“Hey Ana! What Happens If I Get My Eyebrows Wet After Microblading?”
“Can I wash my hair after my Ombre Brows procedure?”
“Can I go to the pool tomorrow If I had Microblading done today?”
“Can I take a shower after getting my eyebrows microbladed?”
“For Powder brows what do you recommend? Wet or dry healing?”
These types of questions i get asked in a daily doses by my students and fellow artists.
You can find a lot of Microblading artists in Facebook groups arguing all day about “dry vs wet healing” and to me it seems like people never seem to agree when there is a solution so simple right in front of them, this solution is called (drum roll please): common sense.
You see, when asked these questions my answer is always “depends…what kind of wet??”
The “good wet”
I’ve already busted this myth in one of my first articles here but let’s go into this subject with more depth today.
If you have a cut, puncture, etc what do you do? You clean your wound, and what is the best, cheapest, most proven way to clean anything? Answer: soap and water.
Take surgeons for example; they wash their hands with soap and water before putting on gloves as they get ready to work and go into surgery. They don’t wipe it with “baby wipes” or cotton rounds with witch hazel or some type of essential oil….see my point here?
when discussing the subject of Microblading and any other PMU or tattoo aftercare, like everything else in life we must always try to apply common sense to our actions and remember what we learned in school about hygiene 101; “wash the yuckyness away with water and soap”.
I grew up in a family of doctors (my grandad and my dad) they always used to tell me the best way to kill germs, viruses and bacterias was by “way of drowning” them. What they meant by that? Water and soap!
“Oh Ana, should I wash my microbladed eyebrows with soap, water…and scrub them really squeaky clean?….”
What I recommend to my clients is for them to wash their eyebrows 4 hours after the procedure, but remember the face is delicate! Nothing on our faces should be harsh and forceful, especially after causing trauma from Powder Brows, Ombre Brows, or any PMU punctures, Microblading scratches, etc. So, clients are advised to wash the treated area with a light touch, clean water, very little mild soap (Cetaphil is great!) and then again lightly pat the microbladed eyebrows dry with a fresh clean paper towel.
(for more aftercare instructions please download the free Microblading App, we have a great aftercare template form that comes already preloaded inside the app).
“But I’v learned in my Microblading or Ombre Brows Training, or I’ve saw in a Facebook group that the client is not supposed to get any water on the eyebrows for at least 24-48 hours or even a week after the procedure because it can affect the color retention…”
Well, that information is incorrect, because whoever gave you this dangerously wrong advice does not know much about basic wound healing.
Our human body is an amazing machine, as a matter of fact It is DIVINE.
It is so complex and well made, that it is one of the main reasons why the most skeptic doctors and scientists believe there is a God, because only God could have made such a perfect machine that is the human body, every single part of this machine has a purpose: to keep working in order to keep us alive.
When part of this machine, this body is in danger (like getting scratched or punctured by our PMU machine or Microblading tools) our brain is immediately notified and sends white blood cells to start repairing what was or is being damaged.
Some of these white blood cells are called macrophages, these have the ability to locate and “eat” or “embrace” the foreign bodies like bacteria or in our case the pigment particles being injected into our skin.
Long story short: getting your eyebrows wet after Microblading by washing them with water and soap does NOT affect the result from the ink underneath your skin, because it’s already being “treated” by your body’s defense system the minute the PMU (Microblading, Ombre Brows, Powder Brows, etc) procedure starts.
The wound created from PMU (Microblading, Powder Brows, Ombre Brows, etc) is coagulated and the skin is “closed” within minutes after the microblading procedure has finished, no matter how much water you put on top of the skin, it will not wash away the pigment that was implanted inside of it.
But remember the “good wet” and DO wash your eyebrows with soap and water after getting Microblading done to prevent them from getting infected. I tell my clients to wash them 4 hours after the procedure then wash again once or twice the following 2-5 days depending on how the healing process is going.
Now that we know it’s ok to clean our eyebrows with good old soap and water after getting Microblading or any other type of PMU done (no need for fancy smancy special wipes or snake oils) we can analyze the bad type of “wet”.
The “bad wet”
“Oh so If I can take a shower and wash my hair after my eyebrow Microblading procedure I will go play some soccer at the beach now then go for a swim in the ocean…”
Please! Please don’t!
While it’s ok, and highly recommend to wash the eyebrows with soap and water 4 hours after the microblading procedure, we can’t ask our clients enough not to do these things at least 2 to 7 days right after the have their eyebrows microbladed when it comes to getting the eyebrows wet (they are considered the “bad wet”)
- At least 2 days (or longer if you are of advanced age or have health problems):
Bad wet number 1: submerging the head or treated area in ocean, pool, bathtub, jacuzzi water because of the risk of infection. Shower is OK!!!
- At least 5 to 7 days:
Bad wet number 2: spinning class, sauna, laying on the sun, long hot showers, anything that makes you sweat because during this time, your macrophages (remember them? From your perfect human body?!) are still working on “embracing” and keeping the pigment particles under your skin in place. This becomes an extremely difficult for them to do their job when your sweat is pushing the pigment out from inside of your skin.
Why do we have a problem with long hot showers? Because while we are there thinking about life and enjoying that hot wet jet on our shoulders we also start to sweat from the heat… Yes, “The more you know”.
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