How Long Do I Have to Wear My Faja 24/7?

So, How Long Do You Have to Wear Your Faja?

I’ve already addressed the Stage 1 faja.  You should wear it about 7-10 days.

Stage 2 is not as straightforward.  This is because some people have more swelling and others have less severe swelling, so there is not one absolute answer that fits everyone.

So, the advice here is for most people – the people in the middle who don’t have excessive swelling or very little swelling.  If you are one of the people who is in one of those extremes, you may wear your faja longer or for a slightly shorter duration of time.

Guidelines for Most People

For the majority of people who get lipo, tummy tuck, and or BBL surgery, you should plan to wear your faja for a solid 8 weeks, 23 hours a day – yes, that’s with foams and all.  You get one hour to bathe yourself and wash your faja.  That’s it.  Stick to these guidelines and you will get the best results possible. 

I know that you feel like the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters wearing all that stuff.  You got plastic surgery so that you could look amazing in your clothes, and you are eager to show off your new look.  Now is not the time.  If you want to look good in the long-term, you have to suck it up for a couple of months first.  If you are still planning your surgery, you might want to think about winter as a better time because it’s easier to hide all the foams under a sweater.

If you are just starting out wearing your Stage 2 faja, it will feel uncomfortable initially.  It is a lot of stimulation over a large area of the body.  It will be all you think about at first, but you will get used to it. 

Think about when you first had your ears pierced.  You were acutely aware of them.  You felt them without thinking about it.  After they healed up and you had worn them for a week or so, you got to where you didn’t really notice the earrings in your ears.  Wearing a faja is the same.  You not only will get used to it, but you will want to wear it – I promise!  Most people say that they “feel naked without it.”  So if you are having a hard time getting used to it, trust that it will become a normal and comfortable feeling.

Can I Take My Faja Off For a Few Hours?

To be sure, wearing a faja can get tiring.  It’s much like wearing a bra.  You can’t wait until you can take it off when you get home.  No one wants to wear their faja 24/7.  People often want to sleep without their fajas, but it isn’t a good idea in the first couple of months of recovery.

The thing about (good) fajas that is different is that after you take it of for 10 minutes or so, you can’t wait to put it back on again!  Crazy, right?  Not really.  Your body needs that support – especially in the first several weeks after surgery.

So, can you take off your faja for a few hours?  Well, that depends.  Typically people who don’t have a tremendous amount of swelling (usually folks who were fairly small prior to surgery) can get away with it a little easier than someone who had more excess fat prior to surgery.  Why?  They swell a lot less on average.

Someone who swells a lot less can find compression to be more uncomfortable than someone with a lot of swelling.  Compression without swelling can be very uncomfortable.  

If you are a person who doesn’t have much swelling, you might be able to give yourself an hour or two out of it.  If your swelling is moderate or severe, you should probably stick to the 23/7 rule of keeping it on – at least until your swelling improves significantly.

Transitioning After the First 8 Weeks

After the first 8 weeks have passed, most people will be able to begin experimenting with wearing their faja for shorter periods of time.  Notice that I didn’t say that you can quit wearing it altogether.

If your swelling has become more manageable, then your faja may go from feeling comfortable to becoming uncomfortable at times.  Compression when you don’t have swelling is uncomfortable.  This is when you will want to begin transitioning out. 

How to Transition Out of Wearing Your Faja

Around the 8 week mark or later, go ahead and try taking your faja off for 8-12 hours and see what happens.  You will probably have some swelling – and that is expected.

When you go to put back on your faja, was it a little more difficult or a lot more difficult?  If it was a lot more difficult, then you probably need to try wearing it for another week 23 hours a day and try again.

If it was only a little more difficult, then you are probably on the right track.  Some swelling is expected.  Now what you want to do is try to experiment with the best time of day or night to have the faja off.

Generally speaking, swelling tends to happen in the body mostly in the arms and legs during the day because they are hanging down.  When we go to sleep, the fluid from our arms and legs returns to our trunk, head, and neck.  So people who have swelling in those areas seem to experience more problems there at night.  Because of this, many people find that wearing the faja overnight works best, but this doesn’t work for everyone.

Some people have desk jobs and other people have jobs that require a great deal of activity.  When we are actively doing work with our bodies (like working out), we swell.  So, someone who is very active may be better off wearing her faja during the day.

Experiment, play around, and see what works best for you.

Regarding foams and boards after the first 8 weeks, you can likely quit wearing the boards.  Foams should be worn with the faja if the faja creases into your skin.  You may find that you only need some foam instead of 360 foam.  The foam is most important at this stage for people who really have a lot of swelling still going on.  When the swelling isn’t a real problem anymore, you can get rid of the foam.