Real stories · Earrings my ears forgave

Big earrings always cost me sore ears by nine — these weigh next to nothing

Statement earrings that my ears simply don't notice — that's the whole miracle here, and any woman with sensitive ears knows the price I used to pay. I'm 67, and proper earrings have always come with a bill: the dragging by dinner, the sore lobes by nine, the itchy week afterwards from whatever metal they snuck in. So the good earrings lived in the drawer, and my ears wore nothing.

What I wanted was the sparkle without the sentence.

Then I found the Netheria from a British label called York Boutique — a generous oval hoop with a woven mesh texture that sparkles from every angle. Mine are the silver; there's a gold as well.

The weave is the clever part. Because the mesh is airy rather than solid, the earring is feather-light for its size — which is why an entire evening passes without my ears filing a single complaint — and the skin-friendly finish is gentle on sensitive lobes, so the itchy week afterwards has been cancelled altogether. All the presence of a statement earring, none of the punishment.

A generous woven hoop that's airy instead of heavy, gentle on sensitive ears — which is why the sparkle now comes out on Tuesdays, not just birthdays.

They were £19.95, half the usual £40 — less than the antiseptic and resolve my old earrings used to cost me. A fortnight to send them back and free delivery, noted and forgotten.

They have since done three coffee mornings, one birthday dinner and a whole ordinary fortnight in between — worn from breakfast to bedtime without a twinge — and at the dinner my daughter clocked them across the table and narrowed her eyes: 'you never wear big earrings.' I do now. My ears signed off on it.

If big earrings also cost your ears too much, do have a look. The Netheria is rated 4.6 out of 5 by more than 190 women, it comes in silver or gold — and at half price, with the party season coming, the silver goes first.