Aftercare
Everything below is also given to you in writing on the day, and there is a phone number on that sheet that reaches a practitioner rather than reception. This page exists so you can read it before you book, and so you can find it again at ten at night.
The first twenty four hours, after almost anything
- No make up on a treated area, no matter how good it looks when you leave.
- No gym, no sauna, no steam and no hot yoga. Heat and blood flow are the two things that turn a small reaction into a large one.
- No alcohol on the day of any injectable, which increases bruising.
- Nothing active on the skin: no acids, no retinoid, no scrub, no exfoliating device.
- Broad spectrum sun protection from the following morning, every day, on anything that has been treated on the face.
Ring us, do not wait
Increasing pain rather than decreasing. Blanching or a dusky, mottled patch of skin after a filler. Any change in vision. Fever. Spreading redness with heat. A blister where you were not told to expect one.
None of those are common. All of them are things where the difference between calling at once and waiting until morning genuinely matters, and nobody here will think you are making a fuss.
020 7946 0184 in hours. The number on your aftercare sheet is answered outside them.
By type of treatment
Injectables
Stay upright for four hours and do not lie flat or have a facial or massage for 24. Do not rub or press the area, including with a phone held against the cheek. Expect small raised marks for up to an hour and, with filler, swelling that peaks at 48 hours and settles over two weeks.
Bruising is normal and lasts up to ten days. Arnica does not do much but it does not hurt. Do not book anything you want to look right for inside two weeks of a first appointment.
Your two week review is included. Come to it even if you are happy, because that is the appointment where small asymmetries get corrected.
Energy devices: ultrasound, radiofrequency and radiofrequency microneedling
Expect redness like mild sunburn for a few hours and up to two days, and a tight, tender feeling for longer. With microneedling tips there will be a fine grid pattern visible for 24 to 48 hours. Cool it, do not ice it hard, and leave it alone.
Sleep on your back for the first night if the lower face was treated. No active skincare for five days. Nothing hot for 48 hours, and that includes a hot shower on the face.
The result is not the thing you see at week one. Collagen work runs for three to six months, which is why the review is booked at twelve weeks rather than sooner.
Peels and resurfacing
Do not pick, and do not help the peeling along. The skin comes away when it is ready and pulling it early is the single commonest cause of a mark that then takes months to fade.
Bland moisturiser and high factor sun protection only, for at least a week. No retinoid for two weeks either side. No swimming pool for a week after a medium depth peel.
If you are prone to cold sores, tell us before rather than after. Resurfacing reliably triggers them and there is prophylaxis that works, but it has to be started before the appointment.
Laser hair removal
Redness and small raised bumps around each follicle for a few hours, occasionally a day. No sun and no self tan for two weeks either side, and no hot bath, sauna or gym for 48 hours.
Shave between sessions. Do not wax, pluck or thread, because the laser needs the follicle to still contain a hair. Hairs will appear to grow for one to three weeks afterwards and then fall out, which is the treatment working rather than failing.
Body contouring
After cooling: the area is numb, firm and often oddly shaped for a few hours, then tender for one to two weeks. Massage it as shown for five minutes twice a day for the first fortnight, which measurably improves the result.
After fat dissolving injections: real swelling for three to five days, sometimes more under the chin, plus tenderness for two weeks. Do not book it inside a month of anything photographed. Compression where we have given it to you, worn as instructed.
Hair treatments
Do not wash the scalp for 24 hours and do not use anything medicated on it for 48. No swimming or sauna for two days. Tenderness overnight is normal and paracetamol is fine.
Do not judge anything before the six month photograph. Hair grows slowly enough that self assessment over weeks is worthless in both directions.
Where to start
Not sure whether what you are seeing is normal?
Ring rather than searching for it. Reception will put you through to whoever treated you, and if that person is with somebody, they will call you back the same day.