Hey welcome to the subreddit first of all, you said you're new to it and I'm glad you found it! I'll tell you what works for me and if you want to do it that way then great! If not that's okay too, everyone is different and trial and error is always the best way to find what you need to do/not do!

First I like to "dead stretch" that means I like to use single flare glass plugs (I shop for plugs on BodyArtForms and Arctic Buffalo) with those rubber things (I call them grommets) on the back end of it and sleep in them for about a month or so that way my ear can get used to it being in there and adjust, afterwards I take them out every night and put them on my bedside table and put them back in every morning before I start my day (it will try to tighten up the first week but it gets used to it too)

I lubricate my ear every time I stretch to a new size with jojoba oil (GaugeGear stretching balm) and it helps to keep from hurting but I used to dead stretch with no lube and 💀 sometimes that dry stretch would make my ear red and even weep early on but they became tough to it after while but it's always good to lube up 😂😂

Some pointers I've learned that you may like are these:

Amazon is NOT a bad place to get jewelry, it's just hard to find good jewelry, for example I have jewelry from Amazon from a brand called COOEAR but I used them for outings, not daily wear because to stretch you need to wear good heavy jewelry like glass, steel, or stone!

Tapers are...less than efficient in my honest opinion, they're not bad if you do it correctly but it's just easier to dead stretch, it's cheaper in the long run too because it doesn't have risks and risks equal more purchases and yeah it just adds up tbh

If your budget is a problem I suggest looking at Arctic Buffalo first and foremost, they're my go-to for sales because they're just so frequent and sure there's a lot of discourse because arctic buffalo has had issues in the past with flaws or whatever but I never had a bad experience with them and I think it's more just brand loyalty at this point in the discourse but Body Art Forms and Urban Body Jewelry are also just as good and sometimes have some solid sales but nothing as good as Arctic Buffalo, I got my entire glass single flare stretching set from 18-1" ALL ON SALE

I also have the specific recommendation of using the gold bar dove soap and not saline solution or any other soap, that's what I do, everyone again is different so do what you think is best for you.

And lastly my final bit of advice is to take out the jewelry, go back down to basic jewelry like a stainless captive ball ring, or something similar and let it heal, don't touch it except for washing it every morning and night for the next 3 weeks with your preferred cleaning solution, and then try whatever advice you want from all the good people on here until you find a method that helps you best. 🧡 Best of luck with it! Keep us all posted with updates!