Aftercare is not a formality

The part of a treatment you control is the part after you leave. We are reasonably good at the twenty minutes in the chair; the following two weeks are yours, and they change the outcome more than most people expect.

Here is what actually matters, by treatment type, and why.

After a neuromodulator. Stay upright for four hours. Do not rub, massage or press the treated area for the rest of the day — that includes a facial, a hat brim pulled low, and sleeping face-down that night. The reasoning is diffusion: for the first few hours the product can move a short distance through tissue, and where it moves is the difference between a smooth forehead and a heavy brow. Skip the gym, hot yoga, saunas and alcohol for twenty-four hours, because heat and elevated blood flow do the same thing. Ordinary facial expression is fine. Do not judge the result before day fourteen; we will see you then.

After filler. Expect swelling that peaks at about forty-eight hours and bruising that can take ten days to resolve. Sleep with your head elevated for two nights. Cold compresses help in the first day. Avoid strenuous exercise, alcohol, saunas and dental work for a week, and flights for a few days if you can. Arnica and bromelain may or may not help; they do no harm. What matters far more is what to watch for: pain that escalates rather than settles, blanching or dusky discolouration of the skin, or any change in vision. Those are rare, they are urgent, and the after-hours number on your aftercare sheet exists for exactly that reason. Call it. We would far rather see you at eleven at night for something that turns out to be a bruise.

After laser. The treated area behaves like mild sunburn: warm, pink, slightly swollen around the follicles. Cool compresses and a bland moisturiser are all it needs. No hot showers, saunas, swimming pools or intense exercise for forty-eight hours. No picking — after pigment treatment the spots will darken, crust and flake off over one to two weeks, and picking them is how a treatment that would have been invisible becomes a mark. Broad-spectrum SPF 50 on any exposed treated area every day for at least four weeks. If we treated pigmentation, sun exposure in the following month can undo the entire session.

After microneedling or resurfacing. The barrier is temporarily open, so simplicity is the rule: a gentle cleanser and a bland moisturiser only, for five to seven days. No retinoids, no acids, no vitamin C, no exfoliants. No makeup for twenty-four hours. No gym, sauna or swimming for forty-eight hours. Do not pick flaking skin. Sun protection is not negotiable, because freshly treated skin takes on pigment readily.

Two things apply to everything. Follow the pre-care as carefully as the aftercare — stopping fish oil, high-dose vitamin E and non-essential blood thinners a week ahead, with your prescriber's agreement, prevents most of the bruising people later ask us about. And book the review. The two-week appointment is not a courtesy call; it is where a small adjustment costs nothing, and where being ignored costs a season.

Finally, tell us early when something is not right. Nobody has ever annoyed us by sending a photograph of their own face on day three. The messages that create problems are the ones that begin with this has been like this for a month and I did not want to bother you.

Your aftercare sheet goes home with you, and it is also in your client portal alongside the number to call.