If you’re thinking about heading to the sauna after getting Botox, you may be wondering if there are certain precautions to take. After all, you don’t want to experience any negative side effects or impact the treatment process. So, what’s the best plan of action?
You can use a sauna after Botox, but not immediately. It’s risky to expose your body to excessive heat after Botox treatment, so you should wait at least 24-48 hours before visiting a sauna or steam room. Sauna use can accelerate wrinkle formation slightly, so taking Collagen is a great call too.
As simple as Botox treatment is, there are some important things to keep in mind and some activities you should avoid right after your procedure in order to stay healthy and comfortable. Let’s take a look at everything you need to know.
What Is Botox?
Before we delve into the relationship between Botox and saunas, here’s a quick rundown of what Botox is.
Botox is a kind of toxin used by doctors to treat facial creases and wrinkles. Basically, Botox stops the nerves from sending signals to the muscles. Therefore, the muscles cannot contract as they otherwise would.
This relaxes and softens the wrinkles. Botox injections are typically used to treat forehead lines, crow’s feet lines (lines around the eyes), and frown lines.
The toxin can also be used to treat other health conditions, including severe underarm sweating, uncontrollable blinking, overactive bladder, chronic migraine, and more.
Getting this treatment only takes a few minutes; all the doctor has to do is inject the toxin into the target muscles. It usually takes between 7 and 14 days for Botox to take effect, and the effect lasts about three to six months before you need another shot.
Can You Go to a Sauna After Botox?
Botox treatment is usually not such a big deal — it’s fast, simple, and nearly painless (the worst that can happen is slight discomfort). For the most part, it’s not so different from regular treatment in the doctor’s office.
Still, you should steer clear of some activities after getting your shot, at least for 24 to 48 hours. That includes visiting a sauna. It’s best to avoid situations that will increase your body temperature after getting your Botox treatment. This means you should avoid places like saunas, steam rooms, tanning beds, and other similar locations.
It doesn’t end there, though. Even in your home and daily activities, you still have to avoid exposure to excessive heat of any kind. So, you should avoid something as simple as getting close to boiling water or cooking over a hot stove. Avoid hot showers too.
Subjecting yourself to excessive heat immediately after a Botox treatment might lead to bruising, and the injection might not take full effect. You can resume your regular activities after a few days.
One other thing to note is that the high heat of a sauna technically accelerates the breakdown of collagen in the skin, which can lead to wrinkles forming quicker, but this effect should be extremely slight, and isn’t documented in white-papers or anything like that.
That said, Collagen (on Amazon) is a great supplement to bolster your skin health, and so if you’re getting botox, and using the sauna, you probably want to consider taking Collagen regularly as well.
Other Things to Avoid After Botox
Besides excessive heat, there are some other things you need to avoid to ensure that you don’t suffer any negative effects after getting your Botox treatment. Some of these things are:
- Strenuous Exercise: Exercise increases blood flow and facial pressure, which can interfere with the results of the Botox injection. If you’re keen on exercise, you can stick to mild activities like walking. Wait for at least 24 hours before engaging in strenuous activities.
- Lying Down: After a Botox shot, you need to keep your head elevated to stop the toxin ingredients from moving elsewhere in the body and reducing the effectiveness of the treatment. You need to stay upright for at least four hours, so it’s better to have your shot taken early in the day. That way, you can plan other activities to keep you busy (and upright).
- Facial Treatments: Avoid facial treatments for at least two weeks after the Botox injection.
- Caffeine and Alcohol: Caffeine and alcohol expand blood vessels, so taking them right after Botox treatment will be counter-effective.
- Touching Your Face: This habit gets a lot of dirt and bacteria on your face, and this is why you shouldn’t do it in general. It becomes even more important not to do this after receiving Botox to prevent foreign bodies from getting into the treatment site.
