Aftercare should be clear before you leave.

Plan recovery before booking around a busy day

Tell the practitioner about work, exercise, driving, travel, childcare and anything that would make temporary changes to your routine difficult. The right question is how the proposed procedure fits your actual life. A generic phrase such as minimal downtime is not enough to plan a physically demanding shift or an important event.

Ask whether you need someone to accompany you or help afterwards, and what you should bring to the appointment. If your circumstances cannot accommodate the advice, discuss a different date or a decision not to proceed. There is no requirement to fit treatment into an unsuitable timetable.

Leave with instructions you can use

Your written plan should be specific enough that you do not need to search social media later to work out what was meant. Ask the practitioner to explain any unfamiliar term and confirm how to obtain a copy if you lose the instructions. Keep the clinic's clinical support route with them.

• The procedure and area treated, and how expected recovery should be described for your plan.
• Advice about washing, skin products, clothing, work and exercise, including any restrictions and review points.
• Which symptoms need a call, which need urgent assessment and who provides support out of hours.
• The follow-up arrangement and what to do if symptoms or expectations are not progressing as discussed.

Do not combine conflicting aftercare schedules

Online recommendations about massage, compression, heat, exercise, hydration or pain relief can relate to different treatments and different products. Do not assume that an instruction for fat freezing, surgery or another injection belongs in your Aqualyx plan.

Ask the treating clinician before adding a treatment or changing prescribed medicines. This website does not tell you to stop medication, prescribe a supplement or specify a universal massage routine. Follow the personal instructions provided for your procedure and ask the practitioner to clarify anything that is unclear.

Keep observation simple and useful

If something concerns you, note when it started, whether it is worsening and what advice you have already followed. Contact the treating clinic through the clinical support route you were given. Do not send intimate photographs or medical records through a general website enquiry unless an appropriate secure process has been established.

Routine booking WhatsApp is not an emergency service. Do not wait for an online reply when symptoms are urgent. A clinician may need to examine the area rather than trying to resolve a problem through a photograph alone.

Know when to seek medical help

Seek urgent advice from a GP or NHS 111 for skin that is painful, hot and swollen, especially if it is worsening or you feel unwell. The NHS identifies these as possible signs of cellulitis; an online page cannot decide whether a post-treatment change is expected inflammation or infection.

Call 999 for sudden swelling of the mouth, tongue or throat, difficulty breathing, or other signs of a severe allergic reaction. Do not wait for the clinic's WhatsApp response. These emergency instructions apply regardless of whether you recently had a cosmetic procedure.

Read the safety guide and urgent-help information →

Evidence: NHS — CellulitisNHS — Anaphylaxis

Recovery review and result review are related, but different

A recovery check asks whether you are well and whether any symptom needs attention. A result review asks what has changed in relation to your original goal. If there is a problem, dealing with it comes first; another cosmetic treatment is not the automatic next step.

Use the results timeline guide to plan that later discussion. This site gives no fixed return-to-work date or promise that everyone is ready for photographs, sport or another treatment after the same number of days.

Your questions, answered