What to expect between visits 1 & 2!
So you’ve booked your Microblading appointment, the excitement is building and your constantly scrolling through before & after images on Instagram – crisp, shiny brows everywhere! The day finally arrives and you settle in to your treatment, you patiently wait for the big ‘reveal' at the end and can hardly hold back from snapping the mirror straight out of the hand of your chosen artist and there they are, beautiful defined strokes, a full perfect brow – perfection!! And then a week later your bubble is burst. Why is that?
If you’ve chosen a reputable artist, the consultation process should have involved a chat about the healing process which takes on many different forms at various stages. I found the attached image and thought it sums up the ups and downs of the healing process over the 4 weeks post treatment so thought I’d add a little information as to why there can somewhat a feeling of disappointment a week to ten days later when the excess pigment on the surface has come away and it may appear to you as if you didn’t retain any strokes – this is not the case. For the first week your brows are essentially an open wound and the afore mentioned layer of pigment created a sharp defined version of the colour embedded into each incision. As part of the initial phase of healing, your skin will ‘knit' back together as with any other topical wound therefore, the strokes will heal a duller version of what you initially saw at the end of treatment.
What happens now?
If you don’t have any knowledge of the anatomy of the skin, it can be hard to be patient with the various stages of healing. The second week of healing can sometimes be a bit unnerving as you may panic and think the treatment didn’t work but worry not, you must allow time for the pigment to settle fully into the epidermis (top layer of skin) and you can expect a ‘bloom’ between week 3 and 4 where your true result will be revealed. Of course, even now your brows will not be perfect as you are only half way through your brow journey and there will most likely be some patches and gaps that will need more work on round two. I can not stress enough how important it is to listen to the Aftercare advise given as when you leave the salon the responsibility falls with you to avoid potential infection and to promote good healing – this is inevitably what will dictate your result.
Rome wasn’t built in a day
Although for 90% of people two sessions is enough in some cases a small follow-up maybe necessary to achieve the desired result this tends to be more common where the client has little or no hairs to begun with so I always encourage my clients to keep an open mind after visit two as again it will be a month or so before the true result is measurable.
I hope this is helpful advise as with any semi permanent treatment the Aftercare and understanding of the entire process is hugely important. I would like to say a huge thank you to all my wonderful clients as without your continued support I could not have taken the leap of faith and committed to Aileen Goodman Brows on a full time basis and on that note I will sign off and of course any questions however trivial you may feel they are, are always welcome
Much Love, Aileen X