How Quickly Can I Go to the Beach After a Breast Augmentation?

With the weather warming up, many patients who have recently undergone or plan to undergo breast augmentation start to wonder, “When can I go to the beach after breast augmentation?”

Most doctors recommend approximately three weeks of taking it easy before returning to normal activities. After this period, it’s safe to go to the beach with a few guidelines:

Don’t Overdo the Swimming

You should not be doing any strenuous activity for six to eight weeks after surgery. This can include beach volleyball, swimming laps, etc. Start with low impact and relaxing exercises after the first couple of weeks and you should not raise your arms over your head for at least the first two weeks. When you start exercising or decide to go to the beach, wear an elastic and comfortable sports bra or swim top for added support without underwire.

Keep Your Incision Dry

Most women can return to the pool or beach about three weeks after surgery and not be concerned about harming their results. Patients should dry their swimsuit top and towel off well after getting out of the water so a wet swimsuit top does not soak the incisions. If you’re worried about getting your incision wet, you may still put on your swimsuit and sit by the pool or even sit in the pool up to your waist.

Keep Your Incision Out of the Sun

Healing tissue does not tolerate sun exposure while healing and exposing new scars to the sun can cause damage, resulting in reddish and raised scars or wide scars. You should not expose incisions to the sun until they have faded to a pale color and are flat and soft, which can take a few months to a year or more to occur and varies greatly from patient to patient. You should also put sunblock directly on your incisions before spending all day in the sun in case some ultraviolet light gets through the material.