Most surgeons allow gentle cleaning around the eyes starting the day after blepharoplasty, but full washing of the eyelids typically waits until about 5 days post-surgery. The exact timeline varies by surgeon and by whether you had upper, lower, or combined eyelid surgery, so your own post-op instructions take priority over general guidelines.
The First Few Days: Gentle Cleaning Only
Starting the day after surgery, you can use a damp washcloth to carefully clean your face, staying below the incision area. For the incisions themselves, the standard approach is a cotton swab moistened with warm water or saline to gently clear away any crusting around the stitches and eyelashes. Some surgeons specifically instruct patients to clean incision sites twice a day with saline on a cotton swab, then apply a prescribed ophthalmic ointment afterward. This ointment-after-cleaning sequence matters because it keeps the incision moist and protected.
During this early phase, avoid letting water run directly over your eyes. If you shower, face away from the stream and let the water hit your back and hair while keeping your face dry. Don’t submerge your face in bath water.
Around Day 5: Full Washing Resumes
Full showers, including washing your eyelids and shampooing your hair, are generally cleared around 5 days after surgery. At this point, use mild products like baby shampoo near the eye area. Fragranced soaps, exfoliants, and anything with active ingredients (retinol, glycolic acid, salicylic acid) should stay out of your routine until your surgeon says otherwise.
Even once you’re cleared for full showers, be gentle. Pat the area dry rather than rubbing. Your incisions are still healing, and the skin around them is swollen and delicate. Rubbing or pulling can irritate the wound and slow recovery.
Suture Removal Changes the Rules
Stitches are typically removed about one week after surgery, and this is a turning point for what you can do around your eyes. Swelling and tightness improve noticeably once the sutures come out. You can apply makeup to the incision sites starting 24 hours after suture removal, which puts most people at roughly 8 to 10 days post-surgery for cosmetics.
If your surgeon used dissolvable stitches or adhesive strips instead of traditional sutures, the timeline may shift slightly. Follow whatever specific guidance you were given at your post-op appointment.
Contact Lenses, Makeup, and Swimming
Contact lenses can typically go back in around 10 days after surgery, though this depends on how quickly you’re healing. Inserting contacts requires pulling on the eyelid skin, which is exactly what you want to avoid too early. If it feels uncomfortable or difficult at the 10-day mark, give it a few more days rather than forcing it.
Eye makeup, including mascara, eyeliner, and eyeshadow, should wait at least one to two weeks. These products sit directly on or near the incision line, and even small amounts of pigment or bacteria from a makeup brush can cause irritation or infection in a healing wound.
Swimming is the longest wait. Pools, hot tubs, and open water all contain bacteria and chemicals that pose a real infection risk to fresh incisions. Most surgeons ask patients to avoid all swimming for several weeks, and you should not open your eyes underwater in any setting until you have explicit clearance.
Signs of Infection While Cleaning
Cleaning your incisions twice a day gives you a regular chance to check how healing is progressing. Some swelling, bruising, and mild crusting are completely normal in the first week. What’s not normal is increasing redness that spreads beyond the incision line, skin that feels hot or increasingly painful rather than improving, thick yellow or green discharge, or firm swelling that feels tender to the touch.
Infections after blepharoplasty are uncommon, but when they occur, the warning signs are persistent pain combined with redness and swelling that worsens rather than gradually improving. Drainage that looks cloudy or has an odor is another red flag. Some infections can appear weeks or even months after surgery as tender, swollen nodules near the incision. If anything looks or feels wrong during your daily cleaning routine, contact your surgeon’s office promptly rather than waiting for your next scheduled visit.
A Practical Daily Routine
For the first week, a good cleaning routine looks like this: moisten a cotton swab with warm water or saline, gently sweep along the incision to remove any dried blood or crusting, then apply your prescribed ointment with a clean cotton swab. Do this twice a day, typically morning and evening. Avoid pressing hard or picking at scabs, which can reopen the incision or pull out a stitch.
After the first week and suture removal, you can transition to washing the area more normally with a mild cleanser and your fingertips, still being careful not to rub aggressively. Most people feel comfortable returning to their full skincare routine by two to three weeks, though you’ll want to introduce products gradually and skip anything harsh near the healing skin for a bit longer.