Is My Ring Too Loose?

Is My Ring Too Loose?

Ring size is an important aspect of buying a ring. Why go around asking yourself, “Is my ring too loose?” when you can use an at-home ring sizing kit to determine an accurate size instead? Many people skip this part, figuring they can just resize the ring later if necessary.

Unfortunately, not all ring designs and styles lend themselves to resizing, at least not without a lot of effort and quite a bit of money. You could be looking at some serious cash to make the adjustments. This means if you don’t buy an accurate size to start with, you’re stuck with it unless you want to replace that ring completely. Obviously, if the ring holds sentimental value, like a wedding band, replacing it isn’t ideal.

Additionally, there are some styles that are more of a custom ring design, which means an accurate size is crucial. The goal is to make sure the ring is a good, comfortable fit right out of the gate, and avoid having to resize it at all.

Common Mistakes in Sizing a Ring

 Is it better to size up or down? There is no ring found anywhere that will fit perfectly, no matter how close you get to the right size.  The truth is that it might have been a perfect fit when you tried it on, but then as you wear it, fluctuations in the size of your finger through the day will impact how well it fits. Additionally, many shoppers make errors when they are trying to get sized and forget a few key things.

Forgetting Fingers Swell and Shrink

Your weight will change and fluctuate daily. A ring you tried on Friday may not fit nearly as well on Monday, after a weekend of over-indulgence and debauchery. Salt causes water retention, as does dehydration. Weather changes can also influence the size of your fingers. Hot weather tends to cause dilation of blood vessels, which will cause your hands (and fingers) to swell in size, whereas cold weather causes blood vessels to constrict, which means your hands shrink in size. So, a ring that fits great in the summer may be a little loose fitting come winter.

Forgetting Width and Design Matter

There are a lot of factors that contribute to a good fit with a ring, including how wide the band is and the style of the design. For instance, an eternity band is a design that doesn’t give you much leeway to resize, if there is any leeway at all. Additionally, wider bands take up more space on the finger, which means they will need to be larger than a slimmer band in order to fit well.

If you’re buying a ring for a lady, some women wear multiple rings on one finger. This automatically widens the area the ring covers, which means the ring must be larger in size, just as if it was a wide banded ring. Some people forget to take these things into consideration, and then they find the ring doesn’t fit as well as they’d hoped.

Forgetting Your Finger Shape Impacts Size

Everyone is different, made up of unique parts. Our hands and fingers are no exception and come in a range of sizes and shapes.

  • Some people have large hands with thick fingers.
  • Some people have small hands with narrow fingers.
  • Some people have fingers that are wider at the base and taper down toward the tip.
  • Some people have fingers that are slim, with large knuckles.

What this means is that the way your ring finger is shaped will be a factor in choosing the right sized ring. How should a ring fit, anyway? If your fingers are thick, you will need a larger size than someone with small, fine-boned hands. If your fingers are wider at the base, you’ll need a ring that fits the base snugly, without slipping down and sliding off the narrower part of your finger.

If you have fingers with large knuckles, it’s tempting to go for a size that’s larger and feels more comfortable slipping on. The perils lie in the fact that even though it may be comfortable sliding it over that knuckle, inevitably it will be too loose once it’s on.

Sometimes, if the knuckle is very wide, a looser fit is unavoidable. If so, you may need to consider sizing beads to help keep the ring snug, so that it doesn’t twist and spin around your finger. With that said, how does one know if a ring is too big?

Your Ring Spins

This is especially common (and frustrating) in rings for women, because they will often have a heavy rock on one side. However, it can be a problem for men too. If the ring is so loose that it spins on your finger, it’s too big and you need to go smaller or use sizing beads to adjust it.

Your Ring Falls Off

This can be a nightmare for rings that are expensive, such as a wedding or engagement ring. Rings like this are a lifetime investment and are often quite costly. To find that it falls off your finger is terrifying, because it could fall off anywhere, at any time. The even more frightening part is that it could happen without you even feeling it, which means you wouldn’t even know where to start looking in order to find it, once you realize it’s gone.

Your Ring Slides Over Your Knuckle Too Easily

If you’re one of those finger types that have large knuckles, you want to find a ring that you can squeeze on without too much effort, but still fits well once it’s in place. Key word being “squeeze.” If the ring merely slides over your knuckle with little resistance, it’s definitely going to be too big on the rest of your finger. This is a common issue with men especially, who tend to have larger knuckles than women and prize comfort more than anything.

Some men opt to go for a comfort-fit style versus a standard-fit style, for this very reason. A comfort-fit ring style is made so that the inside of the band has a slight dome. It’s especially helpful in people who have large knuckles, making it an easier ring fit to get on and off. It’s also very comfortable to wear, which makes it an attractive style feature for men in particular.

Your Ring Gets Caught on Things

Sometimes if a ring is too large and there’s too much space between your ring and your finger, it makes it easier to snag it on things. Over time, this can cause damage to the ring, warp the shape, and even cause injury in certain cases, especially if you do a lot of work with your hands. The ideal ring size will be snug so that there isn’t much space between the ring and your finger, but not so tight that your circulation is cut off.

Combating a Ring That’s Too Loose

If you find that, despite your best efforts to properly size your ring, it still fits a little too loosely for comfort, don’t despair. There are a few things you can do to try to remedy the problem, without requiring you to resize or replace the ring. You’ll have to experiment to see if any of them work for you.

Ring Reducer

Sometimes called a ring noodle, a ring snuggie, and even a ring slinky, a ring reducer is a simple, cheap, and often effective way to shrink the size of your ring so that it fits comfortably. A ring reducer is a tiny tube made from flexible plastic. It’s designed to be slipped on the bottom of your ring to help take up space and give your ring a closer fit.

The nice thing about ring reducers is that they’re very inexpensive and they don’t damage the ring. These are great for people who purchased a ring that’s too large, but they absolutely don’t want to trade it in or pay to have it resized. They are also great for people who may have lost a lot of weight and find their rings no longer fit like they once did.

Ring Guards

These are strips that are made of metal, shaped like a horseshoe, and bent around the ring’s shank to help make it fit nice and snug. It can spring open so that the ring slides past your knuckle, and spring closed so that the ring stays snug. They definitely help prevent your ring from spinning or falling off your finger.

The only downside is that sometimes you can get your skin pinched between the ring and the metal, and sometimes it can cause damage to your ring, like denting and scratching. Despite the downsides, ring guards have been used for years by jewelers and could be helpful if your ring is too loose.

Sizing Beads

Also sometimes called sizing balls, these are little beads that are placed on the inside shank of the ring to help grip your finger and keep the ring in place, without making it more difficult to slide the ring on in the first place. Sizing balls are great for people with large knuckles or people who suffer from arthritis, who can’t (or don’t want) to get a ring resized and need an alternative.

Fold-Over Device

This is basically a bar shaped like a U that’s soldered to your ring. It crosses along the bottom and has both a hinge and a latch. To put the ring on, you open the latch. Once the ring is in place, you close it and it stays shut, keeping the ring right where it belongs. This is an especially helpful solution for rings that are several sizes too big, but perhaps can’t be traditionally resized.

Adjustable Ring Shanks

Finally, if none of the other options seem attractive, you could look into getting an adjustable ring shank. However, this can be expensive, just as expensive as resizing, if not more. However, if your ring is loose due to naturally large knuckles or a health condition like arthritis, sometimes resizing is not the answer. An adjustable ring shank just might be. This is a solution that basically removes the bottom portion of your ring. It’s replaced with a hinged band that you can open and close, so that the ring can be easily slid over the knuckle, and then snapped into its proper place.

Traditional Resizing

In order to make a ring smaller via traditional resizing, your jeweler will have to cut out a small portion of the band and then solder the two ends back together, thus shrinking the size of the ring. However, keep in mind that this process can be costly, depending on the style and design of the ring. In some cases, it might be impossible.

If the ring is a candidate for resizing, it’s recommended you only resize it once. After the first time, the ring will get weaker and weaker with each new resize, compromising its integrity and increasing its chances of damage. So, if you do decide to resize your ring this way, make sure you get more than one expert opinion on the proper size and go from there. You don’t want to have to do it more than once.

The best thing you can do if you feel your ring is too big, or if it keeps slipping off and you’re worried you might lose it, is to just take it off. Put it in a ring box or jewelry pouch and take it to a professional. They can help you decide what your options are so that you can wear the ring safely, with no fear of losing it.

Do You Know Your Ring Size?

No more confusion, no more hassle. We want you to find a ring that looks great and fits even better. Discover your true ring size with our ring sizing kit today.


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