Profhilo at The London Aesthetic Clinic: what it treats, who it suits, how the assessment works, what the appointment involves, recovery and aftercare, and when it is not the right choice.
Profhilo is a brand of stabilised hyaluronic acid injected at a small number of set points to improve skin hydration, firmness and quality. It is not designed to add volume or change shape. It is usually given as two sessions four weeks apart, with results developing over the following weeks.
Conditions this treats
| Classification | Medical device. Hyaluronic acid, stabilised without conventional chemical cross-linking |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Skin quality, hydration and firmness. Not volume and not contour |
| Protocol | Two sessions, four weeks apart, then maintenance |
| Technique | A small number of defined injection points per side, then the product spreads |
| Areas | Face, neck, décolletage, hands, inner arms |
| Result | Develops over weeks. Assessed at around eight weeks from the first session |
| Duration | Commonly around six months before maintenance |
The cost of Profhilo in London is usually quoted as a course of two sessions four weeks apart, because a single session is not the protocol. Price reflects the product itself, which is a defined quantity, the practitioner's register and experience, and whether assessment, photography and review at eight weeks are included.
Cost follows the assessment rather than preceding it. What treatment costs explains how a written quotation should be built, and the guide to choosing a clinic in London covers what an unusually low figure has normally had removed from it.
Profhilo commonly holds for around six months before maintenance is considered. The result is not a volume that resorbs but a change in skin quality that builds over weeks and then fades. It is fairly assessed at about eight weeks from the first session, against a photograph taken in the same light.
The change is real and it is subtle. Skin looks better hydrated, reflects light more evenly, and feels firmer. Fine crepiness improves. People often report that others notice they look well without identifying why.
What does not happen: contour does not change, folds do not disappear, and skin that is genuinely lax does not tighten. Photographs promising dramatic lifting from this category of treatment should be treated with scepticism, and the treatment judged on what it is actually designed to do.
This is a treatment whose result is genuinely difficult to see in a mirror, because the change is gradual and because you look at your own face every day. Without a reference point, most people conclude either that nothing happened or that everything did, depending on what they expected.
The reference point is a photograph taken under conditions you can repeat: the same room, the same time of day, the same light source in the same position, the same distance, no make-up, and a neutral expression. Take one before the first session and another at around eight weeks after it. That comparison is worth more than any number of clinic images.
What you are looking for is not a change in shape. It is how evenly the skin reflects light, how fine crepiness reads at the cheek and under the eye, and how the skin looks late in the day rather than first thing in the morning. If none of that has changed by eight weeks, the treatment has not worked for you, and the correct response is a conversation about whether your concern was ever a skin quality problem rather than a booking for a third session.
Profhilo is stabilised hyaluronic acid without conventional chemical cross-linking, injected at a small number of defined points, and it is well tolerated. Expect small raised bumps that settle within hours and possible bruising. Serious complications are uncommon, and the standard precautions for any injectable apply.
Standard aftercare: no make-up on the points for the rest of the day, no strenuous exercise, sauna or steam for around twenty four hours, no facials or massage over the area for two weeks, and do not press or massage the blebs. See the aftercare page.
Expect a small number of injection points on each side rather than treatment across the whole face, because the product is designed to spread. The appointment takes around twenty minutes. Small bumps at each point settle within a few hours. A second session follows four weeks later.
Conventional dermal fillers are cross-linked so that they resist breakdown and hold a shape. Products in this category are stabilised differently, so that instead of staying where they are placed they spread through the tissue plane. The intention is not to occupy space but to hydrate the tissue and to stimulate the cells that produce collagen and elastin.
That difference explains everything about how the treatment behaves. It is injected at a handful of points rather than shaped by hand. It produces no immediate change in contour. And the result, when it comes, is a change in the quality and light of the skin rather than in its shape.
It is closer to a skin treatment delivered by needle than to a filler.
The standard approach is two treatments four weeks apart. That interval is part of the protocol rather than a scheduling convenience, and skipping the second session generally means an underwhelming result.
Product is placed at a small number of defined points chosen to sit away from significant vessels and to allow even spread. Each point produces a small raised bleb which settles within hours. The technique is standardised, which is unusual in this field, but the assessment of whether you are a candidate is not.
Choosing a practitioner for Profhilo in London means finding someone who will tell you when it is the wrong treatment. Ask which register they hold, how they decide between bio-remodelling, skin boosters and resurfacing, whether they photograph before and after in the same lighting, and how they will judge whether it worked.
Profhilo is not suitable for volume loss, contour or laxity, because it adds hydration and firmness rather than structure or lift. It is declined in pregnancy and breastfeeding, over active infection or inflamed skin, and where there has been a reaction to hyaluronic acid. Deep static lines need a different treatment.
It suits less well:
A brand is named here because the treatment is widely known by it and because the product is a medical device rather than a prescription-only medicine, so the advertising restrictions that apply to botulinum toxin do not apply here. Several comparable products exist. Ask what is being used and why.
This category works well alongside treatments that address different findings. Muscle treatment addresses movement, structural filler addresses lost support, resurfacing addresses surface texture, and bio-remodelling addresses hydration and quality. They are complementary rather than alternatives.
Sensible sequencing avoids doing everything in one appointment. Convention is to allow around two weeks between this and botulinum toxin or resurfacing in the same area, mostly so that any reaction can be attributed to the right treatment.
See skin boosters and polynucleotides for the neighbouring options, which are often confused with this one.
The same order every time, with the decision made at assessment rather than at the point of sale.
A full assessment of the area, your medical history and a discussion of what profhilo can and cannot change for you. Where a prescription-only medicine is involved, this happens face to face with the prescriber before anything is dispensed.
Areas, sequence, product, quantity and cost set out in writing, with the risks that need a protocol named rather than glossed over. You take it away before you consent to it.
A first treatment is deliberately conservative, and you are told what to expect before you leave.
Written aftercare, the symptoms that mean you telephone rather than wait, and a route to reach a clinician out of hours.
The result is judged at review rather than on the day, once any swelling has settled, and adjustment happens there rather than being sold as a second course. The effect lasts commonly around six months before maintenance.
Where the finding will not respond to this treatment, that is said plainly and an alternative is discussed rather than a compromise.
Not in the usual sense. It is designed to spread through tissue and improve skin quality rather than to stay in place and create shape.
The standard protocol is two, four weeks apart, then maintenance at around six months.
Gradually, with the meaningful change usually assessed around eight weeks after the first session.
No. It improves skin quality and firmness. Significant laxity needs a different treatment.
Yes, and the neck is one of the areas where it is most useful, because resurfacing there carries more risk and heals more slowly.
A small number of injection points, each briefly stinging. Most people find it very tolerable and no numbing is usually needed.
It is hyaluronic acid, so hyaluronidase can be used, though this is rarely necessary because the product is not creating shape.
Treatment
Hydration delivered into the skin rather than onto it. A course, not an appointment.
Read
Treatment
A newer category with real promise and marketing that has already outrun the evidence.
Read
Treatment
A medical device, not a medicine. That single fact explains most of what is wrong with the market.
ReadTell us what you would like changed and what you have had done before. You will get a considered reply setting out whether this treatment applies to you, what an assessment would need to establish, and what the alternatives are.
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