would do the same job with a little more shine to it. That is worth something and I am not going to talk it down. What I would say is that it is worth something on the days you dress up, and it is worth nothing on a Tuesday when you are doing laundry. Both pairs have a job. They are just not the same job.

What 316L Surgical Stainless Steel Actually Is

316L is a grade of stainless steel, and the letters and the number are not marketing. It is the grade that shows up in surgical instruments and in body jewelry, because it holds up against moisture and it does not tarnish the way silver does. That is the whole of the claim I am making for it. I am not going to tell you it is magic. What I can tell you is what happened on my own ears, which is that a long run of cheap plated hoops left my lobes red and itchy and these have not, in nine months of daily wear.

I want to be careful here, because I am not a doctor and I never saw one about my ears. I do not know what it was in the drugstore pairs that bothered me and I am not going to guess at it. If you have a real reaction to a metal, that is a question for a dermatologist and not for a retired school office manager in Marietta. What I can say is plainer than that. Steel is a different material from a thin plating over brass, and for a lot of women my age the difference is enough. Plenty of people wear sterling silver with no trouble at all. It is not a contest.

What Sterling Silver Actually Is

Sterling is 92.5 percent silver, and the rest is usually copper, added because pure silver is too soft to hold a shape in an earring. That is why it is stamped 925. It is a genuinely good material for jewelry and it has been for a very long time. The catch is the copper. Copper is what turns and darkens when it meets air and damp, which is why your mother kept her silver in a chest with a tarnish strip in the lid, and why your grandmother's spoons needed a polish before the holidays.

None of that makes silver a bad buy. It makes it a different buy. You are paying for a precious metal and you are taking on a small chore in exchange, and if you wear the hoops twice a week and put them away dry with the little cloth, the chore is maybe a minute a month. Where it goes wrong is when silver gets bought as an everyday pair and treated like an everyday pair, meaning it gets left in the bathroom and forgotten for a month. Then it comes out dark and the owner decides silver is no good, when really it was just left wet.

Silver asks to be looked after and gives you a precious metal in return. The steel pair asks for almost nothing and gives you a workhorse.

Nine Months on My Ears

I have had the Gabry&jwl pair since the first week of February, so nine months now, and I can tell you where they stand. The finish has not rubbed off anywhere I can see, the hinge still clicks the way it did on day one, and the hoops have kept their round. They get worn for church on Sunday, lunch with Donna on Thursday, grocery runs, the church office on Wednesday mornings, and every ordinary day in between. They come off at bedtime and before a shower or a bath or anything to do with cleaning sprays, which is a habit I keep for all five pieces I own, not because the steel demands it but because a tray is easier to use than a rulebook.

What I cannot tell you is how they will look in five years, because I have not had them five years. I expect the finish to soften eventually, the way a plated piece does, and I expect to replace them. What I can tell you is that nothing has gone wrong so far. No lost back, because there is no back to lose. No bent hoop, no chipped finish, no itch. For the money I paid, which was in the neighborhood of a nice lunch out, that is a fair trade and I would make it again.

The Care Question, Which Is Really the Whole Question

If you boil this whole comparison down, it comes to one thing. How much looking after do you want to do? My routine is the same for everything I own. Jewelry goes on last, after the lotion and the hairspray and the perfume. Everything comes off at bedtime and before water. A soft dry cloth after wearing. No dips, no polish, no ultrasonic machine, no toothpaste, and my pearls get a cloth barely damp with plain water and then air dry. The steel hoops fit into that routine without adding a single step. Silver would add one, and it is a small one, but it is a step that has to happen on a Tuesday when you would rather not.

So my advice is not that one metal is better than the other in the abstract. It is that you should be honest with yourself about the kind of woman you are. If you are the sort who keeps a silver cloth in the drawer and enjoys the little ritual, buy the silver and enjoy it. If you are the sort, like me, who wants to put the earrings on at seven and not think about them again until bedtime, buy the steel and stop shopping.

Who Should Buy Which

Buy the Gabry&jwl huggie hoops if you want one pair for every day and you do not want to own a polishing cloth. They suit a woman whose lobes have complained about cheap jewelry before, who takes her earrings off every night, and who would rather have a pair that looks neat at the church office on Wednesday and at lunch on Thursday than a pair that shines at one dinner a year. Pick your size honestly and go up a millimeter rather than down if you are between. The hinge is fiddly and I will keep saying so.

Buy the sterling silver hoops if you want something you can hand down, if you dress up more than I do, and if a minute of polishing now and then does not bother you. They are the better pair for a daughter or a granddaughter one day, they are the better pair with a good dress, and a jeweler can put them right if they get bent. Just do not buy them as your knockabout everyday pair and then leave them damp in a bathroom, because that is how silver gets a reputation it does not deserve. Shop the ones you can inspect in person, or from a listing that states 925 plainly.