How Long Does Rejuran Take? Clinic Time and Nights to Book

Bringing your mother to Seoul for Rejuran: how long does it take before the little bumps settle, and how many nights should you book?

The raised bumps usually flatten within one to two days, a pinpoint bruise can take up to a week, and the skin change builds over the following weeks, so book the session early in the trip and keep at least two full days before the flight.

Hello, I'm Dr. Hongseok Kim, board-certified dermatologist and Medical Director of VOS Dermatology Clinic in Gangnam, with 21 years in practice. I do the consultation and every injection myself, and that matters for your question: how shallow each deposit sits and how closely the deposits are spaced decides how visible the bumps are that evening.

If your mother is nervous about needles, nitrous-oxide sedation is available here, and the clinic has used it in more than 5,700 cases. If English isn't her first language, she gets a medical interpreter for her language at no extra charge, so the aftercare instructions reach her directly.

Before you fix dates, send one front-facing photo of her face in daylight and your arrival and departure days on WhatsApp, and ask which day of the trip gives the bumps room to settle. The consultation on WhatsApp is free.

Rejuran: how long does it take, clock by clock

Five different stretches of time get lumped into one question, and families often ask about one while worrying about another. Here they are separately, as typical ranges for the face.

Risks and side effects to know

The type matters a little. Rejuran Healer is the one most people mean, spread across the cheeks and forehead. Rejuran Eye is used for fine lines around the eyes, where the skin is thinnest, so swelling there can hang on a day longer. Rejuran HB is the version listed for the lips. If you want the differences in more depth, I've covered the Rejuran types and how sessions are planned in Seoul separately.

Why do the bumps take longer to settle on older skin?

Rejuran is a gel of polynucleotides, purified DNA fragments from salmon, placed in many small deposits just under the surface. Each deposit lifts the skin like a mosquito bite until the body absorbs the gel, which on the cheeks usually happens within a day or so. Once the bumps are gone, what remains is the slow part: collagen and texture changing over weeks.

Three things in a person in their sixties tend to stretch the visible part. The dermis is thinner, so each deposit shows more. Small blood vessels are more fragile, so a needle is more likely to leave a pinpoint bruise. And drainage around the eyes is slower, so puffiness there can last into the second or third morning.

Medication is the fourth factor, and the one families forget.

Worth knowing: Write down everything your mother takes each day, including fish oil, vitamin E, ginkgo and low-dose aspirin, and bring the list. These are the usual reasons a pinpoint bruise becomes a mark that's still there at the airport. Never stop a prescribed blood thinner for a cosmetic treatment without her own doctor agreeing; tell me about it instead, because it changes how the session is planned.

How many days should you stay in Seoul?

Start from the clinic's week, because that's where trip plans usually go wrong. VOS is open Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 10:00–19:00, Friday 10:00–20:00 and Saturday 10:00–16:00, and closed on Wednesday, Sunday and public holidays. Land on a Tuesday evening and the earliest treatment day is Thursday.

Give the arrival day to the flight. After a long trip the skin is dehydrated and people are tired.

On treatment day, plan the evening around the bumps. The visit fits into a morning or an afternoon, and that night her face will look dotted, so a quiet dinner near the hotel works better than a family photo. Most people can wear light makeup the next morning. For a day or two it's sensible to skip the sauna or jjimjilbang, hard exercise and alcohol, since heat and a raised pulse can keep swelling and bruising going.

By the second day the bumps are usually gone or nearly so, and sightseeing, shopping and restaurants are fine. A bruise, if there is one, takes concealer. Flying with a little leftover puffiness isn't a medical problem; dry cabin air is the bigger nuisance, so pack her moisturizer in the carry-on.

The minimum, then, is the treatment day plus two full days before the flight. If she bruises easily, takes a blood thinner, or has a family event soon after you get home, four or five days gives the bruise clock room to run.

Say your mother is 64, takes a daily aspirin her cardiologist prescribed, and you have five nights in Seoul, landing on a Monday. I'd treat on Tuesday. Wednesday the clinic is closed, which suits a rest day anyway, Thursday and Friday are open if anything looks off, and you fly out on Saturday with three full days behind you. Land on a Thursday with the same five nights and the Sunday closure shrinks your options, so treat on Friday, which still leaves Saturday and Monday open before a Tuesday flight.

Once flights are booked, message the arrival and departure times on WhatsApp together with her medication list, and ask whether the treatment day you have in mind leaves enough margin before she flies.

How I approach a first Rejuran session in someone's sixties

Every plan here begins with a skin analysis, and I choose the product and the areas for the face in front of me. For older, thinner skin, the question I care about first is where, not how much. Crepey skin under the eyes and on the lower cheeks responds to Rejuran. A jowl that has dropped will not lift with it, and if the jowl is the real complaint, I'll say so at the start, because a skin booster and a lifting treatment answer different problems.

I'm strict about dose. Exact dosage for every injectable, no more and no less than the skin needs, is a principle I hold to, and on thin skin extra product spread across the face mostly means more bumps for the flight home. The clinic uses genuine products and 5μm ultra-fine filter syringes, which block tiny fragments such as ampoule glass before they reach the skin.

For an anxious parent, sedation changes the experience more than the timeline. In most people the effect of nitrous oxide fades within minutes of the mask coming off, so it adds little to the visit.

Bruises, lumps or infection: which reactions are normal?

The common reactions are short-lived and fade on their own: raised bumps for a day or two, redness and tenderness at the injection points, mild swelling under the eyes, and sometimes pinpoint bruises that last up to a week. A systematic review of polynucleotides in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology found side effects in the published studies were mostly mild, temporary injection-site reactions.

As general medicine, some people should wait or skip it: anyone with an active infection, cold sore or inflamed acne in the area; a laser or peel in the past couple of weeks; isotretinoin now or recently; pregnancy or breastfeeding; a known allergy to fish or salmon-derived ingredients; or a bleeding disorder that isn't under control.

Rarer signs deserve action, not patience: a firm lump still there after one to two weeks, redness that spreads and grows warmer, pain that increases instead of fading, or a fever. Healing time, like the result itself, varies by person, and thin skin or a blood thinner puts someone at the slower end of every range on this page.

After you fly home, use a cool compress on a fresh bruise during the first day and take a daylight photo of her face each morning so you can compare. If any of the rarer signs appear, see a doctor at home that day and bring the photos and the treatment date. You can also send the same photos to us on WhatsApp.

Does one trip cover it, or will she need to come back?

One session usually gives a modest change in texture. Most of the studies in that systematic review used a series of sessions spaced a few weeks apart, and that is how the skin change builds. I've written about whether one Rejuran Healer session is enough for travelers who can only come once.

For a parent who visits Seoul once a year, that leaves three realistic plans: one session per trip with slower progress, two trips a few weeks apart, or a single longer stay that fits two sessions. Which one makes sense comes down to what bothers her most and how often you travel. There's more on fitting it around a short Seoul trip and its limits.

Cost follows the same decisions: the type, the volume, the areas and the number of sessions. The listed price is the same for every nationality, and I've laid out what moves the cost of Rejuran in Korea in its own post. Ask on WhatsApp what it would come to for her face, with the photo you're already sending.

Before you message us

Two things make the first message useful: a daylight photo of her face from the front and from the side, and your flight dates. The consultation on WhatsApp is free. How the deposit and payment work is settled after the consultation, so put that question in the same message if it's holding you back.

On the day, the first thing I'll check is the thickness of the skin under her eyes and whether small broken vessels show on her cheeks, because together they tell me roughly how long her marks will last.

So send the photos and dates on WhatsApp, and ask which day she should be treated so the bumps are down before she flies home.

Results, timing and recovery vary from person to person. This article is general information from VOS Dermatology Clinic and does not replace an in-person consultation. Any prices mentioned are from the clinic’s official price list (KRW, before VAT) and may change.