After laser treatment on your face, your skin is essentially an open wound. The outer barrier has been deliberately disrupted, which means anything that adds heat, friction, bacteria, or harsh chemicals can slow healing, trigger infection, or cause lasting discoloration. Most restrictions are strictest in the first 48 hours and gradually ease over one to two weeks, depending on whether you had a lighter non-ablative treatment or a deeper ablative procedure like CO2 resurfacing.
Heat Exposure in the First Two Weeks
Your skin is already inflamed after laser treatment, and adding external heat makes it worse. Hot showers, baths, saunas, steam rooms, and hot tubs all raise skin temperature and open pores, which can increase redness, worsen discomfort, and delay recovery. Avoid all of these for at least 48 hours at minimum. For deeper treatments like CO2 resurfacing, the recommendation extends to one to two weeks.
When you do shower, keep the water lukewarm and avoid directing the stream at your face. You can gently wash the treated area, but submerging your face in a bath, pool, or hot tub should wait until the skin has fully closed. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center advises gently cleansing with diluted white vinegar and water or a mild liquid soap for the first two to three days.
Skincare Products That Can Irritate
Your freshly treated skin cannot handle the active ingredients in your normal routine. For at least the first 48 hours, and often longer, you should avoid:
- Retinol and retinoids: These speed up cell turnover, which sounds helpful but is too aggressive for skin that’s already raw.
- Glycolic acid, salicylic acid, and other exfoliants: Any acid-based product, including chemical peels and exfoliating toners, will irritate compromised skin.
- Vitamin C serums: Despite being an antioxidant, vitamin C is acidic enough to sting and inflame healing tissue.
- Physical scrubs: Anything with exfoliating beads, brushes, or rough textures creates micro-tears in skin that’s already damaged.
- Fragranced products: Synthetic fragrances are a common irritant even on healthy skin. On post-laser skin, they’re more likely to cause a reaction.
Stick to fragrance-free cleansers and plain moisturizers during the healing window. Products like petroleum-based ointments or simple barrier creams are typically recommended because they keep the skin moist without introducing irritating ingredients. Don’t apply any over-the-counter treatments, natural remedies, or essential oils unless your provider specifically tells you to.
Picking, Peeling, and Touching Your Face
As your skin heals, it will likely crust, flake, or peel. This is normal. What’s not safe is helping the process along by picking at it, scratching, or manually peeling off flaking skin. Cleveland Clinic is direct on this point: scratching or picking at crusting skin can cause scarring or lead to infection. It also increases the risk of post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, which is especially concerning for people with darker skin tones, who already face a higher risk of healing with uneven pigmentation after laser procedures.
The ointments and creams your provider recommends exist partly to prevent thick scabs from forming in the first place. Keeping the skin moist encourages it to shed naturally without creating the dry, tight crusts that tempt you to pick.
Sun Exposure and Sunscreen Choices
Sun protection is the single most important thing you can do after facial laser treatment, and getting it wrong can undo your results. Post-laser skin is extremely vulnerable to UV damage, and sun exposure during the healing phase is a leading cause of hyperpigmentation, the dark patches that can appear in treated areas.
Start using broad-spectrum sunscreen with SPF 30 or higher from day one. The type of sunscreen matters: physical (mineral) sunscreens containing zinc oxide or titanium dioxide are preferred during the early healing phase. A literature review published in the journal Life found that chemical sunscreen agents can provoke allergic or irritant reactions on post-resurfacing skin, while mineral filters are generally well tolerated on compromised barriers. Save your chemical sunscreens for later, once your skin has fully healed.
Beyond sunscreen, avoid direct sun exposure as much as possible. Wear a wide-brimmed hat outdoors. Even brief, incidental exposure (walking to your car, sitting near a window) adds up when your skin has no intact barrier to protect it.
Exercise and Physical Activity
Sweating introduces salt and bacteria to healing skin, and vigorous exercise increases blood flow to the face, which can worsen swelling and redness. For lighter treatments, you may need to wait only a few days. For ablative resurfacing, light activity can typically resume one to two weeks after the procedure, with a gradual return to your previous intensity.
Expect swelling to temporarily get worse when you do start exercising again. Facial and under-eye swelling is common in the first few days regardless, usually peaking the morning after treatment and improving by day three. If you exercise too early, you can restart that swelling cycle.
Sleeping Position and Swelling
For the first week after treatment, sleep on your back with your head elevated about 30 to 40 degrees, roughly two to three pillows high. Do not sleep on your side. Keeping your upper body more upright helps fluid drain away from your face instead of pooling there overnight. Side sleeping also presses the treated skin against your pillowcase, which introduces friction and bacteria to the healing area.
Makeup and Cosmetics
Makeup should be avoided until the treated skin is no longer raw. Depending on the type of laser treatment, this typically takes 5 to 10 days. Applying foundation, concealer, or powder to open or peeling skin traps particles in the healing tissue, increasing your risk of irritation and infection. When you do resume makeup, start with mineral-based, fragrance-free products and clean your brushes or sponges before using them.
Swimming and Soaking
Pools, hot tubs, lakes, and oceans are all off-limits during the healing period. Chlorinated water is irritating to compromised skin, and natural bodies of water contain bacteria that can cause infection. Baths should also wait until the treated area has fully healed, even if you’re careful not to submerge your face, because steam and splashing still expose the area to prolonged moisture and potential contaminants. Most providers recommend avoiding all of these for one to two weeks.
Recognizing Signs of Infection
Some redness, swelling, and mild discomfort are expected. What’s not expected is worsening pain days after treatment, fever or chills, foul-smelling discharge, or pus that appears green, yellow, or brown. Nausea and vomiting alongside a wound that won’t close are also red flags. Normal healing should show gradual improvement. If your symptoms are getting worse instead of better after the first two to three days, or if the treated area bleeds continuously and shows no signs of closing after 24 hours, contact your provider promptly.