Not suitable
Not because the skin is fine, and not to seem principled. Usually because the treatment would not do what someone is hoping, the timing is wrong, or what they have should be examined rather than lasered.
Across most treatments
Pregnancy or breastfeeding
Applies to 5 of the 12 treatments
Pregnancy
Applies to 4 of the 12 treatments
Clinic policy
We do not perform peels, lasers, microneedling, toxin, filler or polynucleotides during pregnancy or while breastfeeding. This is a clinic policy rather than a claim about risk, and we hold to it without negotiation. A medical hydrating facial is the one thing on this list we will still do, and we will happily see you for a skin plan to start afterwards.
If you have taken isotretinoin (Roaccutane) we need to know when you stopped. Peels and microneedling wait 6 months. Fractional CO₂ waits 12. The skin's healing response is altered for longer than most people expect, and treating early is how scarring happens.
Four weeks with no sun exposure and no fake tan before any laser or medium-depth peel. Melanin in the skin competes for the laser's energy, and a tan turns a routine session into a burn. We will check, and we will rebook you rather than treat you.
Fitzpatrick IV to VI can be treated safely with the right device and the right settings — our Nd:YAG is chosen specifically for this. But fractional CO₂ and TCA CROSS carry a real risk of post-inflammatory pigmentation on deeper skin, so we patch test first and sometimes recommend against them entirely. A clinic that treats every skin type identically is not paying attention.
Tell us about anticoagulants, photosensitising drugs (doxycycline, some diuretics, St John's wort), aminoglycoside antibiotics, immunosuppressants and anything for an autoimmune condition. Bring the box or a photo of it. Some of these mean we adjust; some mean we ask your GP first; some mean we do not treat.
Any treatment that breaks the skin can trigger a herpes simplex outbreak. If you get cold sores, say so — we will start antiviral cover the day before. An active outbreak or any active skin infection means we postpone.
A personal or family history of keloid or hypertrophic scarring rules out microneedling, CO₂ and TCA CROSS. There are still options, but not those.
Acne scarring improves; it does not disappear. Most people see somewhere between a 30% and a 70% change in scar depth across a full course, and a proportion see less. Pigmentation is managed rather than cured, and it returns without daily SPF. If what you want is skin that has never had acne, we are not able to give you that, and we would rather say so at consultation than after you have paid for four sessions.
Treatment by treatment
Always
Every prescription-only treatment is prescribed after a face-to-face assessment, with time between the assessment and the appointment. Not on a phone call, and not on the same afternoon.
Anything that has changed, bled, or looks wrong under the dermatoscope gets examined and referred — not lasered off. A pigmented lesion that is removed is a lesion nobody can biopsy later.
If your date is too close, we will say so and offer the thing that does fit, even when that is a £95 facial instead of a £2,000 course.
If you are still not sure
Ring the clinic and describe what you have. If it is not something we should treat, you will be told on the phone rather than at a consultation you have already paid for.