How Long Does SMP Take To Heal?
Scalp micropigmentation has one of the fastest healing times compared to other hair loss solutions. You’ll be fully healed in 4-7 days!
SMP or scalp micropigmentation takes about 7 days in between appointments to heal. So to explain this, I kinda need to explain how scalp micropigmentation procedures work. There are usually 2 to 3 sessions, each session is 7 days. So, total of 21 days for most people. But scalp micropigmentation takes about 7 days to heal and settle in between procedures. Now the reason for this is because of scalp micropigmentation is done in layers. So each layer is gonna be done with a slightly different color and a slightly different needle than the other. So the reason that we do these layered procedures is to get everything to heal in a very and realistic way.
How do you care for your SMP during this 7-day healing period?
In this 7 day period, you need to stay out of the sun, stop working out really hard for the first four days because you don’t wanna sweat too much, and then avoid places where there may be water that can contain bacteria. So like pools, oceans, lakes, saunas, things like that, and in between these sessions what’s gonna happen is your scalp is going to heal over and protect these tiny hair follicle replication tattoos that we created. So, scalp micropigmentation, from beginning to end for a normal procedure is going to take about 21 to 30 days to heal completely.
To learn more about SMP Aftercare, check out this video: How Do I Take Care of Scalp Micropigmentation in Hawaii? SMP Aftercare
What if there’s a delay between the appointments?
So let’s say there’s a little bit of a delay, from your first appointment and your second appointment, you have about a 20-day window. 7 days in, you’re gonna be healed enough that you can resume normal activities. Most men can even go back to shaving their heads with a foil shaver within 7 days. It’s a very fast healing process. So, as far as SMP heals in the short term, 7 days you’re usually back to normal, good to go, and then for the total healing time of the procedure, it’s gonna be about 21 to 30 days if you have your appointments consecutively.
Is healing time different from recovery time?
So my clients hear that healing time is 7 days, they tend to be a little bit shocked because they think they have to take off work during that time. Healing time is different from recovery time so you actually don’t have to take any time off of work at all during your entire procedure. Because healing time is actually just what your scalp needs to protect the work that was done.
Your recovery time for scalp micropigmentation is 0, you don’t have to take any time off of work.
There are people who have come in and had procedures and gone right back to work, gone on a date but either way, you walk right on on the street and most people won’t know that you have anything done. So recovery for scalp micropigmentation is 0, you will be completely fine to go about your daily routine aside from working out really heavily or being in a sun directly for a few days. Everything else about it is completely normal, there’s no need to take off of work, there’s no need to postpone daily events. The only thing that you have to do is to follow different aftercare instructions just to maintain and help your scalp heal quickly during those first 4 to 7 days.
Don’t be afraid of SMP because you’re worried about healing time.
This is really important to differentiate that once again that healing time and recovery are different. So the time that you’re healing won’t be noticeable to anyone but you and it only dictates what you have to do in order to help your scalp heal more quickly. But recovery time is zero, no one will notice that you had scalp micropigmentation. There’s zero recovery time, you can walk right outside and go about your daily business. But the healing is a slight tweak in your daily routine in order to care for your procedure after you had it done. The same way you’ll care for a tattoo or any other cosmetic service that you had done. But this one requires no downtime like other hair loss solutions and that’s the beauty of it.
Other hair loss solutions have longer recovery times.
For other hair loss solutions, most notably hair transplants, you’re going to have to take off work in order to recover from these procedures. Because after they’re done, they don’t look how they’re going to look, that’s not the case with scalp micropigmentation. What you’ll wait for it is how it’s going to look, the only difference is a slight bit of redness that will go away within a couple of hours and that is one of the biggest benefits because it fits right into your life as opposed to making you postpone your life in order to get your hair loss addressed.
Is scalp micropigmentation a surgical procedure?
The other point that we’re noting here is that scalp micropigmentation is not surgical. Surgery is just something that seems to me rather extreme. If you can do something that’s not surgical why wouldn’t you try that first? Because most people are happier with SMP than they are with transplants. One, they’re not always successful and two there’s a lot of limitations on them and even if they are successful, sometimes they don’t look good as people imagined. There are different techniques now but that still leaves folks sometimes with really sparse hairlines which still have to be fixed by scalp micropigmentation so it’s worth weighing this option because for most people it’s a better first choice than a hair transplant and then they never have to go and get a hair transplant. Just a much more reasonable and convenient option and it’s very effective.