Post-treatment calming protocol

30 minutes. Once immediately after the primary treatment, and once more at 48 to 72 hours if required.

For skin in the first days after a professional resurfacing or stimulation treatment, where the professional who performed that treatment has cleared a calming protocol.

The protocol is the treating professional's clinical decision. This page describes how the calming products are used after that treatment, within the recovery timeline the performing professional has set.

Who this is for

Skin in the first 72 hours after a professional resurfacing or stimulation treatment, cleared by the professional who performed it, presenting with warmth, tightness and even redness that is stable or settling.

The skin on the day decides whether this runs, not the booking. If the presentation does not match what the performing professional described as expected, the answer is that professional, not a product.

Who this is not for

• Any sign of infection. Spreading redness, yellow or honey-colored crusting, discharge, or pain and heat that increase after the first 24 hours rather than settling.
• Skin that is bleeding, weeping or blistered, or broken beyond what the performing professional described as expected.
• A client who has not been cleared by the professional who performed the primary treatment.
• A prescribed post-treatment topical already in use, unless the prescriber has agreed to this protocol. Do not layer over a prescription.
• Fever, chills, or a client who says they feel unwell.
• Known sensitivity to any ingredient used, checked against the INCI.

Before you begin

Get the expected recovery in the performing professional's own words: what redness, what duration, what flaking, what they told the client to avoid. Write it on the card. Everything in When to refer is judged against that description.

Set the tray before the client comes in. Gloves on before you touch the face. Decant each product into a single-use pot at the moment of use. Cryo Cooling Gel is used at refrigerator temperature, never frozen, and never with ice or a frozen pack against the skin.

No steam, no heat, no massage, no friction, no exfoliation, no extraction, no makeup, and nothing applied to the eyelids or into broken skin.

The protocol

The one thing that determines whether this protocol works: contact hygiene. After a resurfacing or stimulation treatment the barrier is temporarily open, and the protocol's job is to add nothing the skin has to defend against. Single-use gloves, gauze, spatulas and cloths. Every product decanted at the moment of use, the remainder discarded. Nothing double-dipped, nothing returned to a jar, no bowl or brush that has touched another client. The formulation matters far less here than whether anything unclean touched the face, and nobody sees the difference between a clinic that works this way and one that does not until something goes wrong.

Frequency and course

Once, immediately after the primary treatment, in the same appointment. Once more at 48 to 72 hours if the client is uncomfortable or the performing professional asks for it.

This is not a course and is not sold as one. It attaches to the schedule the performing professional set. Do not add sessions to fill a gap, and do not run it beforehand on the assumption that it prepares the skin.

Aftercare

For the first 24 hours, and then as directed by the professional who performed the primary treatment, whose instructions take precedence over anything here:

• Clean hands before touching the face. Clean pillowcase tonight.
• No heat. No sauna, no steam, no hot shower on the face, no exercise that raises facial temperature.
• No makeup, brushes or sponges. No acid, retinoid, scrub, cleansing device or self-tan.
• No picking, no pulling at flaking skin, no attempt to speed anything along.
• Sun avoidance, and daily broad-spectrum sun protection from any brand once the performing professional confirms it may be applied. Vegalab does not sell an SPF product, and sun protection goes on intact skin only.
• A written instruction sheet and a number to call. A client worried at 10pm with no number uses the internet instead.

What to expect, and when

Immediately after: the skin feels cooler and tight sensations ease. Redness looks more even. That is comfort, and comfort is the objective of the appointment.

Days 1 to 5: recovery follows the course described by the professional who performed the primary treatment. That description, not this page, is the reference. Visible dryness or flaking in that window is left alone.

Scope: this protocol addresses comfort and the look of the skin during recovery, on the timeline the preceding treatment sets. A recovery that departs from what was described is a conversation with the professional who performed the treatment, before any product decision.

Home maintenance

Minimal and short. Cleanse with cool to lukewarm water and the cleanser the performing professional approved. Barrier Repair Cream thinly, morning and evening, over intact skin. Vital Recovery Serum once daily if it was tolerated in the room. Sun protection once cleared.

Nothing else, and no new product until the performing professional says the skin is back to baseline. The commercial return here is the retail Barrier Repair Cream and the follow-up appointment, and both depend on the client getting through the week without an incident.

When to refer

This section matters more than any other on this page.

The client goes back to the professional who performed the treatment, the same day, if any of the following appear. That person knows what was performed and what is expected of it; you do not, and neither does the client.

• Pain, heat, redness or swelling that increases after the first 24 hours instead of settling.
• Redness spreading outward with a defined advancing edge, or streaking away from the treated area.
• Yellow or honey-colored crusting, pus, or any discharge.
• Blisters, or clusters of small fluid-filled spots, or tingling and burning that comes before them, particularly around the mouth.
• Skin that turns white, grey, dusky or mottled, or an area that loses sensation.
• Swelling that closes an eye or affects vision.
• Any area that looks or behaves differently from the rest of the treated skin.
• Anything the client describes as worse today than yesterday after day two.

Straight to a physician, the same day, without waiting, if the performing professional cannot be reached within a few hours and any of the above is present, or if there is fever, chills, or the client feels generally unwell.

Emergency care immediately for swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, difficulty breathing, or widespread hives.

Do not manage any of this with product, do not wait for the next appointment, and do not reassure a worried client on the phone in place of an examination. The most useful thing this protocol does is recognize the day it should stop.