The Bojin Journal · Myths & real talk

Had Botox or Filler? What to Wait for Before You Start Bojin

By Yu-Ting Lan, from Taiwan · 5 min read

You get a little filler once or twice a year, and you also keep a gua sha stone by the bathroom sink. You do both, and no one has ever told you how the two fit together.

Your injector talks about the injectable. The videos talk about the stone. Nobody sits in the middle and explains whether these two belong in the same routine, or how to hold them so that neither one gets in the way of the other.

I hear this from women your age often. You are thoughtful about your face. You have made choices you feel good about, and you want to keep caring for your skin at home without undoing anything you paid for.

So let me give you the honest version. You do not have to pick between injectables and hands-on care at home. Both can have a place. What matters most is timing and a gentle touch, and the most useful answer I can offer starts with the person who already knows your face.

Fresh injectables need time to settle

After a treatment, the product eases into the place your provider chose for it. Filler is soft at first and finding its shape. Botox is doing its quiet work in the muscle underneath.

This is why most providers hand you a short list of things to skip for the first stretch, and firm pressure or massage on the treated area often sits on that list. That guidance is theirs to give, not mine. They know what you had, where it went, and how much.

My job is the part that comes after, once you are cleared. And the good news is that the style of care I teach was gentle to begin with.

Gentle is the whole style anyway

Gentleness is how this work is meant to be done from the start. Real bojin never leans on force. The right pressure reaches the tension held in the soft tissue of your face without ever hurting you.

Too heavy can bruise, and that is not the method. Too light never reaches anything, so nothing changes. The pressure you want sits in the comfortable middle, enough to feel it and never enough to wince. Not featherlight, not forceful.

That middle-ground touch is exactly what makes this a kind neighbor to the rest of your routine.

Where bojin fits, and where it stays out of the way

Bojin is a method, not a tool. The value lives in the order you work in, the angle you hold, the position on your face, and that comfortable pressure. A gua sha stone is a tool. Bojin is the method you bring to it. Different jobs, not a contest.

The method I teach grew out of a Taiwanese tradition of working with the face by hand, and it rewards patience over pushing.

So the stone you already own is a fine place to begin. That jade or rose quartz piece by your sink works well while you learn the movements. A dedicated stainless steel bojin stick is coming soon, though you do not need it to start.

When it comes to your injectables, the method keeps to its own areas. Bojin works the parts of your face and neck that were never treated, and it makes no promise about the rest. It does not extend your injectable, improve it, or undo it. Picture them as two separate parts of your routine that stay out of each other's way.

If you want the fuller picture of who this suits, I keep a plain guide on whether bojin is safe.

How long to wait after Botox or filler

The most common question I get is some version of gua sha after Botox, how long to wait. I understand why you want a clean number. I will not invent one for you, because the honest answer depends on you.

You may have heard two weeks tossed around as a rough figure. Treat that as a starting point for a conversation, not as your answer. Some providers adjust for the product, the placement, and how your skin tends to respond, so the person who treated you can give you your real number.

Ask them plainly: when is it fine for me to do gentle facial work at home again, and are there spots I should keep avoiding? Their answer leads. Mine follows.

Read your face before you begin again

Before you pick the stone back up, take an honest read of your own state. Is there any bruising, swelling, tenderness, or firmness where you were treated? If the answer is yes, that area stays off limits, whatever the calendar says.

Once your provider has cleared you and the treated areas feel like your normal face again, you can ease back in. Start light on the untreated areas, keep your first sessions short, and stay well clear of injection sites until everything feels settled.

A gentle way back looks like this. Begin on your neck and the sides of your face, away from any injection points. Keep your pressure in that comfortable middle. Then look at how your skin appears the next morning, and if it looks calm, return to your fuller routine over the following sessions.

If anything about your health or a recent procedure gives you pause, read who should skip bojin before you start.

What to honestly expect

Let me be straight about results, because the 55+ women I teach can tell when someone is overselling. Bojin gives a gentle, temporary freshness. Skin can look a little more awake and feel a little more relaxed after a session, and that eases off as the day goes on.

It builds with consistency, not overnight. Think of it as a small, steady kindness to your face rather than a big promise. Paired thoughtfully with the choices you already make, it becomes one more calm part of your week.

Yu-Ting Lan is a Taiwan-based international bojin instructor and the founder of Héhé Studio. She has taught her bojin method to more than a thousand students, from complete beginners to grandmothers, across Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Malaysia.