Downtime Diaries: What Really Happens in the First 14 Days After Popular Treatments

By Alice Henshaw, RN, NMP, founder and clinical director of Harley Street Injectables. Last reviewed June 2026.

This article is intended for general education and reflects my clinical experience and current evidence. It is not a substitute for a personal medical consultation. Every treatment carries risks, healing varies from person to person, and the right plan can only be decided after an in-person assessment. If you are worried about anything after a treatment, contact your treating clinic directly.

Key Takeaways

• "Downtime" is not one thing. There is social downtime, the days you would rather not be photographed, and there is medical healing, what is actually happening under the skin. The two rarely line up.
• Most reputable clinics undersell recovery. I would rather over-prepare you, because a calm, informed patient heals better and panics far less.
• Laser and light treatments like AviClear, MOXI and BBL Hero usually mean redness and a few days of rough, "bronzed" or flaky skin, not open wounds.
• Deeper resurfacing such as NeoGen Plasma trades a longer, more honest week of recovery for stronger results.
• Filler swelling peaks in the first 24 to 48 hours, and bruising typically fades inside a week. The single most important thing in this whole article is how to recognise a vascular occlusion.
• Collagen stimulators like Sculptra and radiofrequency devices like Thermage FLX show almost nothing at first. The result is built quietly over two to six months.
• There is a short, non-negotiable list of red flags that mean you call the clinic the same day. It is at the end of this article. Please read it.

Why I am being this honest about recovery

It happens most weeks. A patient comes in, has their treatment, leaves perfectly happy. Then, around nine that evening, my phone lights up. The cheek is puffier than they bargained for. Or a small bruise has bloomed where the needle went in. Or the skin has turned an odd bronze and gone faintly rough, like fine sandpaper, and now they are lying in bed wondering what on earth they have done to their face. None of that, in almost every case, is a problem. But all of it is far less frightening when someone has told you in advance that it might happen. So treat this as me telling you in advance.

My industry has a bad habit. It sells "no downtime" as though it were a feature, and I do understand the pull of that, because downtime is inconvenient and inconvenience does not fill a diary. I take the opposite line. Honesty is the kinder option, every time. Once you know what ordinary healing actually looks like, two useful things happen at once: you stop panicking over changes that were always going to occur, and you get much sharper at noticing the rare moment when something genuinely is wrong. That second skill is worth more than almost anything else I can teach you in an article.

So here is my diary of the first fortnight. I have not arranged it by brand name on purpose. I have arranged it by what each treatment actually does to your skin, because the mechanism dictates the recovery, without exception. A laser that strips the surface heals nothing like one that leaves the surface intact. A filler that adds volume on the day behaves nothing like a biostimulator that appears to do nothing for weeks while your own body gets to work. Understand the mechanism and most of what follows explains itself.

A quick word on what "downtime" really means

When a patient asks how much downtime a treatment has, they think they are asking one question. They are really asking three.

One is cosmetic: when will I look normal in daylight, or get through a photo with flash. One is practical: when can I exercise again, fly, put makeup back on, face the office. And one is medical, though hardly anyone says it out loud: when has the skin truly healed underneath, whatever it happens to look like on top. With energy-based devices those three clocks run at wildly different speeds. Your face can look completely recovered while collagen carries on remodelling underneath for months. Fillers run the opposite way. You can look swollen for a few days while, structurally, the tissue below is in perfect order.

Hold onto that distinction as you read on. Nearly every "is this normal?" message I answer comes back to it in the end.

Laser and light treatments: days 0 to 14

AviClear (the 1726 nm acne laser): gentle on the surface, busy underneath

Patients are often surprised that an acne laser treatment like AviClear leaves so little to show for itself. The mechanism is rather clever. AviClear runs at 1726 nm, and it works through selective photothermolysisSelective photothermolysisUsing a specific wavelength of light to heat and damage one target structure in the skin while sparing everything around it. of the sebaceous glandsSebaceous glandThe small oil-producing gland attached to each hair follicle. Overactive sebaceous glands are central to acne.. In plain English, the wavelength is tuned to heat the oil glands sitting deep in the skin while the surface, your epidermis, is left more or less alone. The histology bears that out: the gland is damaged, the skin above it is preserved.

What that means for your week is this. Straight afterwards your skin will usually be a touch pink or warm, much like mild sunburn, and it settles within hours, a day at most. Makeup the next morning, and nobody is any the wiser. The caveat, which I always give because it surprises people, is that AviClear can trigger a temporary acne flare in those first few weeks while the glands settle down. Common. Not the treatment failing. And the clinical data are clear that the real improvement arrives gradually over the months that follow, not on the drive home. In the pivotal studies, the share of patients whose inflammatory spots had at least halved climbed steadily across the first six months rather than appearing all at once. So the "downtime" with AviClear is not your skin peeling. It is your patience. If acne is your main concern, my definitive guide to AviClear works through the evidence properly. One thing it will not do is erase the scars old acne leaves behind. That is a different project altogether, usually built around resurfacing and SkinPen microneedling, which I get into in my piece on clear skin strategies for acne scarring. Worth flagging, since microneedling brings a few days of its own redness and flaking.

MOXI and BBL Hero: the bronzing and the "coffee-ground" days

MOXI is a 1927 nm non-ablative fractional laserNon-ablative fractional laserA laser that heats microscopic columns of skin without removing the surface layer, leaving healthy untreated skin in between to speed healing., and that word "non-ablative" is the whole story of your recovery. An ablative laserAblative laserA laser that vaporises and removes the surface layers of skin. More dramatic results, but a longer, more intensive recovery. takes the surface off. MOXI does not. It heats tiny columns within the skin and leaves the surface in place, so it mends faster and behaves more predictably. BBL Hero is a broadband light device, a form of intense pulsed light, and we often run it alongside MOXI in our MOXI and BBL combination: BBL handling pigment and redness up top while MOXI works on texture below. If the question underneath your question is really which device suits your pigmentation, my pigmentation playbook lines them up side by side.

Here is how the fortnight actually goes. Day zero, you are pink, warm and tight, a bit like wind-burn after a cold walk. Then, across days one to three, the treated skin produces what we call the MENDMEND (microscopic epidermal necrotic debris)The microscopic flecks of treated tissue your skin pushes up to the surface and sheds after a fractional laser. Looks like fine bronzing or "coffee grounds". response: microscopic flecks of treated tissue that the skin pushes up and exfoliates away. To you it reads as a faint bronze or tea-stained tint, with the texture of very fine sandpaper. A lot of people describe little dark specks, like coffee grounds. This is not damage. It is precisely what is meant to happen, and the published recovery data describe those flecks forming within a day and shedding across roughly the following week. By days four to six the bronzing flakes off, usually via a short and frankly unglamorous "grubby" phase, and brighter skin appears underneath. If BBL went in too, individual sun spots may darken first, like tiny freckled scabs, before they lift away. That is the pigment being shown the door.

A little redness, or erythemaErythemaRedness of the skin from increased blood flow, a normal part of healing after most energy-based treatments., plus the odd dry patch, can hang about until roughly day seven, sometimes a shade longer, and the reviews of these 1927 nm devices describe exactly that: transient redness, swelling and scaling that mostly clears within the week. One rule above all others during this window. Do not pick. Let the flakes come away on their own, keep the skin moisturised and protected, and resist every urge to exfoliate them off early.

• Day 0: Pink, warm, tight. Makeup off, gentle cleanser only.
• Days 1 to 3: Bronzed, sandpaper texture, possible "coffee-ground" flecks.
• Days 4 to 6: Flaking and a short grubby phase, then a brighter surface emerges.
• Days 7 to 14: Residual mild redness or dryness fades; results continue to build over weeks.

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NeoGen Plasma and deeper resurfacing: the honest week

If MOXI sits at the gentle end of resurfacing, NeoGen Plasma sits firmly at the committed end, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. NeoGen uses nitrogen plasma energy to heat the full thickness of the skin and provoke a strong regenerative response. The clever bit, the thing that makes it more comfortable than an ablative laser of similar power, is that the treated surface is not removed on the day. Your old epidermis stays put for the first day or two, acting as a natural biological dressing while fresh skin forms beneath it. Then it sloughs.

Which is why this diary reads differently from the others. After a proper NeoGen treatment you will be swollen and pink on day zero, and the ice you were told to apply genuinely earns its keep. Over the next several days the skin turns bronzed, tight and faintly leathery as the old surface readies itself to shed. The classic study of low-energy nitrogen plasma found full re-epithelialisationRe-epithelialisationThe reforming of a fresh, intact surface layer of skin after resurfacing., a brand new surface, in about four days at gentle settings, with redness lingering around six days on average. Push the energy higher and that can stretch to seven or ten days, which is simply the price of deeper correction. Put bluntly: a light NeoGen is a long weekend, a strong one is a proper week where you keep your head down.

The same logic carries over to ablative CO2 laser resurfacing, where redness, swelling and crusting usually take three to seven days to settle, depending how hard you push it. My rule for all of this deeper work is the same and it is simple. Book it with a clear week in the diary and no important photographs in that window. Then take comfort in the fact that you only need to do it now and again.

The "social downtime" reality check

Every so often a patient asks me to squeeze a strong resurfacing treatment into a two-day gap before a wedding. I say no, and I promise I am doing them a kindness. Rushing the timing does nothing to speed up healing. It simply guarantees you spend the big day mid-shed, bronzed and flaky, troweling on makeup that your new skin actively dislikes. Far better to pick a gentler treatment that fits the gap honestly, or move the bigger one to a quiet month with nothing in the diary. Sensible scheduling is part of the treatment, not an afterthought to it.

Filler treatments: bruising, swelling and the stages that worry people

Fillers are where most of the day-one worry lives, and nearly always for nothing. The two ordinary, expected events are swelling and bruising. Both tend to follow a fairly dependable pattern, so let me walk you through it.

Swelling is just your tissue responding to the injection, and to the hyaluronic acid itself, which pulls in a little water. As a rule it peaks somewhere in the first 24 to 48 hours, then eases off steadily over the days that follow. Lips are the drama queens of the face. It is entirely normal for them to look noticeably bigger, and a bit lopsided, for the first couple of days, which is exactly why I beg patients not to judge lip filler until a full two weeks have gone by. Cheeks, chin and jawline tend to swell far more discreetly. Bruising is a separate matter: it happens when the needle nicks a small vessel, which no injector alive can promise to avoid, and a typical bruise fades over five to seven days. A deep one might sulk for a fortnight.

You can tilt the odds in your favour, though. In the days beforehand, where it is medically safe for you to do so, easing off alcohol and non-essential blood-thinning supplements, the high-dose fish oil and vitamin E sort, cuts down on bruising. Afterwards, a cold compress on day one, a slightly raised pillow at night, and a break from the gym, saunas and alcohol for a day or two all help the swelling on its way. Arnica seems to help some people with bruising. None of it is essential. It just smooths the week.

Tear troughs and the under-eye exception

The tear trough deserves its own conversation, and I have written one, on when filler is and is not the right answer under the eyes. The skin there is thin and the area clings to fluid, so swelling can take longer to settle than elsewhere, occasionally a couple of weeks. A bluish tinge, the Tyndall effectTyndall effectA bluish-grey colour that appears when light scatters off hyaluronic acid filler placed too superficially, most often under the eyes., can show up if product sits too superficially. If it does, it can be corrected. But this is exactly why I am so fussy about who I treat in this zone, and at what depth.

Non-surgical rhinoplasty: small treatment, serious respect

I treat the nose with more caution than almost anywhere else on the face, and I want you to understand why before you book it, anywhere, with anyone. A non-surgical rhinoplasty can do lovely things: smooth a bump, lift a tip, rebalance a profile, and I lay out the honest pros and cons in my guide to reshaping a nose without surgery. But the nose sits in a high-risk zone for the most serious filler complication there is, a vascular occlusionVascular occlusionWhen filler blocks or compresses a blood vessel, cutting off blood supply to an area of skin. A medical emergency that must be treated urgently., where filler interrupts the blood supply. The everyday swelling afterwards is minor, almost dull. What earns my respect is the rare but real emergency, which I set out in full in the red flags section below. Here, an experienced medical injector is not a luxury. It is the safety measure.

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Sculptra and collagen stimulators: when nothing happening is the point

This is the category that baffles people the most, because the downtime story runs almost backwards compared with everything above. Sculptra is a biostimulatorBiostimulator (collagen stimulator)An injectable that does not add lasting volume itself. Instead it prompts your own body to make new collagen over time. made from poly-L-lactic acidPoly-L-lactic acid (PLLA)The active ingredient in Sculptra. It dissolves gradually while stimulating the skin to build its own collagen., and it does not add volume the way an ordinary filler does. Instead it nudges your own skin into building fresh collagen over the months ahead, a process called neocollagenesisNeocollagenesisThe formation of new collagen by the skin's own fibroblast cells, the basis of how biostimulators and radiofrequency devices work.. The result is real. It just refuses to be hurried.

So the first fortnight is, by design, an anticlimax. On the day, the product arrives suspended in fluid, so you may look subtly fuller, but that is only water and it disperses within a few days. After which, to the despair of the impatient, you look much as you did before. This is normal. This is expected. The collagen, and the real result, is being laid down quietly underneath, with studies showing measurable new collagen forming in the weeks after treatment and visible change typically not turning up before the two-month mark. I say the same sentence to every Sculptra patient: this treatment rewards patience, and if what you want is an instant change in the mirror, it is not the treatment for you.

The genuine downtime is slight: a bit of bruising at the injection points, the odd patch of tenderness, with bruising running at roughly six to eight in every hundred treatments in the larger reviews. The one non-negotiable I set for Sculptra patients is the massage. Do it exactly as instructed, because diligent massage in those early days lowers the small chance of feeling tiny lumps, or nodules, settling under the skin later on. And if you want to know how Sculptra slots in alongside filler and toxin across a whole year, I have mapped out the realistic schedules for each treatment type.

Thermage FLX and radiofrequency: the quiet, patient tightening

Thermage FLX is a monopolar radiofrequency device, and it is the clearest example I can give you of a treatment where the downtime and the result are completely out of step. The radiofrequency heats the deep dermis, which does two things: it contracts existing collagen straight away and, more importantly, it switches on that same neocollagenesisNeocollagenesisThe formation of new collagen by the skin's own fibroblast cells, the basis of how biostimulators and radiofrequency devices work. process I described with Sculptra, all while a cooling system guards the surface so the epidermis is spared.

Because the surface is protected, the visible downtime is reassuringly slight. Most people walk out with nothing worse than mild, short-lived redness and maybe a little swelling, and step straight back into their day. That is the easy part. The hard part is the patience, which is identical to Sculptra. You catch a hint of tightening early on, but the meaningful result builds as new collagen forms and reorganises over the season. Biopsy studies of facial radiofrequency, taken at two and six months after a single treatment, confirm that the collagen change is a slow build rather than an overnight event. Which is exactly why I ask patients to judge Thermage at three to six months, not three to six days. If you want firmer skin with no social downtime and a result that arrives quietly over a season, this is your treatment. If you want a dramatic change staring back at you in the car mirror, you will be disappointed, and I would rather say so now than let you find out the hard way.

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When to call the clinic: the red flags that matter

Almost everything in this article describes normal healing. This section is the exception, and it is the most important thing I will write here. So please read it. If you take only one part of this whole article with you, make it this one.

Call the same day, urgently, after any filler

A vascular occlusion, where filler blocks the blood supply to a patch of skin, is rare, but it is a genuine emergency, and its early signs are not the same as an ordinary bruise. Watch for these: skin that turns and stays white or pale (blanching) rather than going bruise-coloured; pain that is severe, increasing or out of all proportion to what you would expect, the kind that worsens over hours instead of easing; a dusky, mottled or lace-like purple discolouration creeping in over the next day or two; or, when you press the skin, a capillary refillCapillary refillHow quickly colour returns to skin after you press it. Slow refill can be a warning sign of compromised blood supply. that is slow to come back. It clusters in the high-risk areas: the nose, the glabella between the brows, around the eyes. If you spot these signs after filler, ring your treating clinic at once, because the antidote, an enzyme called hyaluronidaseHyaluronidaseAn enzyme that rapidly dissolves hyaluronic acid filler. It is the emergency treatment for a vascular occlusion and for over-correction., works best the sooner it goes in.

Any sudden change in vision, or vision loss, after a filler treatment is a medical emergency. Seek emergency care immediately.

Beyond that one emergency, here are the other reasons to pick up the phone rather than sit at home worrying. Call your clinic if you develop spreading redness, heat, mounting tenderness or a fever in the days after any treatment, since that can point to infection. Call if swelling is severe, fast-worsening, or starts to affect your breathing or throat, which needs urgent assessment. Call if bruising or swelling is dramatically worse than anything I have described here, if a laser-treated area blisters, weeps or forms a thick scab, or if pigment changes look like they are heading the wrong way after the first week. And call if firm lumps surface under filler or biostimulator in the weeks afterwards, because these are usually simple to manage when they are caught early.

To make the everyday judgement easier, here is the stripped-back version.

Treatment type	Normal and expected	Call the clinic
Laser and light (AviClear, MOXI, BBL)	Redness, warmth, bronzing, fine flaking, brief dryness, a short acne flare with AviClear	Blistering, weeping, thick crusting, spreading redness or heat, fever
Plasma and CO2 resurfacing	Swelling, bronzed leathery surface, sloughing then a fresh pink surface over days	Severe or spreading pain, pus, heat and fever, skin that will not re-form
Filler (lips, cheeks, nose, tear trough)	Swelling peaking 24 to 48 hours, bruising fading within a week, tenderness	Persistent blanching, escalating pain, dusky mottling, any vision change
Sculptra and radiofrequency	Very little to see, minor bruising or tenderness, slow gradual result	Firm or growing lumps, spreading redness or heat, marked asymmetry

I would always rather you rang me about something that turns out to be nothing than lay awake frightened, or worse, talked yourself out of flagging something that actually needed attention. In the first two weeks, there is no such thing as a silly question. Ask it.

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If you suspect a vascular occlusion or have any vision change, seek urgent medical care now, do not wait.

Frequently asked questions

How much downtime does AviClear really have?

Very little that anyone would notice. Because AviClear goes after the oil glands and leaves the surface of the skin intact, most people have nothing more than mild pinkness for a few hours, perhaps a day, then makeup as normal. The one honest caveat is a possible temporary acne flare over the first few weeks, plus the fact that the real improvement turns up gradually across several months rather than the moment you leave.

Why is my skin bronze and flaky after MOXI?

That bronzing is the expected response to a fractional laser, not a complication. Your skin pushes the treated micro-flecks up to the surface and sheds them, which shows up as fine bronzing, a sandpaper texture, or tiny coffee-ground specks, usually across days two to six. It means the treatment did its job. Keep the skin moisturised and protected, and let it shed in its own time. Whatever you do, do not pick.

How long does swelling last after lip filler?

Lip swelling peaks in the first 24 to 48 hours, then eases off over the days that follow. Expect lips to look bigger and a little uneven during that window. It is completely normal, which is why I ask patients not to judge their result for at least two weeks. A cold compress on day one, an extra pillow overnight, and a short break from alcohol and exercise all take the edge off.

How do I tell a normal bruise from a vascular occlusion?

A normal bruise behaves like a bruise. It is purple or blue, not especially painful, and it fades over a week or so. A vascular occlusion looks and feels different: persistent pale or white skin (blanching), pain that is severe or climbing, and a dusky, mottled or lace-like discolouration coming up over a day or two. If you see that after filler, especially near the nose or eyes, contact your clinic straight away. And treat any change in vision as an emergency.

Why can I not see anything after my Sculptra or Thermage treatment?

Because both work by coaxing your own collagen into forming, and collagen takes its time. Any early fullness you notice after Sculptra is simply fluid, and it disperses within days. The genuine result from Sculptra and Thermage alike builds across roughly two to six months. So judge them at three to six months, not in the first fortnight when, frankly, there is nothing yet to judge.

When can I exercise, fly or wear makeup again?

As a rough guide: after fillers, skip the gym, saunas and alcohol for 24 to 48 hours, and put makeup back on the next day once the injection points have closed. After laser and light treatments, gentle makeup is usually fine within a day or two once the skin is intact, but leave the active exfoliants alone until the flaking has finished. After deeper resurfacing, plan for a quieter week and mean it. And above all, your own clinic's specific aftercare beats any general rule on this page, so follow the instructions you were given.

Is more downtime a sign of a better treatment?

Not on its own, no. Some of the most effective treatments I offer, Thermage and Sculptra among them, have almost no visible downtime and excellent results. Downtime tells you how a treatment heals. It says nothing about how well it works. The right treatment is the one matched to your concern, your skin and your diary, not the one with the most dramatic recovery story attached.

If your question is not answered here, our wider clinic FAQ covers more, and you are always welcome to ask us directly before you book.

Glossary of terms

• Ablative laser: A laser that vaporises and removes the surface layers of skin for more dramatic results, with a longer, more intensive recovery. ↩ back to text
• Biostimulator (collagen stimulator): An injectable that does not add lasting volume itself but prompts your own body to make new collagen over time. ↩ back to text
• Capillary refill: How quickly colour returns to skin after you press it. Slow refill can be a warning sign of compromised blood supply. ↩ back to text
• Erythema: Redness of the skin from increased blood flow, a normal part of healing after most energy-based treatments. ↩ back to text
• Hyaluronidase: An enzyme that rapidly dissolves hyaluronic acid filler. It is the emergency treatment for a vascular occlusion and for over-correction. ↩ back to text
• MEND (microscopic epidermal necrotic debris): The microscopic flecks of treated tissue the skin pushes up and sheds after a fractional laser, seen as fine bronzing or coffee-ground specks. ↩ back to text
• Neocollagenesis: The formation of new collagen by the skin's own fibroblast cells, the basis of how biostimulators and radiofrequency devices work. ↩ back to text
• Non-ablative fractional laser: A laser that heats microscopic columns of skin without removing the surface, leaving healthy skin in between to speed healing. ↩ back to text
• Poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA): The active ingredient in Sculptra. It dissolves gradually while prompting the skin to build its own collagen. ↩ back to text
• Re-epithelialisation: The reforming of a fresh, intact surface layer of skin after resurfacing. ↩ back to text
• Sebaceous gland: The oil-producing gland attached to each hair follicle. Overactive glands are central to acne. ↩ back to text
• Selective photothermolysis: Using a specific wavelength of light to heat one target in the skin while sparing the structures around it. ↩ back to text
• Tyndall effect: A bluish-grey colour that appears when light scatters off hyaluronic acid filler placed too superficially, most often under the eyes. ↩ back to text
• Vascular occlusion: When filler blocks or compresses a blood vessel and cuts off blood supply to an area of skin. A medical emergency that must be treated urgently. ↩ back to text

About Alice Henshaw, RN, NMP

Alice Henshaw is a registered nurse and non-medical prescriber, the founder and clinical director of Harley Street Injectables, and the founder of the skincare brand SKIN|CYCLES. An Allergan key opinion leader, named Best Aesthetic Injector in London at the GHP awards and featured in Vogue, Tatler and Vanity Fair, she is known for a measured, safety-first, results-driven approach. She writes from more than a decade of clinical experience treating skin and recovery on Harley Street.

Safety note: aesthetic treatments are medical procedures with real risks and individual results. This article describes typical patterns only and cannot replace a personal consultation and aftercare from your own clinician. Always follow the specific aftercare instructions given to you, and contact your treating clinic, or emergency services where appropriate, if you are concerned.

Sources

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2. Alexiades M, Kothare A, Goldberg D, Dover JS. Novel 1726 nm laser demonstrates durable therapeutic outcomes and tolerability for moderate-to-severe acne across skin types. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2023;89(4):703–710. doi:10.1016/j.jaad.2023.05.085.
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6. Guerra JM, Albuquerque MCP, de Araújo CL, et al. Impact of poly-L-lactic acid reconstitution on the neocollagenesis profile. Aesthetic Plast Surg. 2025;49:5211–5215. doi:10.1007/s00266-025-04970-1. PMID: 40473786.
7. Safety of the immediate reconstitution of poly-l-lactic acid for facial and body treatment: a multicenter retrospective study. J Cosmet Dermatol. 2024. doi:10.1111/jocd.16560.
8. Suh DH, et al. Monopolar radiofrequency treatment for facial laxity: histometric analysis. J Cosmet Dermatol. 2020. doi:10.1111/jocd.13449.
9. Beleznay K, Humphrey S, Carruthers JDA, Carruthers A. Vascular compromise from soft tissue augmentation: experience with 12 cases and recommendations for optimal outcomes. J Clin Aesthet Dermatol. 2014;7(9):37–43. PMID: 25276276. PMCID: PMC4174919.
10. Cohen JL, Biesman BS, Dayan SH, et al. Treatment of hyaluronic acid filler-induced impending necrosis with hyaluronidase: consensus recommendations. Aesthet Surg J. 2015;35(7):844–849. doi:10.1093/asj/sjv018.

Healing is a process, not a verdict. Give your skin the fortnight it asks for, and judge the result when it is ready, not before.