The Importance of Aftercare and
How It Can Affect Your Treatment Results

When a patient comes to Blume Skin & Body with skin concerns, they are looking to us for solutions. Whether you are looking for general anti-aging treatments such as Ultherapy or to resolve specific issues such as acne scaring, it is very important to following our post procedure guidelines. As skin care professionals, we come up with appropriate treatment plan and budget that the patient is most comfortable with. With our advanced lasers and equipment, we use our expertise to give our patients the best outcome. One giant piece of the puzzle in reaching your desired result is patient compliance with aftercare instructions. We can’t stress how important it is to follow directions and protect your skin during the healing stages after a procedure. This will determine whether you see that “wow” result or an underwhelming or even worse, a negative outcome that needs to be corrected.
Not every skin treatment we do requires downtime. We provide amazing facial treatments that we recommend monthly (i.e., Hydrafacial, ZO 5 in 1 Superfacial, Oxygeneo, Dermasweep, Dermaplanning and more), that will leave you glowing and red carpet ready. The procedures that require some downtime are: chemical peels (fan favorite the VI Peel), Microneedling, Radio Frequency Microneedling, Photofacials, Resurfx etc. These treatments will have some downtime ranging from slight redness, increased sun sensitivity, peeling and some swelling can also be expected. Every Aesthetician/Laser Tech at some point has spoken the words “no pain, no gain” to describe how rewarding the results of these procedures provide.
When you book your appointment, it’s a good idea to look at your schedule the week following treatment. You can wear post procedure or mineral makeup the day after getting most of these treatments, so you can go back to work, run errands and enjoy family time. What you want to avoid is outdoor activities such as hiking, tennis, golf, swimming or anything with prolonged sun exposure and sweating. Depending on the procedure itself, working out is off limits until skin has had time to repair and recover. We will provide or suggest a mild post procedure skin care regimen, which means any products that contain AHA/BHA acids, topical prescription lotions like retinols, exfoliating scrubs, potent antioxidants and even fruit enzymes are not recommended until skin is healed. This can take anywhere from 3 days up to 2 weeks depending on what you had done.
Now let’s talk about the possible issues you can experience if you aren’t compliant with aftercare. For example, when you do a VI Peel we advise our patients not to exercise until you are almost done peeling. That can take about 5 days. If you can’t live without your daily dose of CrossFit and decide to go anyways, sweat can get trapped underneath the skin that hasn’t peeled yet. This can result in blisters (think sweat blisters) that can cause you to be more irritated, experience acne flare ups or a dull result. If you have an IPL Photofacial (this treats sun damage and skin vascularity’s) you can experience increased sun sensitivity. It is very important to avoid sun exposure before and after the treatment or you can increase your odds of getting Post Inflammatory Hyperpigmentation. The expected result after having a Photofacial is to remove your sun damage, but if you decide to play 18 holes of golf the day after you could be adding to your collection of brown spots… Yikes! Not our end goal!
With our busy schedules it can be difficult to be compliant through the downtime. However, why wouldn’t you follow instructions to insure the best outcome when you are investing time and money into your skin? That hot yoga class will be waiting for you next week, we love seeing our patients happy and confident! We will always provide the best treatment possible and will send you on your way with the right products, instructions and a simple prescription of sunscreen, Netflix and chill, and always remember “Some things are worth the wait”.

Caitlin Sixbey LE, LSO, I’ve been in the Medical Aesthetics industry for 14 years and there is truly no better feeling then seeing a client’s smile and self-esteem sky rocket from the results you helped them achieve.